I can't believe it is December

 Oh where has the time gone, I can't believe it has been 6 months since I last updated the blog. Oops, sorry about that anyone who is still checking it out. Been busy but not with art, well, not with drawing. Photography after all is considered by some art and I have been busy talking walks and making photographs.

I have done just a little drawing, mostly just pen work. The above sparrow done in pen and ink was my attempting to get back to my drawing by doing the Inktober pen drawings a day. Then I got sick, and while I wasn't all that sick I was sick enough that I just didn't have the energy or motivation to follow through; next year, maybe.

 The above bottle drawing was done for the first of Inktober (October) but isn't really very good so I put the sparrow first as I was much happier with that one. The top image is the one that shows up in links, so I like the first image to be one of my better posts.

 This rather abstract drawing was me playing with some new to me colored pencils. Over the summer I purchased some of the Dick Blick line of pencils. They are OK, but not really artist quality, there just isn't enough pigment in the leads for them to make the grade. Still I had fun playing with the colors.

 I have a new camera, a Canon D70 and I am in love with it. The old Canon Rebel and I parted ways, and since I have become addicted to making photographs, I had to immediately replace it. The D70 is a much better camera and I am making some really lovely photographs. The above is a Titmouse about the land at a bird feeder. This was made at the feeders at Borderland State Park, Easton, MA.

 The above photo is a couple of Canada Geese in flight, they had just taken off from the panne at Daniel Webster in Marshfield, MA.

 Above is the Smith Farm house in Borderland State Park. The sky was overcast but opened up enough to give me this spot lighting of the house, background trees and meadow just around the house.

Last but not least I was busy putting together the 2017 calendars using photographs I have been making through the year, though mostly in the spring and summer. I am quite pleased with this years selections, hopefully I am not only making better photographs but doing a better job selecting the images I use. 

That is it for today, there are more photographs on my Facebook page if you are curious since I was posting photos there over the summer. Per usual comments are welcome.

Gosling Update and Misc Other Dwg.

Above is an update on my Goslings drawing, not quite done but almost. I am still in the process of tweaking a few things: feathers on the back of the front bird still need work, there needs to be some grass growing in front of them, I need to check values in the grass, and maybe make some changes to the plant in the upper right.

So far so good though and I am happy with how it is turning out. Not sure when or even if I will post the final of this drawing here. It will depend on how different the final looks from this version. Thought it may not be obvious without close examination I expect to spend at least a couple more hours on this drawing before I call it finished.

I have been doing some more stipple work. Here is another bookmark. This one was much faster to do than my last one of the sparrow. Not as much ink work, just the image of a few fern fronds needed to be stippled. These are very stylized drawings, I wasn't even really trying for accuracy here, but since I drew a couple of fern fronds for my Nature Journal I thought it would be fun to play with them for a bookmark. Still have to do the tassel for this one, I have pulled out a bright green embroidery floss to use.  I have also started the stipple work on the flower drawing from my last update, but so far that one doesn't look like much.

Above is my figure drawing from Monday night. Probably one of my last drawings of this model. She and her SO will most likely be moving out of state in the next few weeks. I think she is looking forward to the change, but I know we are all going to miss her.

Not sure how I feel about this drawing, parts I like but other parts I think I could have done a better job on. I admit I was tired that evening, I had spend the afternoon at an Audubon Sanctuary that I don't usually visit,  and walked further than I intended.

From a walk last week in Borderland State Park, Easton, MA. I have a couple of photographs of fall colors. Above is a photo of Silver Maple leaves showing some color. It was a small tree with leaves in sunlight. Since there wasn't a lot of other color that day I made this close up photo.

Not sure what this tree is, maybe a Shag Bark Hickory. Borderland seems to have quite a few of the trees on the property, they grow tall and turn yellow at this time of year. It might also have been some kind of maple or even a Sassafras turning yellow, but Sassafras aren't usually as tall as I remember this tree being. Anyway I think it is pretty yellow/green lit by the sun against the blue sky.

That is it for today, per usual comments are welcome.

Goslings, Mushrooms and a Figure Dwg.

My current in-process drawing is of a pair of Canada Geese Goslings. They are several weeks old, so not the cute fluffy yellow down chicks one thinks of. These guys are actually starting to fledge some more adult feathers/colors, and were shades of grey with no yellow. Drawing is from a photograph I made earlier this past summer.

