Paintings of Sanderlings

Shortly after I did the post a few weeks ago on the Sanderling who "forgot to run," I remembered I had a drawing in my sketchbook of two Sanderlings I did back in March when we were in Captiva for spring break. Since Sanderlings are one of my favorite shore birds, I decided to do a series of practice paintings from that sketch. I concentrated on the two poses I had captured in the drawing...with lots of variations!

Painting 186. Sanderlings Foraging

Watercolor (12x16)

Painting 185. Captiva Sanderlings

Watercolor (9x12)

Pencil drawing of Sanderlings from my sketchbook (Captiva Island, March 2011). Florida birds are so amazing. Just sit and watch, and they will come right up to you!

Painting 184. Sanderling in Black and Blue

Watercolor (9x12)

Painting 183. Sanderling Pose 1...Again

Watercolor (9x12)

Painting 182. Sanderling Pose 2

Watercolor (7x10)

Painting 181. Sanderling in Orange (my favorite)

Oil Pastel (7x10)

Painting 180. Sanderling Pose 1

Watercolor (7x10)

...these are all quick studies and practices to help me get familiar with the bird. I only get to study them when I go on vacation to the ocean (which is never enough...). Eventually I'm going to work up to a complete painting where I concentrate on value and light. Until then, it's sweet and simple. My favorites are 181, 182, 184 and 186. I continue to plug away on the 100 Painting Challenge. I'm right on schedule. I should reach 100 by Dec 31. (This is my second year of a five-year 500 painting challenge.) If you want to see other Sanderling posts, click here.

...he forgot to run!

..this little sanderling dared to be different. Instead of running from the wave, he stood his ground. I think he thought the water a little cold...

A Sanderling waits for a wave to sweep past it on Captiva Island, March 22, 2011.

"Whoa!"

The following excerpt by Peter Matthiessen from "The Wind Birds" captures the heart of a Sanderling so well (taken from "The Bedside Book of Birds--an Avian Miscellany," by Graeme Gibson. This book is a collection of bird stories, art, and poetry that I love.)

"The sanderling is the white sandpiper or "peep" of the summer beaches, the tireless toy bird that runs before the surf. Because of the bold role it plays in its immense surroundings, it is the one sandpiper that most people have noticed. Yet how few notice it at all, and few of the fewer still who recognize it will ever ask themselves why it is there or where it might be going. We stand there heedless of an extraordinary accomplishment: the diminutive creature making way for us along the beaches of July may be returning from an annual spring voyage which took it from central chile to nesting grounds in northeast Greenland, a distance of 8,000 miles. One has only to consider the life force packed tight into that puff of feathers to lay the mind wide open to the mysteries--the order of things, the why and the beginning."

21 seconds in a Sanderling's life...

8:18:07 - 8:18:28 are the time stamps from the first photo in this series to the last--21 seconds. That's what's cool about photography--freezing time, and then going back to study it. When you shoot into a flock of birds, you never know what you'll see. Even though the flock moves and acts as one, the individuals don't. They preen and stare and loaf and sleep, all at different times...and they watch. Different eyes at different times are watching in different directions. All it takes is one false move on the photographer's part, and one bird in the flock to witness it, and they are gone en masse. In the following series, two Cute Sanderlings watch me surreptitiously as they go about their business...until at the end when Cute Sanderling #2 seems a little more direct...

"...for Heaven's sake, haven't you seen enough? Move along camera lady..."

I photographed this small flock of Sanderlings while birding on the shores of Lake Erie at Magee Marsh with Rob Ripma (The Nutty Birder), Rob Mortensen (Birding is Fun!), Cack, Lulu, and Corky. Click here for an earlier post of this outing and close-ups of a Sanderling's feathers.

Sanderlings on the shore of Lake Erie at the Midwest Birding Symposium

I am having fun and am loving it at the Midwest Birding Symposium!

