Black and White Warbler at Magee Marsh...photos, sketch, and a painting

A female Black and White Warbler (Mniotilta varia) was very thorough in her inspection of this weathered and half-dead tree. She systematically nabbed insects right and left from the nooks, crannies, and crevices of the bark (and I don't think she left any bits of the lichen unturned either :-)...

This beautiful female Black and White warbler foraged for several minutes right in front of me,
letting me marvel at her beauty and industriousness. (These photos go all the way back to May of this year when I was at the Biggest Week in American Birding.)

This post is for my parents, Joni and Jer, my cousin, Curg, and my Aunt Diane. They all traveled up to Maumee Bay State Park this weekend to look for ducks up on Lake Erie. Everyone was in need of Big Water, and Lake Erie, which is only 4 hours away, was the cure. I was supposed to go with them, but work got in the way. Magee Marsh is only 20 minutes from Maumee, so I told them to be sure to stop by the boardwalk. They did...on Nov 5, but it was closed for duck hunting (Nov 5 - Dec 1). So they didn't get to see the beauty of the boardwalk, but I'm going to lure them back up this May when all the warblers are there. That's the best time to go anyway, so I thought I'd post a small taste of what's to come this spring for them! I saw this Black and White Warbler on the boardwalk at Magee Marsh on May 5, 2012. She was just one of hundreds of warblers flitting through the trees that morning...

It was slightly overcast that morning, but the gray light only helped emphasize her beauty!

The wet bark on the trees and the overcast skies above showcased the bright green of the lichens.

...no crevice, hole or crack escapes this little female's attention! 

Always nuthatch-like in their movements, Black and White Warblers can crawl up and down and around on a tree...

You can tell this is a female because she has a gray cheek. Males have black cheeks.

...sketches of the Black and White warbler I photographed that day. 
I drew this page in my sketchbook that evening from photos I took that day.

...a quick watercolor sketch of the female Black and White Warbler 
(painted from one of the sketchbook drawings).

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Painting and drawing Savannah Sparrows...and our first Dark-eyed Junco of winter!

I painted these Savannah Sparrows last week for a guest post I did on the Birding is Fun blog. As a reference, I used sketches of the bird I drew from an outing in early spring. Since our summer sparrows are leaving us for their winter grounds, I thought it a great way to say good bye to them. Sparrows are always fun to watch. They are sweet, and their subtle shades of browns, grays, and caramels are restful to the eye and make them interesting to paint...

...a sweet Savannah Sparrow in an early spring meadow (watercolor).

Sparrows go about their business without flash. They flit through the grasses and make us work to see and identify them. This little Savannah Sparrow, however, was making it easy. He was singing heartily, perched on a tall and dried-out reedy stem of grass left over from winter. I saw this bird on March 24, 2012 at Armleder Park in Cincinnati, OH. The bird was one of a pair that took turns diving down to the ground, then fluttering back up to a perch. In the same field, two Vesper Sparrows were doing the same thing, although they were much more secretive and tended to stay a little lower in the weeds (click here for that post). Both species were returning migrants, and it was wonderful to welcome them back for the season...

...same Savannah Sparrow trying his best to fade away in a field of dead stalks and grasses (watercolor).

Pencil sketch of the Savannah Sparrow at Armleder Park (March 24, 2012)

Pencil sketch of the same Savannah Sparrow at Armleder. 

...and already it's time to say goodbye to these sweet summer sparrows, as winter sparrows have already arrived in Cincinnati. I've read reports of White-crowned Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows, but so far, none have shown up in our yard. It seems Pine Siskins are making appearances in Cincy too! I hope a few drop by our feeders. We do have a new visitor, however—our first Dark-eyed Junco of winter flashed his white tail feathers this past Saturday on October 27, 2012. Last year our first junco blew in on November 8, 2012 (click here for that post and watercolors of the junco), so we're ahead of the game!

Sketchbook entry of our first Dark-eyed Junco of the season (10-27-2012)

Armleder Park is on the east side of Cincinnati in Hamilton County and is a great place to bird. It's about 30 minutes from my house, so I don't get there as often as I'd like. A small paved trail loops through a weedy meadow, and you have canoe access to the Little Miami River as well (305 acres).