I am not terribly excited by this drawing. Don't get me wrong it is a challenge and I think a good subject, it just doesn't excite me. Not totally a good thing as I can easily be distracted when my subject doesn't excite me so I make no promises about when this will get done.

Above is my Nature Journal page from a visit to Daniel Webster a week ago Monday. We had had several days of rain so the water level in the panne was higher. Which is why I drew the tree stump, though it may be tricky to tell from my drawing that the water level was higher.

On that Monday I walked a bit further down one of the paths than I usually go. Good thing I did as I was able to locate the leaf and acorn from a Black Oak Tree. Both are similar to the Scarlet Oak tree. The acorn is a bit flatter on the bottom, and the leaf is in a way simpler.

My last drawing is of a small mushroom clump I found in the Oak grove. Finally it has been wet enough that the mushrooms are fruiting. I find mushrooms fascinating so please bear with my indulging myself with some drawings of them. I will try to not bore visitors with too many pictures. I have mentioned this before but want to repeat, I do NOT harvest mushrooms in the wild, I do love to eat them, but I know I am not enough of an expert to dare harvesting wild mushrooms. Not to mention that at Mass Audubon sites nothing is supposed to be picked or harvested, though occasionally I will pick a leaf and one this day I did pick up an acorn.

Above is Monday's figure drawing. And yes she was actually wearing a dress and shoes. Well, we all can use a  change every now and then and this was our change for Monday Night.

The drawing is OK, but I have a feeling I have something slightly wrong, maybe I made that right hand a bit too large. Ah well, there are some areas I like so I guess that compensates.

My two photos today come from two different locations. The one above is from Daniel Webster, one of the red maples that hangs over the South River was turning bright red in spots.

This second photograph was made at Broadmoor, another MA Audubon location and shows some mushrooms growing out of a mossy log. These are very small mushrooms, but I find the type interesting, and love to photograph them. If anyone has any idea what they actually are I would love to know. Because mushrooms are usually found in the woods in deep shade I usually use the flash for my photographs. I would rather not, but it is hard to get a clear image if I don't.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are welcome. Need to go work on my goslings, or maybe something else.

A Turkey, a Pastel and EDM's

The above drawing is an experiment for me. I received a box of pastels for Christmas in 2010, and have been hauling them with me to my Monday night figure drawing sessions meaning to bring them out and use them to try a different technique to draw the model. Then I end up hauling out my pencils and before I know it, it is the end of the session and time to go home with my not being any closer to using the pastels. I think the real reality is that I haven't quite had the courage to try.

Anyway I had this photo of the pine cones on the pitch pine that I made at Ellisville Harbor, and decided it was time for me to see if I could do something with the pastels. Not sure how I feel about this, not bad, but not wonderful. I think I need more practice. Oh the yellow/orange area above the pine cones is the tree putting out its spikes for next years cones, the color has scanned more orange than the actual drawing is. I have seen this problem before with colored pencils, must be something about the pigments used for yellow that make the scans not correct. A photograph might have been better, but I am feeling a bit lazy so this is what you get.

I do think I would have been happier with the results if I had used the smoother side of the paper. The paper is Cranson's Mi-Teintes paper, and has one side that is smoother than the other. Now I just have to look through my photos and see if I can find another subject, maybe one of my spring flower photos.

Above is my Nature Journal pages from my visit Monday to Daniel Webster. It was an overcast day with rain arriving later in the evening, but thankfully not while I was walking in the Sanctuary. It wasn't a good day for observations (too hazy), though I did see the Osprey sitting on its nest stand, the blue bird hunting, and the male Bobolinks courting. In fact I saw one male chasing another. I did not see the Catbirds this week, apparently they are back to being their normal shy selves.

Top drawing is of a Turkey (female I think) that was visiting the bird feeder area as I was leaving the sanctuary. She was looking for dropped seeds, and probably finding some, some of the birds who feed are very messy eaters. I can't convey in my drawing the sheen of her feathers which is quite lovely. They don't have very pretty heads or necks but the back feathers are gorgeous.

The bottom image is my usual tree stump in the pond. I draw it so often because it is a good way to indicate the ups and downs of the water level in the pond. This Monday the water level was back up, highest I have seen it for weeks and water even recovered rocks that had been sunning spots for the painted turtles. There were 5 turtles out on the this stump when I was making the photograph.

