Birds and flowers

Spring is advancing, we are getting some warm days and some cool wet days along with some that are just cloudy. Wet and/or cloudy days are not good for photography. I have managed to do a couple more watercolor paintings. Again I am drawing my main subject first with pencil then inking an outline that I then paint with watercolor. My drawing skills are a bit rusty and since I want to concentrate on controlling the paint/color and not shapes I am finding this the easiest way to work.

So the above tulip was drawn and then outlined prior to my adding paint. That said I am relatively pleased with how it came out. I am trying very hard to not overwork the paint, but it isn't always easy to just stop.

After the tulip I thought I would try a more challenging subject. So I drew an outline of a robin and then attempted to paint it. Hmm, well the shape of the bird isn't quite right (it is a bit too fat in the belly). and it was a challenge to leave the white areas (unpainted paper) but I think I got the colors almost right  Anyway it looks like a robin so I am semi happy and plan on trying more birds in the future.

The background above is only sketched in with paint. The robin was on the ground in the reference photo and I didn't want to try and paint tan dried grasses. Not a masterpiece but a learning experience that I am not unhappy with. 

It is not all watercolor work here. I have pulled out my colored pencils and gotten to work on pieces that I had started a cople of years ago and ended up putting aside for no particular reason other than I had gotten tired of working with colored pencil .

I just finished the one above, Bindweed and Birdfoot Trefoil flowers with a bit of fern. The scan isn't the best color wise but it is a fairly close approximation.

I am currently working on another flower drawing (day lilies) but have also been trying to select photos for the additional drawings, I want to do 13, enough to create a calendar. So far I have selected some additional flowers and some animals. Which reminds me that I really need to finish the squirrel. Just have to say that trees are hard to draw, which is what is holding that one up.

As a closure here are a couple of Spring photos. Above is a close up of some Red Bud flowers that I made earlier this month. Love the pink. 

The building above is my Public Library with a blooming Dogwood tree. The library actually has 2 Dogwoods in the front, but the 2nd (which is pink) is hidden by the maple tree on the right.

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

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.