Immature Little Blue Herons, photos, sketches, and a watercolor

Once a month, I'm a contributor on the Birding is Fun blog. I often forget to publish those posts on Red and the Peanut, so I'm going to try to add them in every now and then. Here's a post from way back in July:

Little Little Blues are white...
Early this June, Matty, Rick and I went to Hilton Head, SC for our vacation. I visited the nearby Pinckney Island NWP every day to watch the birds nesting at the Ibis Pond rookery. The Little Blue Herons were especially active this year, and the deep slate-colored adults could be seen sitting on nests, preening while they perched at the end of branches, flying overhead with long twigs destined for other nests, or just fluffing up to transform themselves into ridiculously attractive birds, but it was their snowy white offspring that I really paid attention to. The white-feathered young Little Blue Herons were busy flapping their wings, hopping from branch to branch, and waiting and begging for food...

Two young Little Blue Herons stretch and flap their wings from branches near their nest. They were not yet airborne, still gaining strength for their first flights. Here they were watching an adult that had just landed a few branches over, no doubt hoping for food!

Little Blue Herons have white plumage while they are young and retain the white color for their first year. They often nest with Snowy Egrets, but it's not too hard to tell the two white birds apart. Look at their legs, Little Blue Heron babies have greenish legs and feet. They also have dark blue-gray tipped wing feathers. It's often hard to see the dark-tipped feathers when the birds are at rest, but when they stretch, it's easy to spot the dark tips on the wing feathers.

...with the wings folded it's a little harder to see the dark-tipped wing feathers on a young Little Blue Heron, but if you look closely at the farthest end of the wing, you can see the dark tips among all the white.

The nice thing about a rookery, is the birds stay put for you! All this posing and sticking near the nest makes it easy to sketch and draw them. At Ibis Pond on Pinckney Island I love to sit down, set up the scope, and get out the sketchbook. Here are a few quick sketches of the two babies...

...pencil sketches of immature Little Blue Herons

Immature Little Blue Heron (watercolor heightened with black and white conte crayon).
...painted this from a sketchbook drawing earlier this summer.

...and here's papa fluffing up in all his blue grandeur!
(I took this photo last year at Pinckney, but it's one of my favorite fluffing-up shots.)

II have lots and lots of Hilton Head birds sitting in the archives patiently waiting to get out. I need to hunker down, focus and bring those photos to life! (...I still have lots of cool birds, insects, turtles and snakes to write about from Magee Marsh in Toledo, Shawnee State Park in Ohio, and Greenbo Lake in Kentucky too...I'll never get caught up!)

Painting and drawing Bay-breasted Warblers at Magee Marsh...

I always look forward to seeing Bay-breasted Warblers as they migrate through our area in May. Their beautiful chestnut-colored flanks and black mask are striking, and they are not quite as hyper as other warblers as they move through the branches gleaning insects, so I usually get wonderful views of them. Problem is they are few and far between around my house, so when I headed up to Magee Marsh this May for The Biggest Week in American Birding warbler festival, I had my fingers crossed that a few would head my way...

A Bay-breasted Warbler (Dendroica castenea) perched in a tree just above me along the boardwalk at Magee Marsh. 

...field sketches of the Bay-breasted Warblers I saw while at Magee Marsh in Toledo, Ohio.

...more field sketches of Bay-breasted Warblers from the boardwalk.

Last Sunday I went back through my sketchbook looking for a few sketches to paint. I liked a few of the Bay-breasted Warbler drawings, so I grabbed my watercolors and headed outside on the deck. Matty had mentioned earlier that he liked the two sketches of the bird looking up, so I made sure I painted them. It was gorgeous outside--warm but not too hot (not like today and yesterday's 101 degrees F), and two Cedar Waxwings were overhead in the mulberry trees trilling and buzzing and chirruping in their special way. Listening to the birds while painting was nice. I even heard a Bobwhite (which is incredibly rare for our neighborhood. I haven't heard one since 1992!! 1992!!! The Bobwhite called out his name six separate times before moving on. I even called Rick out to listen. It was so awesome to hear the Bobwhite's call. Growing up, I heard it all the time.). In all, I did three quick watercolors of a Bay-breasted Warbler...