I am so behind with the Every Day in May Challenge. I have been pretty much drawing everyday, but some of the subjects in the Challenge weren't very doable for me on that particular day so.... I am behind.

Above are a couple of my catch up drawings that I made yesterday while I was out doing some laundry. Top is the "Store in my Neighborhood". Actually it isn't in my neighborhood at all, but it was next to place where I did my laundry so I used it. a complicated structure that was a bit of a challenge to draw. Not sure how well I did, esp with the window lines.

Bottom drawing is of 2 of the lights in the parking lot of the strip mall I was in. I thought about doing the street light outside of my apt, but I had time on my hands yesterday so drew these.

Two photographs from Monday's visit to Daniel Webster. What a difference a couple of weeks makes to the size of the Canada Geese young. These two are getting quite large and have totally lost the yellow fluff they were born with.

I actually saw 4 pairs of geese with young on Monday. Though each pair only had 2 goslings left out of their brood. I like this photo because the sitting one in the front seems to be talking to its nest mate. The adults were eyeing me, and a couple even hissed at me in warning as I walked by.

The above photo is a bit misleading as the flowers are only about a half inch long. This is Narrow Leaved Vetch, and is found among the grasses in the fields at Daniel Webster.

That is it for today. I need to work on another pen and ink sketch, but didn't get it done for today's Blog update. For my US readers I want to wish you a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend. Per usual comments are always welcome.

Must See TV and some Drawings

Before writing about my drawings today I want to recommend a TV program/series. For the past 3 years PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) has been producing and presenting a series of TV shows on Crafts in America. The shows have been consistently excellent and I feel they are must see viewing for anyone interested in Art or Crafts in America. Each show highlights several venues or people talking with them not only about what they do, but how they came to do it, and why. All of the artists highlighted are skilled in their crafts and very interesting in their own right. The shows have not only featured well known crafts but also some more obscure ones like basket weaving.

The most recent episode in the series was broadcast last Friday evening and was on "Threads". In this episode the subjects were 2 weavers and 2 quilters. One weaver weaves traditional fiber, the other will use wire and anything else that interests her. The 2 quilters both do pictorial type quilts but their subject matter is quite different. Please if you can find a rebroadcast on you local station take the time to watch and let PBS know you would like more of this program. Otherwise I think you can view recent episodes on the Craft In America Web Site.

OK back to my drawings. The image above is from my visit to Daniel Webster Sanctuary last Monday. A beautiful day after days of clouds and some rain. My images are of a Great Blue Heron   Little Blue Heron that I watched feeding in the man made pond, probably longer than I should have, but I was so fascinated. It had a very light body with darker grey feathers toward the tips of the wings and back body. I am not sure what it was catching and eating, something longish so I have to think fish, though I didn't know the pond had fish, perhaps stocked. (Edited Note: I found out on 5/14/12 that what I saw on this visit was actually the juvenile form of a Little Blue Heron, adults are a dark grey, and this one was starting to molt into its adult colors)

The lower image is another Canada Goose with several goslings. I saw both pairs of parents again on Monday eating grass, probably safer than feeding on the pond with its snapping turtles. The one pair that had so many young seemed to have lost several as they now have only 7 rather than the 11 or 12 they did have. The other pair still have their 6. Course the Sanctuary has other dangers to young geese, fox, maybe coyote, Red Tailed Hawks and probably fishers so who knows what got the missing ones.

The only other sighting of note was to see two wood duck males and one female. One pair at least is nesting in one of the nest boxes so I hope I will eventually be able to make a photograph of them as they should be around for a few more weeks. Oh, yes, the bobolinks are back, I saw and heard the males.

I am continuing work on the Every Day in May Challenges, though sometimes I get a couple days behind. Above are 3 drawings, May 6th Draw a Holiday Card, May 7th Draw a Spoon, May 8th draw an egg carton. Sorry for the size if you wish to check out larger images you can visit my Flickr photostream.

Above are 3 more drawings: May 9th Draw a paper bag, May 10 Draw an apple, and May 11th Draw something with wings. The apples are drawn from a still life photo I made last fall when I had quite a few apples on hand, the bird is another of the WetCanvas Pen and Ink Forum's challenge photos. Unless otherwise noted I am drawing objects from life.

I am working on another pen and ink challenge piece, but I am doing this one with stipple so it is taking longer.

