Catching Up with Nature Journals

I thought I would do an extra posting this week. The weather has been beautiful, sunny if a bit chilly, but not too bad with a warm coat so I have been out and about to various state/national parks.

On Wednesday I decided that I needed to do another trip down to the Cape before winter really sets in. My aim was to go a bit further down Cape and visit the Audubon Sanctuary in Wellfleet. I didn't actually make it that far and instead ended up at Cape Cod National Seashore in Eastham. I actually visited a couple of locations in the Park which is extensive. My first stop was Fort Hill in Eastham. This site doesn't have any barrier beach access and is mainly salt marsh and estuary with some hills and woods, and an old Sea Captains house. I walked several paths down to the waters edge then along the salt marsh for a ways. Going inland I visited the Captains house making photographs.

Highlights of my visit to Fort Hill was seeing a Hawk, who I interrupted at her meal and later at the Captains house a downy woodpecker that was attacking the barn/garage looking for a late lunch.

I then drove further down Cape and stopped at the Visitors Center for the Park in Eastham, then I traveled on to the Coast Guard House and down onto the beach. I walked the beach picking up only a few feathers and making photographs. The beach didn't have much in the way of shells, mostly clam or crab shells that were the remains of a seagulls meal.  The tide was on the way in, but I was lucky enough to arrive when it was still mostly out. I thoroughly enjoyed my walk, though walking on sand gets tiring.

My drawings aren't quite as exciting as my photographs (which I will post in my flickr account in a folder if you are interested). The top image is of a Bayberry branch with leaves and some berries. The berries boiled to render their wax are the source of the wax for bayberry candles. Next 2 drawings are of pine needles and a pine cone both belonging to a Pitch Pine tree, a common tree on the Cape. The last drawing is of an Oak leaf from a tree in the Long Pasture Sanctuary (I stopped there briefly before coming home) I think it is from a Swamp Oak, but oak leaves can be tricky to identify, acorns would be better, but there just aren't any this year.  The other drawing on the page is of a land snail shell that I picked up at Fort Hill. The shell itself is prettier then the drawing makes it, a pale translucent yellow with a brown stripe.

The page below is from a visit to Ames Nowell State Park, Abington, MA.

I visited this park on Thursday afternoon. It is probably the closest park to me distance wise so it is easiest for me to get to. On Thursday I walked in a different direction from what I have taken before and only have leaves to show for my efforts. The leaves are almost gone from the trees and I felt that I needed to document as many of them as I could before I have to wait until next spring.

The drawings are top: a leaf from a Witch Hazel tree/bush. I found all the leaves on the paths and they were all showing fall colors, mostly yellow or a yellow brown. The middle leaf is actually from an American Chestnut. I wouldn't call it a tree, because of the blight Chestnuts no longer grow to mature tree size in my region, but saplings still grow from the old trees root system and will survive until killed back by the blight. The one I found in Ames Nowell was about 15 feet high, but a long way from being a mature tree.

The bottom leaf is I think a Northern Red Oak. As I mentioned above Oak trees can be hard to identify, leaf shapes even on one tree can have a fair amount of variety, but I think I am correct with this one. A leaf that I previously drew thinking it a Northern Red Oak was probably either a Scarlet Oak or a Black Oak, but I may still have all these wrong.

My next page is from a visit yesterday to Borderland State Park, Easton, MA.

The most notable thing about yesterday's visit to Borderland was the number of dog walkers I saw. Not just on the main trails but also on the trails through the woods. I decided to try and explore a new trail to me so went off the main road/trails into the woods. The top image of a gentleman with his dog was made there.

I also saw a group of Mallard ducks on one of the ponds and walked the Marsh trail, which is aptly named. Despite the fact it  has been a week since our last storm the trails are still wet and soggy in spots. Not just in Borderland but also in Ames Nowell. I am thinking I really should get waders so I can keep my feet dry.

The lower sketch is of some seed pods. I don't know what plant they are from, without flowers it can be tricky to identify seed pods unless you can identify leaves. This plant didn't have any leaves left so I am left to wonder exactly what it is.

Below are a few photographs made on my Park visits.

