California Gull

I rode out to the Landfill. Again. No prairie falcon, no rock wren, no Eurasian wigeon, no blue-winged teal, no mew gull. But I had a blast. This is a sketch of a flock of mixed gulls (there were herring, Thayer’s and at least a couple of ring-billed, plus a possible glaucous-winged) that was predominantly California gulls.

[PS: I did see two tree swallows, though, that I forgot to report…]

Barrow's Goldeneye

A ride out to Lake Solano yielded much better results than the last one. I saw 10 new Bigby birds, including this Barrow’s, a Bewick’s wren, Hutton’s vireo, and Western grebe. We also heard an intriguing empidonax flycatcher call. Strangest was a sapsucker as we limped home — I saw clear black-and-white facial markings, Numenius saw a red breast. Hybrid red-naped/red-breasted?

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Finally was able to catch this one — five seconds, again. The wash was added after it flew off.

Looking West: American Crows

When what you have on your desk is a red ballpoint pen, it’s what you draw with. Even if the birds are really black. But they look like a valentine, somehow.

I am entering this as my contribution to Illustration Friday’s theme, “Choose.”

Mountain Plover

Knowing I had a meeting near where mountain plovers have been reported, and knowing I’d be travelling there and back with a birder, I decided to look at photos of plovers to try and get myself ready for sketching them. I did this plover portrait on the right from a photo I found on the Web.

Because there was an accident on northbound 113 before Flannery Road, which is where the plovers have been reported, we had to take a detour. We got to the spot when the sun was getting ready to set. I started sketching in pencil quickly. Their legs and feet were not visible at this distance in the short grass.

I didn’t have time to do any watercolor washes, but did a few quick ink sketches too. The birds were settling in for the night. Next time I hope to be able to spend a bit more time with them and see them more closely; for now, this was a great way to end a meeting!

White-crowned Sparrow

American Robin

A robin from last week…

Green Heron

A morning’s outing during which I didn’t get very far because I found this fine fellow at a pond along the levee.

Red-tailed Hawk Again

After another Bigby jaunt in the rain, during the course of which we saw many wonderful birds (but no new ones, though the close rough-legged hawk was certainly a treat), we returned home and had the juvenile red-tail perching in the walnut again. I managed to get the scope on it and sketched through the bathroom window. This time it was facing me, though it did a convoluted turn (the wind has picked up) and then dropped down onto the field, probably picking up some hapless half-drowned rodent.

Western Scrub-jay

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