Above is one of the photographs I made Monday at Daniel Webster. Here are 5 goslings all in a row. As I recall this pair had another who was off elsewhere. Probably not a good thing for it, I will have to see if I can find the parents the next time I am at the sanctuary and check my counts.

Above is a view of the man made pond and the Little Blue Heron I was watching Monday. That light spot in the center of the island is the Heron. The distance is just too far for me to get a good photo with my camera. I really need a 500 mm lens for this venue. Ah well one can dream. In the meantime this photo also gives you a view of the leafing trees in the background. Spring has truly arrived at the Sanctuary.

That is it for today. Sorry I am late with the update, I was out at another sanctuary yesterday and when I got home was just too tired to do the update. Hopefully I will get back on schedule next week. In the meantime comments are always welcome.

Welcome Spring Journal Pages and a Figure

Happy Spring, today is the date of the Spring Equinox, meaning the hours of daylight and darkness are equal in length. They will continue to grow longer (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere) until June with the Solstice, so enjoy the longer days with more sunlight, the dark days of winter are now behind us.

OK, on to explaining my top image, bet you had forgotten about the Journal I was making for my trip to Chicago over the Christmas Holidays. I have been so busy working on other projects that I sort of put it on the back burner. The other day I dragged out the Journal and some reference images and started working on some updates. The top image today is a partial sketch of the baggage claim area at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. I used a reference photo, my own luggage and memory of the facility to draw this. So there isn't a lot of detail and you don't really get the sense of the wide open spaces in the Baggage claim area. Oh well, at least it is now done.

The sign in the area tells travelers to not ride with unknown transport into the city, use the taxis, airport shuttles and or rail transportation. What they don't mention is that people trying to save a buck and taking offers of transport from unknowns have been robbed and sometimes murdered instead of delivered to their destination. I suppose this might happen in other major cities, but I have heard news reports about Chicago. Moral of story, don't ride from an airport in transport you don't know.

Yesterday I managed to get over to Daniel Webster and make some photographs. My new lens and I are still working out our differences but I did make a few good photos. The red maples in some of the wood stands are starting to show signs of spring, with their spring blooms just starting to show. This early spring growth of red maples is red, adding hints of color to the bare trees. In my opinion I think the colors of spring, soft greens, white, and dark reds can be just as pretty as the fall leaf show.

I also saw another blue bird yesterday, and heard the spring frogs calling in the marshes.

Images from yesterday are a Canada Goose that was feeding on the new growth in the pond, and bottom a daffodil I photographed blooming at the North River Sanctuary.

Above is last nights figure drawing. We haven't had this model in quite a while, she is a lovely young woman with a beautiful figure, but she is not my favorite model. She twitches, she shifts her pose, not by a lot but enough to throw off shadows, forcing me to decide how to deal, wing the shadows, or erase and redraw. UGH. So while I am semi pleased with last nights drawing I know I could have done better. Ah well there is always next week, and I wasn't the only one who wasn't entirely happy with the finished product.

I have two photos from yesterday to share today, the top one shows the goose feeding in the pond, I prefer this photo to the one I used as reference for my drawing, but felt the head position in the drawing photo was better for the Journal.

A close up of one of the blooming daffodils at North River. Again I used a different photo for the Journal, there I wanted to give a sense of the whole plant not just the flower. But I really like this photo, great shadows that show off the trumpet of the flower, not always easy to see when the petals and trumpet are the same color.

That is it for today, Happy Spring, and per usual comments are welcome.

Canada Geese Finished

First image today is the finished version of my Three Geese. I decided I just needed to get this done so spent most of Sunday late afternoon/evening working on the fore and middle ground of this piece. At this point I consider it done and have sprayed it with fixative. I am pleased with how it came out, and know that even 2 years ago I probably wouldn't have managed it so well. All these weeks/months of live model drawing sessions are paying off. Well at least I think so anyway. Aren't they a hansom trio of geese? Done on Stonehenge paper with graphite pencils, 2B, 2H, and H, size is approx 9.0 x 7.0 inches

For those who don't follow my blog the drawing is based on a photograph I made last December at Daniel Webster Audubon Sanctuary in Marshfield, MA. I had purchased a new lens for my camera and wanted to try it out. I got lucky with this photograph and fell in love with it. Now I have it as a drawing.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in MA, at least weather wise, sunny and warm, with temps in the upper 60's and even hitting 70 in some areas. Before my outing to my drawing session last night I made a visit to Daniel Webster, my first in a couple of weeks.

