Birds - Tree Swallows

I wasn't familiar with Tree Swallows until I started visiting Daniel Webster a MA Audubon sanctuary in Marshfield, MA.  Barn Swallows I knew, with their orange fronts and blue black backs they were a familiar sight as they had a colony at the Boat House on Greenwich Point.  But the hansom blue, black and white tree swallows I don't recall seeing prior to Daniel Webster. There they are a constant during spring and summer, flying over the fields and Panne catching insects on the wing. By fall they are gone heading off to their wintering areas.

Above is a Tree Swallow that I photographed at Daniel Webster. It was breeding season, in fact I had just seen a pair mating at one of the bird houses, and this bird was far more interested in its own affairs than it was in me even when I was just a few feet away.

Tree Swallows are cavity nesters, so bird houses are just what they love. At Borderland State Park near the old White Farm house bird houses are incorporated into the fencing. Tree Swallows usually are the occupants. I can see where in a time before pesticides Tree Swallows would have been valuable neighbors.

Down in the field at Attleboro Springs, MA Audubon they have a scattering of bird houses around the edges of the field. Earlier this year I photographed this tree swallow poking its head out of one of the boxes. Obviously a pair had taken up residence.

 Yesterday I was back down in Attleboro, checking out the field for butterflies, and noticed a lot of activity around the bird house.

 Parents were being kept busy bringing food to the young ones inside the house.  The parent was really shoving it down the throat of this young bird.

Another view of young birds being fed. From the look of them, I would say they are almost old enough to be out of the nest box, learning to fly and catch their own bugs.

That is it for today, for more information about Tree Swallows click on the link attached to the first mention of their name in the first paragraph. Per usual comments are welcome.

Nature Journal page and a couple of colored pencil drawings

Here is another catch up Nature Journal page, this one from May 18, 2013, again a visit to Daniel Webster in Marshfield, MA. Again the tree stump in the panne, photographing and drawing this stump is how I chart water levels from week to week. It was down this week from my previous visit.

The accompanying drawing is of a nest box with a pair of tree swallows as residence. I would guess that they had young in the nest the way the one parent perched outside the hole. These boxes can be used by various birds, in the fields, Bluebirds or Bob-o-links are the usual occupants. By the panne, which is were this box was, it is usually either tree swallows or sparrows. I have noticed both using them over the years I have been visiting. .

Not entirely sure where the above came from. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately, starting out with either a doddle or a vague idea that then turns into some kind of colored pencil drawing. I use colored pencils for these because they are drawn in my sketchbook and the paper is not sturdy enough for me to add watercolor, and pastel would be too messy. Not to mention that most of these are fairly small and I wouldn't be able to get the details I want with pastel.

This is sort of a crest, but for whom or what or where is something only my unconscious knows. It was fun to do as I deliberately used lots of color for this design.

Working on this has inspired me to think about doing another Mandela. I haven't drawn one of those for a couple of years but sort of feel I have another one in me.

Another doodle that turned into a drawing, a bee (sort of) with various flowers. A very stylized bee, not really like any I see in real life. And I have been seeing bees, mostly bumble bees, but someone near the Library (in the center of Brockton) must have a hive since I noticed a lot of honey bees at one of the red bud trees the other day.

Above is a photograph of a pink dogwood tree against a very blue sky. The pink petals are almost past their prime but still pretty. The tree is a neighbors and I have no clue how old it is, but it has been there for over 20 years and is probably at least twice that in age as it is a fairly large tree for a dogwood.

That is it for today, I have a couple longer term projects in the works which I need to buckle down at and get finished. In the meantime comments are always welcome, even if I don't always respond.

More Pastel, Nature Journal and Figure

I tackled another pastel drawing the other day. This time the image is a couple of apple blossoms that I photographed earlier this spring. The paper is a darker blue Crason pastel paper.

I don't recall that the drawing was as dark as it appears above prior to my spraying it with fixative and, actually, the real drawing doesn't look as dark as the scan appears. Pastels do have to sprayed with fixative or you end up with just a smear instead of an image (I recall that from my previous experiences with pastel), but I suppose I could use Photoshop to lighten the scan. I don't like doing that but, in this case it may be necessary.  

I think I know what part of the problem is. I don't have either a good dark green or dark brown pastel and have been using black to darken those colors. I try to not use very much, but black is tricky and appears to scan darker, so I may have to manipulate the scan until I can purchased some darker greens and browns for my collection.

Above is my Nature Journal spread from Monday's visit to Daniel Webster. It was a beautiful spring day, and I enjoyed my walk. I was surprised at how few others were there at the same time I was, after all Monday was a holiday for many people here in the US. But then a lot of the retail stores were open so I supposed more people had to work than would have in years past and others were probably at family gatherings.

No new bird sightings, but I did startle a couple of deer, and saw evidence that Wildlife Sanctuaries are not peaceful places for all the inhabitants. The bottom image above is one of those pieces of evidence. I saw an empty eggshell on the path, by size I would guess it was a goose egg. The shell didn't look like it had been cracked open by an emerging chick, but opened from the outside by a hungry animal. I know there are foxes at Daniel Webster, so that is probably the most likely culprit. At another path location I saw a scattering of feathers. It looked like a Phoebe's, but I can't be totally sure. Probably the culprit there was one of the birds of prey that live around or in the sanctuary, hawk is most likely but it might have been an owl.

The top drawing is of another turkey, I know I drew one for my last visit, but I saw this one out on the paths which I don't normally do so wanted to document it. I have been seeing a lot of the Turkeys so far this year, not entirely sure why, perhaps there are just more of them.

Above is Monday nights figure drawing, and yes despite the holiday we still drew. She was wearing a sweater and a short skirt, so we had another semi clothed model. Not sure about that one foot and leg but other areas I am fairly pleased with.

Another butterfly photo for you today, above is an American Copper. I have photographed one of these before as they are fairly common in my area. But they are also quite small (about 1 1/2 inches) so it can be hard to get a good photograph, when I manage I like to show them off.

My treat Monday was to capture this photograph of a tree swallow. I normally see them catching bugs on the fly at the pond or over the fields. There they are impossible for me to photograph with my camera. Monday they seemed to be in mating mode, which makes them a bit distracted, and not so noticing of humans. I actually saw one pair mating on top of one of the bird houses they have scattered around the sanctuary. That was amazing to watch, though with birds there isn't a lot to see.

This bird had landed on the bridge just prior to my crossing over. I slowly approached making lots of photographs and finally managed to make this one. I was probably only 5 or 6 feet away, which is much closer than I can normally get to wild birds, unless I am on the other side of a glass window. Isn't he a hansom fellow, and I am quite sure it is a he, the females tend to be a bit duller on the back. But he wasn't really watching me or my approach so I have to wonder what he was paying attention to.

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