Above is the hawk I saw at Fort Hill. I am not sure what she is, though I am fairly sure it is a she. Female raptors are larger then the males and she was a fairly large bird.

The above photo was made at Ames Nowell and is a view of Lake Cleveland showing what is left of the fall color.

I used part of the image above for my Borderland Nature Journal drawing. The dog had gone on one side of the tree and managed to wrap its leash around it, the man is doing some untangling. The yellow leaves are Beech trees putting on their fall show, and you can see one of the large rocks that the glaciers left scattered around the park lands to his left.

That is it for today. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my Journal. Per usual comments are appreciated.

Squirrels and other Animals

I don't usually post images elsewhere prior to posting them here on the blog, once I have done that I will then post the image around the various groups I am a member of (WetCanvas or Flickr). I made an exception with the above squirrel drawing. It was supposed to be the lead in drawing for last Tuesday's post, but I hadn't gotten around to drawing it yet. Oops, so Tuesday night I finally sat myself down and just drew it in one of my sketchbooks. Since I rather liked it I didn't want to wait to show it off, so my apologies if you have seen this image elsewhere.

The image is from a photo I made on my porch sometime this spring/summer. I do so much line work when I am using pen and ink that I wanted with this pencil drawing to keep lines to a minimum using only tone and shading to suggest them. So I used lots of short pencil strokes and layers to do the body and esp. the tail. I think I did a fairly good job, at least to me the tail actually looks fluffy, and there isn't a solid line between the tail and its back just different values to show they aren't attached. I did use lines around the ears. The far ear esp. was almost the same tone as the wooden boards and I didn't want it to get lost in the image.

I want my drawings to be realistic but not the hyper photo realistic that some artists go for. It can be a fine line, and I hope I am learning how to accomplish that.

Below are a couple more Nature Journal pages.

I am trying to get out and about while we still have fairly good weather. This past weekend has reminded us that winter is coming quickly. A time when it will be more difficult to get out and also when there is less to see in the natural world. Insects are dead or hibernating and so are many animals. Trees won't have leaves and there won't be any blooming flowers. I am already wondering what I will find for my subjects, but I will take it as it comes. Have a feeling I am going to start drawing even more birds and trees and maybe even just bark.

The pages above are from my visit to Blue Hills Reservation last Sunday afternoon after our snow storm. The Blue Hill area didn't receive much snow and most of it had melted by the time I arrived. Though I did make some pictures with snow in them. The above drawings are of two birds at one of the bird feeders, I am taking some license here usually only one bird is at the feeder at a time, though this scene would be possible. The birds are a chickadee (front hole) and a titmouse (rear hole) This particular type of feeder has no perches so the birds actually grab hold of the feeder holes. Means they don't stay very long and only small birds can use the feeders.

The bottom drawing is of a doe. The Trailside Museum has two does on exhibit. This week they were up and about so I made a few photos, this drawing is from one of them. I am leaving out the chain link fence of their enclosure, but otherwise hopefully have managed a fairly good drawing of the doe.

I can remember when the Museum used to have one stag to go with the does and they would have at least one fawn in the spring for the visitors to ooh and ah over. Such breeding is no longer considered acceptable practice so these does live a solitary existence.

The pages below are from my Monday visit to Daniel Webster.

I arrived fairly early at the sanctuary Monday (well early for me) and spent some time on the far side of the bird feeder area making photographs. Usually that area is over grown with grasses but because of Farm day a week or so ago it is still mowed fairly short. I still wasn't quite close enough for me to make good photos of the birds with my camera but I did capture the squirrel in the bottom drawing sitting on the fence post and surveying the feeder area. I made it look fat, but then I think it was, the squirrels are quick to collect seeds the birds drop, and one or two of them have figured out how to gain access to the feeders despite squirrel guards.

The top drawing is of the tree stump in the Pond. The water level Monday was the highest I have seen. The stump has actually changed its position so the level may have been even higher over the weekend. I keep drawing this stump because it is a good indicator of just how high or low the water level is. This week there were no turtles sunning themselves on this stump, though I did see three at the other end of the pond when I visited that blind. Usually this is a favorite spot for them, I have seen as many as six turtles at one time sunning themselves.