On the surface not much has changed in the 2 weeks since my last visit, trees are still bare and the fields are still winter brown. But the birds are singing their hearts out and make quite a bit of noise as they stake out territory for the coming breeding season. And at the pond it looks like all of the turtles are back out of hibernation. The tree stump had 13 turtles on it. My top sketch in the Journal is a quick version of the 13 all trying for their spot in the sun.

The bottom sketch shows a bird investigating one of the many bird houses at Daniel Webster. This house is in the man made pond area. I think the visitor was a song sparrow, but between the shade of the bird house roof and the sun shinning off feathers I am not entirely sure, it was a little brown bird that much I can say for sure.

My other high point yesterday was seeing a blue bird feeding in the fields near the Fox Hill observation point. I tried making photos, but the bird was just a bit too far for me to make any good ones. It would perch on an electrical wire observing the fields, then it would swoop down into the grasses for a bit then fly back up to either a wire or a tree branch of the only tree out there and repeat the process. I was thrilled, I have caught glimpses of blue birds before, but never to truly recognize one, the way I could yesterday.

Above is last nights figure drawing. Not sure how I feel about this one. I was trying to work the figure a bit larger than I did last week, and as a result am not sure if I have it all correct. Also I feel I could have done a better job on her face, but she kept shifting her head slightly, and the light was such that even a small shift changed the shadows. Still not too bad, at least she looks human.

Above is the photo I used as reference for my sketch of the 13 turtles. Not sure if the resolution will let you count them, but take my word for it there are 13 of these guys all packed onto this one stump.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are always welcome.

ATC, Figure and WIP Geese

Above is my latest Artist Trading Card. These are some sort of ornamental cherry blossoms from a photograph I made last spring. I took some liberties with this so the flowers are more a gesture than an accurate reproduction of  the real blossoms. Oddly enough I almost like the scan of this card better than I do the original.. Not sure I have the color of the blossoms quite right, that pink/blue/red is tricky to recreate with pigments.

The card has ink outlines for the flower blossoms and was then painted with watercolor, on cold press watercolor paper. I suppose I should stop working so small and see if I can make a watercolor that works on a larger sheet of paper. But I still feel that I am the rankest beginner with watercolor so am hesitant to work much larger. The ATC's are good practice for me.

Above is an update on my Geese drawing. It still isn't finished, but I have made a fair amount of progress. Background has been darkened, bodies of the geese have been darkened and I have done some work on the foreground though there is still a fair amount of work needing to be done. So far so good, at least with pencil I can correct most errors as I go along.

Above is last nights figure drawing. I think I should have spent a bit more time making Photoshop adjustments with this photo. The blue cast is from sunlight, or rather shadow, since the photo was made outside and the paper was in shadow when I made the photo.  The paper is more cream than blue or even white, and I know I can make a better correction in Photoshop if I take the time.

Hmm, I was working this morning on making some lines lighter and I may have made one the lines around her upper leg a bit too light. Ah well as I usually say there is always next week.

My photograph for today I made yesterday at Ames Nowell State Park, two Canada Geese, one stretching its wings. There is no Journal Spread today. I didn't make it over to Daniel Webster for the first time in months if you don't count my misses while I was in Chicago. I did get a short walk at Ames Nowell (it is closer to me) but didn't bother writing a Journal entry. These weeks of late winter don't have much going on for me to document. There is always something at Daniel Webster for me to write about, birds at the feeders, and the amount of water in the woods and pond, but with parks I visit less often it is harder for me to find something to write about.

March is almost here and with it should be some of the earliest signs of spring. In the meantime that is it for today, comments are always appreciated.

EDM's 192, 207 plus other works

I have been working on a couple of major projects these past few days, so knowing I wasn't going to have much for today's update I pulled out the EDM list and made a couple of drawings last night. The drawing above is EDM #192 Draw something that floats.

The drawing is of a blown glass float that in a larger size would have been used to keep nets afloat. Mine, which I purchased back when I was in High School, is a smaller decorative version. I keep it in a glass bowl with some marbles, more small floats and some polished stones.

