26 January 08

Orange-crowned Warbler

Orange-crowned warbler, watercolor We did a tour of Davis today trying to find some local species that had been reported. No new ones for me, but an incredibly cooperative orange-crowned warbler was feeding in the flowering acacias in the first sunshine we’ve had all week. Not sure whether it would still be there when I biked back to the Arboretum, I went anyway, and did a number of quick sketches while it did a mixture of insect hunting (it’s quite warm today) and nectar eating, almost like a honeycreeper.

British bird artists seem very at home with watercolor, which is a very tricky medium for me. I’m particularly encouraged by Sussex birder Deborah’s work and am hoping to get more practice in. I have a cheap set of Kohinoor watercolors at work which is more than adequate for sketching and a Windsor & Newton travel set, which is what I used to paint this warbler. Patience …

Posted by at 05:08 PM in Bird of the Day | Link |

  1. Your OC is fabulous! We had one on our Superbowl on Saturday but your picture is much better than the look we got! Keep up the good work! Ciao, LL


    — tattler    28. January 2008, 12:19    Link

  2. Ooooh, that’s a nice one.


    — Ron Sullivan    29. January 2008, 14:40    Link

Previous: Next: