Cloak, Creeper, Carolina, Crayon

Mourning Cloak, Brown Creeper, Carolina Wren. Crayon and watercolor by Ken Januski

One of the things I've come to most enjoy in nature based art is the combination of various things that you might see in nature all at the same time. Yesterday it was the first Mourning Cloak butterfly of the year, a Brown Creeper, probably on his way north for the summer, and a singing Carolina Wren, probably establishing territory, though with them sometimes you think they might just be singing for the fun of it.

I did very minimal sketches of each while I was out at the Wissahickon yesterday. And as I've said I like the Stillman and Birn sketchbooks for working through ideas. Today I know I wanted to use the Caran d'Ache Neocolor II water soluble crayons and that due to all the subjects I'd probably need to work larger. So I chose the Delta 9x12 sketchbook.

To repeat myself one more time I also like the luminosity of the Neocolors and thought they might work well here. I still think this could probably use some minor improvements. But I got what I wanted - a believable version of yesterday's walk in the woods. Hopefully one day it will end up as a more finished painting or print.

Sub-freezing Field Sketches

Now that the weather has finally turned cold, that is lows in the low teens, I've wanted to see what birds are still about, especially at the Manayunk Canal. Yesterday I finally made it over for a look.

95% frozen. Perhaps more. That didn't bode well for the Green Heron that has been here throughout December and early  January. I've always read that birds like Belted Kingfishers will stick around until their fishing water freezes over. Well yesterday it had.

The Manayunk Canal actually starts about 1.5 miles from where I start along the Schuylkill River, a large river that doesn't often fully freeze. So there will almost always be some moving water nearby. It's just that Green Herons I don't believe generally frequent such large rivers. I could be wrong on this.

As I  walked along even the Ring-billled Gulls  and Canada Geese were frozen out. I saw five Ring-billled Gulls in the air as opposed to the  50+ I generally  see loafing along or floating in the water. Same thing with the Canada Geese. I only  saw one, at the very spot where the canal water joined the Schuylkill until much later when about 70 flew overhead.

The few pockets of water that weren't frozen were next to outlets of running water, I assume storm sewers from the city  of Philadelphia. There were about 10 of them I'd guess. That's where I found two Belted Kingfishers and a few other songbirds. Two Great Blue Herons inhabited the two slightly larger areas of moving water. But even they looked mighty cold. I don't think  it was above 20 during my 90 minute walk.

Finally as I walked back along the same trail I saw some movement near the very last small outlet. Sure enough the Green Heron was still here. And sure enough he's just as easily spooked as he used to be! As soon as I moved a step forward to try to get a better view for skeching he flew.

Above you  see my field sketches from yesterday. On the right hand page there  is one attempt to put down what I saw in his brief flight before he disappeared. Beneath it a second attempt after looking at some guides at home. Also on the right page are one of the Great Blues as well as a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. On the left page is a Brown Creeper, creeping along upside down as well as a Great Blue seen a few days ago.

Both the creeper and sapsucker have been slightly modified after looking at guides and photos once I got home. This is greatly  frowned upon by many wildlife artists and probably with good  reason. My motivation in doing so is to correct what I had wrong, or to supplement what I didn't remember. But it's probably  best to just live with what is wrong and try to remember what I missed for future drawings.

In the two or three years that I've done field sketching with any regularity I've found that there is a very slow but nonetheless noticeable accumulation of knowledge and skills. There's also a greater sense of adventurousness. Not that long ago I never would have attempted a sketch of a fleeing Green Heron, one that I'd only seen for a split  second. That is not enough time to have a conscious thought I don't think. But if I try to sketch it I do find that I do have some sort of visual image in my mind. This doesn't capture it. But it is a step. At one time I never would have a tried an upside down bird, like the creeper. But I've done a number over the years and each time it  gets easier. Before you  know it I'll have one that looks right!!

As I think I've mentioned before I've become a  big believer in field sketchin and that has been reinforced most recently by the book  Bob Kuhn: Drawing on Instinct. I'd advise anyone to try it.

Birds That Shouldn't Be Here

Well at least according to ebird, the wonderful bird reporting site at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. I went to enter the birds I saw today including one Eastern Phoebe and two Red-breasted Nuthatches and ebird wanted confirming details because the birds are 'rare.'

I really can't complain about this. There needs to be some mechanism to screen out highly unlikely birds. But occasionally the screening process just doesn't match the facts on the ground very well. Normally I would call a Red-breasted Nuthatch rare in our area. But not this year. This is the fourth time we've seen them and we haven't really been birding all that much.

Same thing with the Easten Phoebe. It does seem a bit late for them but I'm pretty sure others  have seen them elsewhere in Philadelphia over the last week. Yesterday ebird questioned the 10 Chipping Sparrows we saw at Houston Meadonw. They were there and probably  in even greater numbers.

I didn't have  my camera with me yesterday but I did today. So  why didn't I take photos in case someone questioned what I saw? Because it's no fun and the birds weren't that rare. I don't enjoy taking photos but I do enjoy making sketches. If the birds had seemed rare to me I would have tried to get some photos. But doing so always takes away from sketching time so I never do it unless I think the  bird is 'rare' by my  standards.

I didn't intend to post these. But since ebird may ask for some proof here it is. Above you can see a young Eastern Phoebe at top  left, followed by two views of a male Belted Kingfisher and a Red-breasted Nuthatch hanging upside down with his head thrown back at bottom. On right is a poorly sketched Golden-crowned Kinglet that was just one jump away from landing on my hat, which seemed to be his target until he veered away. Finally a Canada Goose drinking some water he'd gotten from the pond at Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. All of these sketches are from  today, on what may be our last warm day of 2012.

The sketches above are from the last week. On the left a couple of House Sparrows in the Silver Maple outside my studio and beneath them the first Hermit Thrush of the fall. On the right pages a House Sparrow from my studio window feeder, a White-throated Sparrow where I tried to concentrate on the streaking on nape and finally our first Brown Creeper of the year, hanging upside down like the Red-breasted Nuthatch. I have a long way to go in perfecting upside-down poses but it's always fun to try. These field sketches from life are a far cry from the sketches from photos I last showed. They're both useful but believe me these sketches in the field are a lot more fun!