Azure-winged Magpie

This bird was a denizen of the oak woodlands in Spain where we used to camp when I was growing up. It has a weird distribution — Spain and Portugal and China. (I think the species has been split.)

It was fun if sad to see it today at the zoo instead of flying around free. But today’s Sketchcrawl was great fun — met some wonderful Sacramento-area sketchers. We’ve decided to do Apple Hill next year during the apple harvest…

White-crowned Sparrow

I’ve been pondering how best to get a quick patch of color on my birds when I have the time for it. I tried watercolor this morning. Not great, but I can see the potential with a bit of practice…

Of course this requires TAKING your watercolors with you. I went over to the arboretum to draw the wood ducks (one of the most colorful birds in the country) that are hanging out at the western end. I had pens but no watercolors. Oh well.

Tomorrow’s the Sketchcrawl at the zoo, so expect some non-native birds… unless I can find some wood ducks there!

Green-winged Teal

Last weekend’s controversy about the garganey still has me perplexed. I was delighted to get to the museum today at lunch and find that there was a significant fraction of North American anseridae already laid out for the 1:00 pm systematics class.

I decided to draw the green-winged teal. This bird had much less white in the face than the one we saw on Sunday; clearly, there’s a lot of variation possible, and it reminds me to look hard and draw harder…

Red-legged Partridge!

I got called out of my office by my boss just now — what’s this bird, what’s this bird in the parking lot? I snagged my pen and some paper and began to draw. It allowed me to get very close…

Red-legged partridges are not native to the Americas. This one obviously belongs to someone. We tried to catch it but it flew onto the roof. If it isn’t careful, it’s going to belong to the red-tailed hawk that’s been flying around all day, calling…

Mourning Dove, Again

I keep hearing red-breasted nuthatches, kinglets, juncos. Nary a one to sit still so I can draw it. This mourning dove is enjoying the afternoon sun — it’s been a chilly day today and has only just started to warm up.

Mallard Bills

When we got to the Arboretum today after lunch and a trip to the local nursery by bike, there were predictably lots of mallards to draw. But lots of them were tucked up like this female at left, not exactly what I wanted for bill practice. (But the pose the “garganey” spent most of yesterday morning in…)

I’ve said it before: bird bills are hard. You have to do lots of them. I was having a difficult time getting the bill proportions right and the angles. Keep working at it, I think, is the key…

Local Rarity?

I met up with birding buddies Kevin, Sid, Rick, and Greg to look for reported sharp-tailed sandpipers (2) and a female garganey out at the Yolo Bypass, not five miles form home. We looked for the sharp-tailed first without luck.

The “garganey” was easier to see, out on a pool with some shovelers. It was quite far away and hard to draw but I did a few sketches, these at right and some in colored pencil I wasn’t happy with.

This bird may not be a garganey, and there’s quite a discussion going on about it on the local bird list. Discouraged by my lack of ability to render the bill (or indeed the bird in such rudimentary form as to make a later ID possible), I resolved to go to the Arboretum to draw duck bills…

Northern Flicker

Too much baseball, and still uncooperative juncos…

Bluebirds, Again

I keep trying to catch up with the juncos but they’re fast… and the bluebirds continue to hang around the holes in the phone pole, providing lots of opportunity for fast pen sketches…

More Corvid Caching

Today it was the yellow-billed magpie, trying to bury an acorn in some dried grasses…