...yesterday morning the two Robs--Rob Ripma (The Nutty Birder) and Rob Mortensen (Birding is Fun), Cack (Rob's mom), Lulu (Rob's friend), and Corky (a college professor I had back in 1980) convinced me to get up at 5:00 a.m. and head over to Magee Marsh with them to catch a few warblers. Yikes! This is what good birders do, but when it comes to daybreak, I'm a bad birder. 6:15 is about the earliest I can get up. All my family and friends know this--I'm a night owl and have been my entire life. When I started first grade, my mom had to give me a cup of coffee to get me out of bed and help me function. But........I can and will do anything for birds, so up I got...and for good measure I set my alarm for 4:55. It was a restless night for me. From 1:00 a.m. (when I went to bed) to 4:55 a.m. when I got up, I dreamt about having to bird in my P.J.s because I couldn't find any regular clothes. My P.J.s have ducks all over them, so I really shouldn't have worried. It would have been just fine to bird in them... :-)

We arrived at Magee early, and I'm totally sold on the merits of a 5:00 a.m. wake-up call. We saw lots of warblers, thrushes, and other birds. Before we left Magee to go back to the symposium, we walked over to Lake Erie to see what was there. Sweet little Sanderlings were foraging on the shore...

Sanderling (Calidris alba) in winter (basic) plumage.

I fell in love with the plumage on these sweet birds...pattern and color are breathtaking, and when you add in their wave-chasing antics, mesmerizing!

...a Sanderling foraging along the shore of Lake Erie at Magee Marsh.

...beautiful profile, beautiful colors, beautiful pattern...

Hey little fellow...I dig your feathers!

Video of Sanderlings in basic winter plumage preening along the Lake Erie shore at Magee Marsh.

p.s....I am going into training. I have two years to reset my clock. By the next symposium, 5:00 a.m. will be nothing!

"The Little Beach Sanderling"

BY the beach border, where the breeze
Comes freighted from the briny seas,
By sandy bar and weedy rock,
I frequent meet thy roving flock;
Now hovering o'er the bending sedge,
Now gather'd at the ocean edge;
Probing the sands for shrimps and shells,
Or worms marine in hidden cells,
A restless and inconstant band,
Forever flitting o'er the sand.
--Isaac McClellan ("The Little Beach Sanderling")

Electronic Bird Art - ElectroBirds!

...when you have fun with the Glowing Edges filter in Photoshop, our favorite feathered friends take on a new, hip, hot, and electrified image! I can dig it, baby...

Chestnut-sided Warbler made hip with glowing edges.

American Goldfinch--Vegas style!

A juvenile American Bald Eagle leaps to his nest. Truly, though, it's electrifying seeing him even without the glowing edges!

A Red-shouldered Hawk is beautiful in neon...

...the same Red-shouldered Hawk on his return flight is just as striking.

Even a Brown Pelican becomes cool when he's powered on...

...but a sweet little Sanderling seems a little out of place in his hipster garb!

Sweet little Sanderlings chasing the waves...

Birding Longboat Key, Florida

…continued from yesterday’s eaglet post.
From the eagle’s nest, we headed over to the ocean and immediately found a little flock of Sanderlings foraging for their breakfast in the receding waves. The sun was still low on the horizon, so the morning light stretching down the beach was soft and rosy and made these little birds glow against the dark, wet sand.

Probing the sand for invertebrates washed in with the surf, this little fellow soon nabbed a tiny mollusk as the waves retreated.

Sanderlings certainly work for a living by constantly running away from the waves as they roll in and then chasing them back to the sea as they roll out. Who can resist those little black feet as they pad along in quick motion?? They are just so cute! Several of my guides mention that Sanderlings are the only sandpipers that lack a hind toe. This photo clearly shows, no back toes on those feet!

The soft morning light highlighted his reflection as the water skimmed back to the ocean's edge. One of my favorite German words, "spiegelglatt" (mirror smooth), fits perfectly.

A very efficient Sanderling, this guy plucked tidbits from the sand every time the waves retreated.

What a cute mug. I don't know why, but he makes me think of a sad little puppy with a wet, black nose!

Beak Bit

These little guys may be cute, but they are powerhouses too, flying up to 8,000 miles to return to their breeding grounds in the Arctic. During the winter, they spread out all over the globe, spending time on sandy beaches on almost every continent in the world! ....and this is interesting....I read on Cornell's Birds of North America Online site, that Sanderlings regurgitate pellets made up of a mixture of sand with crushed crustacean and mollusk shells. Cool! When I was watching them pluck those little mollusks from the sand and swallow them whole I wondered what happened to the shell...