The middle drawing is of a section of a Green Brier vine. Most of the leaves had gone except for the single small one out at the tip. This particular bit of vine also had a small cluster of black berries still remaining. Winter food for some bird or animal I am sure.

Below are a couple of photographs from my visits.

The above flower was still blooming in the wild flower garden at Trailside. The white in the background is snow.

Not sure of the name of this river that runs through Daniel Webster, it creates an Ox bow on the land and the Sanctuary has a couple of bridges so a visitor can cross the river and walk through a stand of mostly red maples. This photo was made from one of the bridges. Not much color left here, the trees are almost bare, ready for winter and the next snow storm.

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

All Saints Day, Snow and some Images

November 1st is All Saints Day, it is also the first day of the Festival of the Day of the Dead. Did you know that you can search on a date and find a listing in Wikipedia that will give you notable events, Births, Deaths for that day? Sometimes it is useful to be able to find such information but otherwise I imagine you could get overloaded with that amount of trivia.

I don't have a new drawing for today, and haven't managed to get any further with my bird. Well I am thinking about adding a second bird and have printed some reference photos but that is about it.

The above photo was made Sunday afternoon at the Blue Hills Reservation. While much of the East Coast and even Central and Western MA got buried in snow Saturday night we here on the south shore only received a couple of inches. It is mostly gone now, though there is some left in shaded areas. The poor central portion of MA is still dealing with it and the aftermath of down trees and downed power lines. They certainly have not had a good year weather wise. Tornado's, Hurricanes, floods and now snow, have all caused major damage to that region of the State. I am thankful to be living in a quieter portion.

I do have a couple of Nature Journal pages to share:

The above page was done last Tuesday on a visit to Massasoit State Park in East Taunton. First image is another maple leaf. This one I believe is from a Sugar Maple. The tree might be a Norway maple (the leaves look similar) but Norway's leaves turn yellow in the fall and this one was more red/orange which is typical of a Sugar Maple. It was a young tree so I couldn't go by the bark.

Next images are related to the ornamental Cherry trees that are planted by the road at the edge of Lake Rico. These poor trees have gotten confused as to the time of year and actually have some blossoms on them along with their fall berries. So I drew both the berries and the flowers. So strange to see an almost leafless tree with small bits of green and white scattered through the branches

The next page is from a visit to Borderland State Park, Easton, MA., October 28th.

The ferns are beginning to turn first yellow then brown. The top drawing is of a fern frond that had turned brown, curling up into just these bits before they crumble back into the soil. Not sure why it attracted my attention, but it did and I thought it would make for an interesting sketch.

The next image is of an Ash leaf. I am not sure the variety of ash as I found the yellowed leaf on one of the paths and wasn't able to identify the tree it came from. Without knowing what the bark looks like it is a bit hard to truly identify the tree.

Last image is of 2 mallard ducks on one of the ponds feeding on something at the bottom of the pond. I call this sketch Bottoms Up as that is all you can see of the 2 birds. Drawn from one of my photographs. I saw more ducks visiting the ponds this past week then I have on other visits.

Below is my figure drawing from last night.

We didn't have a large turn out. One regular was probably hanging or prepping to hang his pictures for a solo show that starts Friday at a local Art Association Gallery in Scituate, MA. Everyone else was probably handing out candy. I don't get trick or treaters so had no reason to stay at home. I was much happier being out and drawing.

I am much happier with this weeks efforts. Not sure about the feet, but that isn't unusual, otherwise I am fairly pleased.

Next a couple of photos from my Park visits.

Above is the photo I used as reference for the drawing on my Massasoit State Park visit pages. The only hint that this isn't a spring photo is the reddish brown blur in the background from some of the fall foliage. Otherwise you are going to have to take my work for it that I really did make this photo last week.

A spillway at Borderland State park leading from one of the upper ponds to the lower ones. We have had so much rain that water is spilling over the entire length of the spillway. When I first visited the park only a little water was flowing over one end. You can see that there isn't a lot of color, mostly brown. Weather has finally turned cold, but too late for this fall.

That is it for today. Lots of photos and only a few drawings. Hopefully the next post will have more drawings, in the meantime comments are welcome.