The Magpie Nest

Say's Phoebe · Monday April 29, 2013

Say's phoebe, pen and wash A short trip to Southern California… We found nesting Say’s Phoebes at the Jawbone Canyon visitor center.

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Western Kingbirds · Tuesday April 23, 2013

The Western kingbirds have been in since before I got back to Davis. This evening I saw two pairs emerging from the trees on display flights and returning. They don’t seem to have been too bothered by the elm that blew down last night, taking the power lines with it, but I’m guessing a magpie nest or two has been destroyed… :(

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Green Heron Fishing · Saturday April 20, 2013

This heron was working in and out of the ricrack along the arboretum waterway. It caught several fish during my 15-minute sit…

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White-crowned Sparrows · Tuesday April 16, 2013

White-crowned sparrow, pen and wash
They’ll be gone soon.

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Western Gull · Sunday April 14, 2013

During yesterday’s sketchcrawl in San Francisco. This 2nd-year Western Gull was sitting outside the Ferry Building.

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Scrub-jay Preening After Bath · Saturday April 13, 2013

Also at the Arboretum yesterday. This bird was very active preening, shaking, enjoying the sunlight.

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Double-crested Cormorant · Friday April 12, 2013

I went for a walk around the Arboretum at lunchtime with Nancy Anderson. We saw a few birds, including a hard-to-identify warbler or vireo high up in a cottonwood. It was warm and we saw three species of turtle sunning… This breeding-plumaged double-crested cormorant was splendid in the middle of the lake.

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Tom Turkey in Poppies · Friday April 12, 2013

Turkey in poppies, pen and wash

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Sketching Birds Around the Continent · Thursday April 11, 2013

American kestrel, pen and wash I’ve been traveling for a month, visiting friends and family, availing myself of a 30-day Amtrak pass with 12 train segments. You have to be really fast to sketch from the train and a lot of the train sketches are blasted through in pen and colored in after the fact. This kestrel was seen from the train station at San Luis Obispo, where we stopped for about 10 minutes.

Bald eagle, pen and wash I kept a list of birds I saw from the train. Mostly large birds, of course, generally robin-sized or larger. The best bird from the train was the gray hawk that’s wintered in Carpinteria, California, but I was pretty jazzed about the sooty shearwater I saw off the coast west of Santa Barbara too, and the bald and golden eagles (Colorado and Nevada respectively). The short-eared and burrowing owls by the side of the tracks on the east slope of the Rockies were also pretty exciting, one after the other.

Brown rosy-finch, pen and wash My cousin Maggie drove me up to the Sandia Crest from Albuquerque where I saw two life birds, brown and black rosy finches. Lots of other notables I didn’t see from the train, including American woodcock at my sister’s in Maine, pileated woodpecker at Dave’s in Pennsylvania, fish crows and more bald eagles at my brother’s in Juneau (no trains to Juneau, I flew there with my mother).

Crowd looking for fieldfare in Carlisle, MA, pen and wash

Pine siskin, pen and wash There were great extremes of temperature on this trip. I spent a day with my friend Linda looking for, but failing to find, a fieldfare in Carlisle, Massachusetts. It was sunny but bitterly cold. Marcia Bonta’s feeders had a good selection of sparrows and other passerines, feeding furiously in the snow. A roadrunner sang its mournful song on the banks of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque; it was close to 80° F.

birds at Marcia Bonta's, pen and wash

Steller's jay, pen and wash It’s not the best way to bird if you’re looking for quality sightings, but I didn’t take this trip to bird. Birds were with me all the time, though, and I tried to sketch as many as I could. A small sample is included here. All sketches were made with a purple Pilot G4 pen with a watercolor wash.

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Condors and Vultures · Monday February 11, 2013

Condors and vultures, pen and ink Doodling during a meeting when there were vultures and California condors on the screen…

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