Painting 229. Bay-breasted Warbler above me...
(watercolor, hot-pressed paper -- this is Matty's favorite painting)

Painting 228. Bay-breasted Warbler watercolor sketch...
(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

Painting 227. Bay-breasted Warbler, side view...
(watercolor, cold-pressed paper)

Click here to learn more about The Biggest Week in American Birding. You will be amazed at all the warblers you'll see!

I did these paintings for my monthly contribution to the Birding is Fun! blog, so you'll find a similar post there.

Vesper Sparrows singing in the morning...

Vesper Sparrows are sweet birds. They are often described as plain, which I guess they are when you first look at the gray-brown feathers that help them disappear into the scrubby fields they like to haunt, but when they fly from perch to perch in the grass, a flash of white on the outer edges of their tail feathers is bright, and suddenly they are not plain at all. I love these little junco-like birds and enjoy watching them as they flit through the grasses, staying low and out of camera range usually. When I saw this male at Armleder Park, he was singing from one of the higher perches in the field, but he still was able to avoid the camera lens by perching behind grasses and sticks, so instead of photographing him, I did a few field sketches, concentrating on gesture rather than feather detail, etc...

Painting 224. Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus) in the Morning...
(This painting started as a pencil sketch. I added watercolor and a touch of colored pencil later.)

Vesper Sparrows love to take dust baths. I've read many accounts of that and was hoping to see one or two fluffing up in the dust and flapping around, but no luck. They are so well adapted to dry dusty fields that they don't use water for bathing or drinking! It's thought they get all the water they need from insects and seeds and possibly also morning dew on the grass.

Painting 225. Vesper Sparrow at Armleder Park
(This painting started as a pencil sketch. I added watercolor and a touch of colored pencil later.)

In bird literature, I've read over and over that Vesper Sparrows were named from the romantic view of naturalist John Burroughs that the bird sang more sweetly at sunset or dusk, which is the time for evening prayers or vespers, but I had never directly read anything about him naming the bird, so I wanted to check it out. I love naturalist writings from the 1800s and early 1900s that have romantic tendencies, so I was glad when I stumbled across the John Burroughs website and a page called "The Naming of the Vesper" (click here for the link). A list of references shows the transition of the bird's original name of "grass finch" or "bay-winged bunting" to the name "vesper sparrow," and although John Burroughs promoted the name, he did not coin it. In Burroughs' 1871 book "Wake-Robin," Burroughs gives credit to Wilson Flagg...

"They sing much after sundown, hence the aptness of the name vesper sparrow, which a recent writer, Wilson Flagg, has bestowed upon them." (Source: "Wake-Robin," by John Burroughs, page 212.  Click here for the free online ebook version of the book.)

...after reading what was on page 212, I started skipping through the book to read more, and I loved his colorful descriptions. Now I want to get a hard copy of "Wake-Robin" and a few of his other books. Here is a glimpse of Burroughs' introduction...

"Do such books as mine give a wrong impression of Nature, and lead readers to expect more from a walk or a camp in the woods than they usually get? I have a few times had occasion to think so. I am not always aware myself how much pleasure I have had in a walk till I try to share it with my reader. The heat of composition brings out the color and the flavor. We must not forget the illusions of all art. If my reader thinks he does not get from Nature what I get from her, let me remind him that he can hardly know what he has got till he defines it to himself as I do, and throws about it the witchery of words. Literature does not grow wild in the woods. Every artist does something more than copy Nature; more comes out in his account than goes into the original experience." (Source: "Wake-Robin," by John Burroughs, page xii.  Click here for the free online ebook version of the book.)

Painting 226. Vesper Sparrow Singing in the Morning
(...another painting started as a pencil sketch. I added watercolor and then gouache later.)

Yellow-thoated Warblers...and the BIGGEST WEEK in American Birding!

