13 October 07
Snowy Egret
After yesterday’s rain, it’s clear and gorgeous today, perfect gardening weather. I pulled some weeds this morning, raked over the squash bed for a cover crop, and then Numenius and I rode our bikes in to Mariachi for lunch.
On the way back through the Arboretum I spotted three snowy egrets on the bank, preening, showing their beautiful plumes here and there. I noticed one kept shaking its tongue; a couple of feathers were stuck in its bill and it seemed to be having a hard time dislodging them.
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I think you really captured egretness in these sketches.
Pica, your drawing is definitely getting better. You’re beginning to capture the essence of what you are looking at in a few short strokes, And the forms of the birds are getting much more like the real thing… a very hard thing to do! I still can’t get raptor bills right.
Dave — thank you.
Butuki — what can I say, coming from you especially this makes me feel over the moon. What I’m starting to realize is that it really does matter, to put the time in every day… and the raptor bills, yes, I need to go and study them and do a million of them.
Part of the temptation when I go to the museum is to get the colored pencils out but I think next time I’ll just take my pen and focus on STUDIES — not the whole bird. It’s a great privilege to have the bird (which gave its life for study purposes; the least I can do is honor that) so close and easy to see…
But on the other hand, never go anywhere without your monocular, which helped me get these egrets!