Ratty Red-tail

Almost every feather on this bird seems to be crying out to be replaced. It’s a young red-tail; his new tail feathers will come in a startlingly gorgeous rich burnt sienna. But for now, he scowls in the walnut tree like some angry teenager with his jeans halfway down his hips, further down at least than the proudly showing top of his boxers. If those magpies get any closer, they’ll be history.

House Finch

Given how many house finches we have around here, it’s astonishing I haven’t posted a sketch yet, but they haven’t been very cooperative. Until this one, who gave me at least 30 seconds.

Watercolor added from memory shortly afterwards. It was a very bright male, in new moult. The paper is just sketching paper which is a bit flimsy for wet media, but it doesn’t matter if your pages curl if what you’re going to do is scan them…

Cedar Waxwing

A flock of birds about the size of starlings flew south and landed in a walnut tree. But they weren’t flying like starlings, or landing like them either. (They all landed at exactly the same time, neatly.)

Waxwings. In the rain.

American Goldfinch Again

Always doing something interesting on thin stalks, these birds… I am trying to work larger.

Magellanic Penguin

At the volunteer thank you event for the oil spill the folks were there from SeaWorld. They brought a penguin, three conures, and two lizards with them for some reason. The penguin was hatched at SeaWorld and was totally used to people, so I took advantage.

It was wonderful seeing Ron and Joe and Lisa. And many others, some of whom I’d last seen in Tyvek and goggles.

Orange-crowned Warbler

We did a tour of Davis today trying to find some local species that had been reported. No new ones for me, but an incredibly cooperative orange-crowned warbler was feeding in the flowering acacias in the first sunshine we’ve had all week. Not sure whether it would still be there when I biked back to the Arboretum, I went anyway, and did a number of quick sketches while it did a mixture of insect hunting (it’s quite warm today) and nectar eating, almost like a honeycreeper.

British bird artists seem very at home with watercolor, which is a very tricky medium for me. I’m particularly encouraged by Sussex birder Deborah’s work and am hoping to get more practice in. I have a cheap set of Kohinoor watercolors at work which is more than adequate for sketching and a Windsor & Newton travel set, which is what I used to paint this warbler. Patience …

Say's Phoebe

Rare to see one of these outside my window at work. It was perching, again, on the branches left by the chainsaw.

Oregon Junco

A minor break in the rain: a flock of juncos works busily through the cut branches and mud, looking for new goodies.

Oil Spill Volunteer Thank You Event This Sunday

Seems long ago, now, November. But it isn’t.

A lot of people gave a lot of hours to help the birds. Thank you.

American Goldfinch

It rained for much of the day, a strange rain out of the north that left water on my window. So when I saw a bird at all, it was not well. This one perched briefly on the cut branches outside…