I can't wait, I can't wait! I'm just a few days away from packing up the Jeep and heading north to Warblermania, Lake Erie, Magee Marsh, and the Black Swamp Bird Observatory for the BIGGEST WEEK in American Birding! This will be my first time to spend spring migration on the famous boardwalk at Magee Marsh. From what I hear the trees drip with exhausted warblers as they rest up before crossing Lake Erie on the final leg of their journey northward to their summer breeding grounds. I've had so many birding friends tell me the boardwalk at Magee Marsh is the place to be when the warblers start moving through. I'm hoping to be eye level with a few of my favorite warblers while I'm there...so my sketches and photos won't always be of their little warbler bellies...

Painting 222. Yellow-throated Warbler Above Me
(...a quick watercolor and pencil sketch from a walk along the Little Miami River this spring.)

Painting 223. My Neck Hurts Looking up at You!
...could you come down out of the treetops for just five minutes so I could see you head-on?
(...another quick watercolor and pencil sketch from a walk along the Little Miami River)

Our Little Miami River Yellow-throated Warblers...
Every year a Yellow-throated Warbler couple takes up residence along the same stretch of river-front property along the Little Miami River. The male starts singing early, and often, and I look forward to his effusive and amorous strains that fill the treetops. The only problem is, Mr. and Mrs. Yellow-throat like their high-rise digs and never come down to visit us earth-bound bipeds, so my photos of them are always fuzzy and grainy and over-cropped...

...he's mocking me. I know it.

He's sitting pretty, but way beyond 400mm shooting... 

...sing out little fella! Everyone loves to hear your song.

Join me at the Biggest Week!

...if you're heading to Cleveland for spring migration, let me know. I'll be at Magee Marsh Monday - Thursday. If you're not going to be there, stay tuned. I'm going to report in every night with photos of all the sweet birds that came my way. I can't wait!!

See you on the boardwalk!!! :-)

A tisket, a tasket, two little pollen baskets!

A week or so ago I was walking along the Little Miami River when I looked up and saw a honey bee buzzing around the blossoms on a Buckeye tree. She was high over my head, but I could still see two little red balls on her hind legs. "What are those?" went through my mind. I've seen yellow "clumps" on a honey bee's hind legs before, which I assumed were grains of pollen the bee had picked up while pollinating flowers, but I had never seen red clumps, much less red balls. A quick Internet search when I got home solved the mystery--"pollen baskets." Not all bees have pollen baskets, and not all pollen baskets function the same, but it seems the color of the pollen in the baskets is determined by the pollen source. Our little bee was pollinating Buckeye trees when I saw her, but maybe the red pollen came from a flower she had just visited. Either way, the thought of the busy bee inspired a quick painting...

Painting 220. Busy Bee with Red Pollen Baskets (oil pastel)
This is just a generic representation of a bee...it came out of my head, so it doesn't match any species in a field guide!

Pencil sketches from my sketchbook of honey bees with full pollen baskets...
When I got home that evening, I created an entry in my sketchbook. Again, these are just generic drawings of bees as I see them in my imagination. I don't know the species. I just thought the pollen baskets were cool, and wanted to record what I saw.

More about pollen baskets...
A pollen basket (or "corbicula") is a slightly concave, smooth surface on the hind legs of bumble bees, honey bees, orchid bees, and stingless bees. The "basket" is surrounded by guard hairs that hold in pollen the bee has dampened with nectar or honey and compressed into a "pollen pellet." When the bee mixes the pollen with nectar, the color of the pollen changes, but it is the source of the pollen that really determines the color of the pollen pellets in the pollen basket. Bee keepers can identify the pollen source just by looking at the pellets deposited at the hive. Bees that don't have pollen baskets have other structures for transporting pollen. Some use "scopa," a brush of hairs often on the hind legs and some carry the pollen in their crop. (Soure: Encyclopedia of Entomology 2008, pgs 419-434, here; Wikipedia, here, and for examples of pollen sources and their color, click here.)

...the red balls on this honey bee's hind legs (tibia) are called pollen baskets (corbicula). Pollen is a bee's main source of protein, fat, minerals, and some starches, so it's important the bee has a way to transport the food back to the hive. (Click here for a detailed article on bees that explains more about their dietary needs.)

