2 May 08
Montezuma Quail
The Montezuma quail was a tough bird because it’s so skittish and was only known to be frequenting one place, the water fountain by the feeders at Indian Lodge. Our first evening we sat out quietly for over two hours with no luck.
The following morning I volunteered to sit in the pre-dawn light and wait while others had breakfast. When the birds crept in, I had no idea who was behind me but I didn’t dare move a muscle, hardly dared breathe. I sketched quickly and quietly, my hands shaking. (Most of our group and several others were in fact there, quiet and also shaking.)
This is a bird I’ve seen before but it was a highlight — it’s so beautiful, it’s so spooky, it’s so rare.
A note about how I’ve done this. Early on I realized it would be hard to do watercolors of birds on the spot — even in a pared-down form that’s a lot of “stuff” to wield for a bird that might stay for five seconds — so I tried to get multiple sketches of each species as they popped in and out of sight. I then tried to put the sketch into my accordion-fold book as soon as I could, preferably that day, so I still had a good memory of color. In retrospect I wish I’d made some color-pencil sketchnotes, but that will have to be next time…
Postscript, 5/6/08: my final Texas bird list can be found here .
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I’m so excited for you…what a thrill! I’ve read that colored pencils, especially water-soluble kinds that will let you easily turn a drawing into a painting, is the perfect field medium.
Teresa: thanks. I did have some watercolor pencils with me, but you have to clink around to find them and when you don’t have very long… but I should (or could) have put in color right after the birds left…
Yeah, you definitely don’t want to be “clinking” around a bird that’s skittish. :>