The second drawing above is for EDM #207 Draw a Seashell. I am one of those people who if you put me on a beach will automatically become a beachcomber. I collect seashells, beach glass, and even small rocks or feathers. Not entirely a good thing because I have more shells at home than I really know what to do with, but in this case it meant I didn't have to search very hard to come up with a shell to draw.

I am not sure what kind of shell this is, some sort of sea snail, it is dark brown in spots and has a fairly heavy shell wall. Not really very pretty but it was fun to draw.

The image above is one of the major works I am busy working on. It is a drawing on Stonehenge paper with graphite from a photo I made at Daniel Webster of three Canada Geese. Obviously there is still a lot of work to be done, but I have made some progress

The next image is a spread from my Nature Journal from a visit to Daniel Webster last Monday. The drawing is of a bird house that is out in the woods. The structure is fairly large with a large opening for the bird who will take up residence. I have a feeling it is for owls but I really don't know for sure. I also have no clue if it is occupied. I fear I was bad and walked off the path to make the photo I used as reference for the above drawing. But at this time of year I am sure I wasn't disturbing any of the birds or animals who live there, come spring I wouldn't have strayed.

One last image:

I know the above photo isn't really very good my excuse is that I was inside the observation building watching the birds at the bird feeders and trying to make some reference photographs when I noticed a shadow swooping in and all the small birds scattering. When I looked up from the camera I realized that all of the small birds were gone then I noticed this one sitting on the fence. I didn't dare go outside to photograph it, I knew it would just fly off so I did the best I could from inside.

Obviously it is a hawk, and I believe one of the Accipiters, meaning it is either a Sharp-shinned Hawk,  or a Cooper's Hawk. According to my bird book the two are a bit hard to tell apart, with one having a more squared tail tip. Whichever, I was thrilled to see it, and sort of sorry that it didn't manage to catch its late lunch. But then if it had caught a bird I may not have been able to make any photos so I guess I am not too sorry.

That is it for today. Per usual comments are always welcome.

A Deer and More Birds

A change of pace for the lead drawing today. Last week while at Trailside Museum I had photographed one of the two Doe's they have on exhibit. This week I drew from one of the photographs, a close up of a head. Had to do a few restarts and erasures to get the overall shape right but I rather like the end results. She does look sweet doesn't she? Too bad the deer are so destructive to the forests. In winter they will strip bark from larger trees and eat smaller saplings. Not good for the long term health of the forest.

When was the last time you watched Bambi? If you get the change to watch it pay attention to the way the animals move. The Disney animators studied live animals to use as reference, and in the winter scene you can see Bambi's mother stripping bark from a tree. The animated animals may talk, but they also move and behave mostly like real animals.

OK, so far I have 3 sketches as possibles to use as the center of my stipple border piece. Looking for input here, which one do you the viewer like the best, number 1 my starting design, number 2, my first modified design or number 3 my last modification done after showing the first two to the group at the Live Model session on Monday.

Thank heaven's for Photoshop, at least I didn't actually have to redraw everything, though I could have used tracing paper and done almost the same thing. I should also thank all of the Instructors at Massasoit who trained me to use preliminary drawings to check my compositions. I think that is probably one of most important aspects of formal instruction and probably the least appreciated by the students. The kids hate doing preliminary drawings, but truth be told the initial design impulse isn't usually the best so they are critical to the evolution of a mature artist.

Below is my Nature Journal spread from Monday's visit to Daniel Webster.

Back to my bird drawing for this page. Top drawing is a Gold Finch at one of the sanctuary feeders. I have been seeing the finches off and on all winter either at the feeders or even out in the woods, but  they have been a very pale yellow. The one Monday was a bit brighter but still not in full summer breeding plumage. The black bars on the wings are the give away.

Bottom drawing is another Canada Goose. The geese were back in droves on Monday, feeding in the fields and drinking water from the open ponds. This one was coming in for a landing but at the same time honking at its friends. I just liked the lines and shape in my photograph so used it as my second image in the pages.

Photographs today are more birds, above a trio of Canada Geese. I was using the new lens, so wasn't too close to the birds. I like how the 3 birds create a visual triangle. Image is only slightly cropped to remove some houses from the top of the photo.

I am not quite sure what this pole with cross bar is for/from. The crows love to perch on it, and Monday I made several photographs of this one crow. This is my favorite out of the group.

That is it for today, per usual comments are always appreciated. Let me know which design you prefer, course the end drawing will be ultimately my choice but I am open to input.