...this little bee has been very busy! Her pollen baskets look almost full. It takes a worker bee from three to eighteen minutes to fill up the pollen baskets and return to the hive. That's quite a difference. I guess it depends on the abundance of pollen at the source...or whether the busy little bee is simply a slacker! (Source: Wikipedia. To learn more about bee research, check out Karl von Frisch, here.)

A buckeye tree with newly emerged leaves and blossoms just beginning to open was a favorite of this honey bee. Through the camera lens I could just make out the red balls on her legs. I almost didn't photograph the bee because she was so far away, but I wanted to find out what those red balls were! I'm glad I did...

...a sketchbook scribble I almost didn't include, but it's fun...and I need the paintings for the challenge! :-)
Painting 221. Busy Little Bee, Take That Pollen on Home! 
(watercolor and pencil--scribble idea for a future painting)

Common Goldeneyes in January...

I've been remiss at posting paintings for the 100 Painting Challenge! These paintings go all the way back to January when I saw the gorgeous Long-eared Owl near Caesar Creek State Park (click here for that post). After we saw the owl, we headed up to the Caesar Creek Lake boat launch to look for a few winter ducks. Nothing was close, but through the scopes, a few beautiful black and white ducks with large white spots on their faces (cheek patches) and bright yellow eyes were easy to see...

Painting 219. Common Goldeneye Before the Storm (oil pastel)
A storm was moving in as we watched a few Common Goldeneyes (Bucephala clangula) on the lake. To top that, night was falling which all but squelched the iridescent greens that show in the feathers on their heads when in the sun. 

Painting 218. Common Goldeneye in the Ice and Rain (oil pastel)
We wanted to stay longer to watch these beautiful ducks, but along with night, ice pellets and slushy rain were starting to fall. To avoid diminished driving conditions, we hit the road. The Goldeneyes bobbed on the water as we packed up our spotting scopes, diving now and then, not at all worried about the deteriorating weather conditions...

Painting 217. Common Goldeneye at Caesar Creek (watercolor sketchbook page)
This is a page out of my sketchbook -- even though I wrote 2011 in the description...it was 2012 (I'm usually pretty slow on the uptake of the new year in January!). When I got home, I did this quick entry in my sketchbook to remember these beautiful ducks. I did the oil pastels over the next few days.

If you're an artist looking for a challenge, join up at the 100 Paintings in a Year Challenge hosted by Laure Ferlita.

Chickadee with bright red berries...

Do you recognize this chickadee? He's almost in the same pose as the chickadee in the previous post. I wanted to paint him in a different style, so I first created a loose watercolor of the bird (without much of a sketch), added in berries, and created a dark background. I then went over the painting with a chalky white gouache glaze (to give the feel of the cold day), and heightened the bird, berries and his perch with a little gouache detail. I'm still experimenting with gouache and learning how to use it...

Painting 216. Chickadee with bright red berries

(watercolor glazed and heightened with gouache)

The opaque white was nice because it allowed me to fix the misshapen branch in the original watercolor. The chickadee in the original watercolor (below) is much more spontaneous than the bird above, which has been softened, highlighted and detailed with gouache. I'm not sure which I like better. It's all practice...

The watercolor underpainting of the chickadee.

...this is another painting for Laure Ferlita's 100 Paintings Challenge.

If you're an artist looking for a challenge, join up! This is my third year of the challenge. I'm working on 500 paintings in 5 years.

Hiking the Little Miami River for LMI's first GBBC...

Early Sunday morning I headed over to the Little Miami River at the abandoned Peter's Cartridge Factory for a bird walk. Penny Jarret, who works for Little Miami, Inc. (LMI), contacted me last week to see if I wanted to help bird the powder factory stretch of the Little Miami River for Cornell's Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC--click here to learn more about the 4-day birding weekend). Penny found my blog through a Google search and after reading a few posts learned how much I love birding the Little Miami River. I didn't even know Little Miami, Inc. existed, so I was really happy she contacted me. Penny explained LMI is a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the Little Miami River (click here for a link to their web site.) Since 1967, LMI has created over 50 nature preserves along the Little Miami River and its tributaries. Penny is trying to bring more awareness to Little Miami, Inc., and thought a GBBC event could be her first step...

