Showcasing birds

Newly Fledged Robin

I spent most of Sunday afternoon (July 16) at Daniel Webster MA Audubon sanctuary in Marshfield, MA. I was hoping to photograph birds and I did. I spent a lot of the afternoon in the South blind, not gazing at the pond which had limited activity but at the shore and a defoliated tree outside the right windows. In doing so I ignored (for the most part) the comings and goings of the resident Barn Swallows, who were busy tending to nests of young birds.

These first few photos are all of recently fledged birds, the American Robin above is still a bit speckled and certainly isn't as dapper as mature robins are. 

Gray Catbirds usually look sleek and polished, this has to be a young one. It wasn't very happy down there either, and parents kept visiting. I didn't realize exactly what was going on until I looked at my photos later. The colors are right, but all that fluff?

This young Barn Swallow looks a bit unfinished, certainly not as sleek looking as its parents are. Since there were several nests in the building with non-fledged youngsters this one may be from an earlier brood.


Some of my other bird photos from Sunday. 

This is a Female Baltimore Oriole, she isn't bright orange like her mate, but I think she is still a pretty bird. There were some Honeysuckle bushes with berries near the Blind, she was probably on her way to visit them.  

I believe this is an adult Gold Finch, probably female from the coloration, it didn't hang around long, so this is my best photo.

Female Bobolink

Daniel Webster is one of the remaining nesting spots in state for Bobolinks. They build their nests in the grasses that are allowed to grown in the fields at Daniel Webster. Thankfully they wait to mow until the young Bobolinks have fledged and left the fields. But I have heard horror stories of parent birds looking for their nests after a thoughtless farmer has mowed a field early.

The above bird is a female Bobolink. She wasn't happy with me, even though I was on the mowed path. I have a feeling either her nest or some of her young ones weren't too far away from me.

Male Bobolink in flight

Male Bobolink in flight, it wasn't my intention to make a flight photograph. I had been photographing a Redwing blackbird, and when I checked the display to see how the photo looked I noticed a bird just a bit beyond the blackbird sitting on some wire fencing. I was trying to photograph the bird on the fence wire, but it took off just as I snapped the shutter. Thankfully I was using a fast enough shutter speed that the bird is mostly in focus. By the way the male is still in breeding colors.

The not very good photo above is a Lesser Yellowlegs, it was just about at the limit of what I can photograph with my current lens. There were also a couple of Killdeer in the same general area, but they were a bit too far for me to make a good photo. The photographs of them were good enough to ID the bird but not to post.

The final photo is a view from Fox Hill of some of the property at Daniel Webster. I had a really good day with Birds Sunday, hope you enjoyed a look at some of my best photos. Please note that I have added links to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds web site for each species above if you are curious to learn more about them.  Per usual comments are 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.