Flycatcher Time

Willow Flycatcher in Willow. Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski

I'm not sure why but I've been taken with flycatchers for the last five years or more. While most birders are bored to death by the Acadian Flycatchers and Eastern Wood Pewees that seem to be ubiquitous at the nearby Wissahickon from mid-May until sometime in August I always try to see them when I hear them.

Because flycatchers, at least the ones that are normal in this part of the country, can be both similar and drab I like to be able to look at them and try to both see and portray their differences. I really can't say if my motivation is primarily artistic or primarily educational, i.e. learning how to easily differentiate them, especially if they're not singing.

A later arrival than the Acadian and the Pewee is the Willow Flycatcher, pictured above. As far as I can tell it is one of the very latest breeding birds to arrive, at least in northwest Philadelphia. Today I happened to get a good look for a couple of minutes in my scope while birding Morris Arboretum. Two field sketches are below. Unfortunately he flew before I could spend any time on the head.

I did spend a fair amount of time looking at it but never really studied how it fit the rest of the body. So the sketch on left page below is a bit off when it comes to the head. The small watercolor sketch above tries to combine the field sketches with knowledge gained from my many photos of Willow Flycatchers.

Of course none of them were in that exact position. So I spent quite a bit of time drawing the underlying pencil sketch in the hopes of getting a complete rendering based on the field sketches below.

This is another sketch in a Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook and I've pushed the paper as far as it will go in terms of holding numerous washes. So this is done. Perhaps another time I'll try another more developed watercolor on actual watercolor paper. Or perhaps I'll end up greatly abstracting this in a print. For now it's just one more attempt to put down on paper the subtle differences between our various eastern flycatchers.

One nice thing about sketching birds from life is that even what many would consider boring birds are always interesting, mainly because you realize how very much more there always is to learn. It is and endless, and rewarding, challenge.

Willow Flycatcher, Carolina Chickadee, Tree Swallow Gray Catbird. Field Sketches by Ken Januski.

Flycatchers, Dragonflies and Field Sketches

Eastern Wood Pewee with Dragonfly. Watercolor sketch by Ken Januski

For some perverse reason I have a desire to portray flycatchers that is almost as strong as that of my desire to portray the estimable wood warblers. And yet the flycatchers just don't hold a candle in terms of beauty. They are attractive, no doubt at all, but they don't quite excite people the way the warblers do.

My guess, and that's all it is, is that because the flycatchers are hard to differentiate you need to look at them closely. And if you're an artist you need to do so even more. You need to see elements that not only define the species but allow you to put them down on paper. I'm only talking about the few flycatchers that are seen in the east by the way. I might just give up if I had to contend with western flycatchers. It may be that this is a challenge that I find hard to pass up. Learing bird identification and improving my drawing skills at the same time.

I find it exciting each time that they're around, whether the common Acadian Flycatchers which are here all summer each year or the much rarer, at least here, Least Flycatcher.

Fall seems to be the most exciting but also the hardest time for flycatchers. I think that's because there are more migrants around and there are both adults and young. That's a lot to look closely at, particularly if they're not vocalizing.

Above is a common flycatcher of the area, the Eastern Wood Pewee. I saw a couple of them yesterday at Morris Arboretum. The one above was quite near me and I took numerous photos of him as he tried to digest a dragonfly. There were hundreds in flight yesterday during the four hours that I was out. I believe that the one he's captured above is a Common Green Darner.

When you see that number of dragonflies it's easy to see how they are a popular food for some birds. Since I've come to be fascinated by dragonflies recently I'm in no hurry to see them meet their end, to show their part in the 'nature red in tooth and claw' scenario. On the other hand the more you observe nature you do see this aspect to it. Recent researchers have also written on the cooperative aspect that can be found in nature as well but I don't want to digress too far. In any case I'm not bothered as I see the birds devouring the dragonflies. It is part of nature.

The watercolor above is a quick sketch in the 5.5x8.5 Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook. It's based on one of many photos I took yesterday. Though it doesn't really show in my photo I'm struck each fall when I see many pewees and see how bright orange their lower mandible is.

Least Flycatcher at Houston Meadows. Watercolor Sketch by Ken Januski

We used to wake up with the bird above outside our cabin at Shenandoah National Park where we vacationed annually for years. Though the bird checklist mentioned them as uncommon we would see them every year, chebekking away. So it was a great surprise when we stopped going there and also stopped seeing them. The one portayed above, one of two seen at Houston Meadows in Philadelphia today, may be the best look we've ever had at one in Philadelphia.