Painting 215. Chickadee Singing Sweetly Along the Little Miami River

(Oil Pastel)

We saw 19 Carolina Chickadees during our walk--our most numerous bird, so I decided to commemorate the day with a chickadee painting. Although it wasn't snowing, it was cold!

For the walk, I contacted a few birdy friends, Paul (local herp expert) and Mike (Everybody Funny blog), and Penny brought a few friends too, Steve and Bill...

Paul, Bill, Penny, Mike, and Steve all stand on the banks of the Little Miami River for the first ever LMI GBBC outing! I really enjoyed myself and was so happy to meet more birding friends (and Little Miami River lovers)!

A little more about Little Miami, Inc...and a video!

LMI has been actively protecting the Little Miami Wild and Scenic River since 1967! About 30% of the river and the riverfront forests have been permanently protected through ownership or conservation easements. Click here for a video LMI created called "Greenway! A River Discovery Complete" showcasing the river--beautiful aerial video of the river's path, interesting narration, and closeups of the river and surrounding river valley. LMI has all sorts of volunteer opportunities, so if you're interesting in helping, send them an email. You can find contact information on their web site.

"Steel," the American Kestrel

I always enjoy catching a glimpse of our smallest and most colorful falcon, the American Kestrel. Every now and then one rips through our side yard as I look out the window, his orange and blue feathers flashing, and the bold, black and white stripes on his face visible even at his breakneck speeds, but he never sticks around long enough for me to grab the camera or the binocs for closer viewing, so I was very happy to get the opportunity to see one up close at RAPTOR, Inc...

Painting 213. A Watery Portrait of "Steel" the American Kestrel

(watercolor)

A quick pencil sketch of Steel. I made the watercolor a little different from the sketch. In the drawing, his left shoulder is soft. In the painting, I made the left shoulder sharper, plus I took the curve out of his left side. He just seemed too soft and puffy in the drawing.

Back in the autumn, Matty and I went on a photo shoot at RAPTOR, Inc. (a rehab facility for injured birds of prey). Most of the birds at RAPTOR are treated, rehabilitated and released, but some are so badly injured they can not heal well enough to survive in the wild. (Click here to see more of the birds from RAPTOR).

"Steel" is an American Kestrel that is blind in his left eye, making it impossible for him to hunt. He stays on at RAPTOR, Inc. as a teaching bird.

"...it looks like a tiny aristocrat, with an intricate tapestry of white, blue, and reddish feathers..."

The above quote is from Robert Bateman's book "Birds." I love this book and pick it up and read it often. The book is a compilation of some of Bateman's most beautiful bird paintings, but what makes it even better, is he writes about each bird, supplying his inspiration for each painting and his encounters with the bird in the field. A few weeks ago, while eating breakfast I opened the book to his American Kestrel entry (page 84), and I liked his description:

"The American Kestrel is a superbly designed, compact falcon with unusually elegant plumage. I think it looks like a tiny aristocrat, with an intricate tapestry of white, blue, and reddish feathers on its upper body and a breast decorated with dark ermine markings."

The black bars under a kestrel's eyes are beautiful, but their purpose is more than just esthetic. The dark color absorbs bright sunlight to help reduce glare when the bird hunts.

...and the pair of large black spots on the back of his head....they serve a purpose too. They are ocelli (false eyes) and may make a predator think twice about attacking a kestrel from behind. Since ocelli look like a pair of eyes, predators may assume the bird is facing them.

Beak Bit
American Kestrels perch-hunt and hover-hunt. When they hover, they use the wind velocity to stay in one place, so even though they may look like giant hummingbirds hovering in the sky, their hovering method is different. Hummingbirds use a figure-8 wing motion to hover in one place, but kestrels fly into the wind at the same speed of the wind. Click here for an earlier post that shows an American Kestrel hovering in the air.

Those of you who follow Birding is Fun! might recognize some of this post. I'm a monthly contributor on the blog and posted part of this article on that site a week or so ago. I switched it up a bit, though and added the pencil sketch. The painting is part of the 100 Paintings Challenge.