Often with this type of quick watercolor sketch, also done in the Gamma sketchbook, my goal is to crystalize what I've seen, to combine the knowledge gained from observations, photos and reading into a quick sketch that represents the experience in some way. Sometimes this will also end up being a complete artwork that I'm quite happy with. Other times I'll realize that there are small mistakes or things I'd like to change. But that will have to happen in another more developed work. For now I just want to portray the experience.

Bald Eagle, Belted Kingfisher, Northern Rough-winged Swallow and Least Flycatcher. Field Sketches by Ken Januski.

It's been awhile since I've done many field sketches. I've been a bit more active with them over the last 7-10 days, perhaps because so many migrants are coming through. As with watercolor sketches they're never perfect and on each page I can see one image that I'd just as soon that no one saw. But I like the others and it does represent a day, or two or three, in the field.

Above is a mature Bald Eagle seen yesterday at Morris, a Belted Kingfisher, Northern Rough-winged Swallow and an attempt from memory to draw one of the two Least Flycatchers seen today, done about a half hour after seeing it.

Great Blue Heron, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Green Heron and Belted Kingfisher. Field Sketches by Ken Januski.

Finally some sketches from earlier in week of Great Blue Heron, another poorly drawn Northern Rough-winged Swallow, a Green Heron and another Belted Kingfisher. At one point the last two were in same tree. That may be the source of a more finished work at some point.

My linos are often more involved with art than nature. But they all have their source right here, in the sheer pleasure of being out and enjoying all that the natural world has to offer, as long as some thoughtless legislators don't destroy it. The last refers to some idiotic bills by Pennsylvania Republicans that I won't get into here. ( If you're a PA resident and unfamiliar with the latest antics of the Republican legislature see this coverage of PA HB1576. The older I get the more disgusted I get with politicians of both parties. But the recent activities of PA Republicans are doing wonders for my view of the PA Democrats.)

Winter Sketching

It seems inevitable that this time of year I always end up doing a number of sketches from my photos. I guess this is probably due partially to the fact that it's too cold to be outside as often as I am at other times of the year.

I've also been reading a number of books about wildlife artists almost all of which mention how they based their art on field sketching. But field sketching, which I've done a bit of recently, always seems to show me how much more I have to learn about the form of birds.

That in turn makes me think that I might learn more about their form from drawing from my photos. So that's the origin of the work above. At top are a number of sketches of Eastern Wood Pewees. Beneath are some Eastern Phoebes on the left and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Cedar Waxwing on the right.

All of the photos struck me in some way, for instance how differently shaped the heads of the two flycatchers, Eastern Wood Pewee and Eastern Phoebe are. That's just one of the things I notice in comparing them. I'm almost never able to get a decent field sketch of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, nor really a decent photo. So this good one I took last year was a good source for understanding how their tail works. In real life it's often the only thing that I see. For the Cedar Waxwing this was an opportunity to try to get their somewhat mysterious bill, as well as the markings going from it to and around the eyes.

My thought was that by trying to put these things down on paper I'd remember them better and perhaps be able to call on that knowledge next time I get an opportunity to sketch them in the field. There's also an attempt to internalize their structure so that I can abstract from them. My last Green Heron print shows I think how I like to abstract from nature. But that's much easier to do when I think that I have a solid understanding of the bird I'm abstracting. I'm starting to feel better about that.

Unfortunately that's not the case with trees and shrubs. I'm afraid somewhere along the line I'm going to have to do more sketches like these of the vegetation I see!

More Flycatchers

A little over a month ago I saw an Olive-sided Flycatcher at Morris Arboretum. Though I'm well aware of what they look like I took a photo of it because of the color of the underside of its tail, not because I recognized it as an Olive-sided. I didn't I think because it wasn't in the right context. I just don't expect to find them here, even though I've been reading about them migrating through Pennsylvania for the last month.

Yesterday Jerene and I decided to take  advantage of the beautiful weather and visit Morris in the afternoon. Almost as soon as we arrived a large flycatcher landed near us in a large dead tree, a popular spot for many birds at Morris. Sure enough it was another Olive-sided. Above is a quick watercolor done this morning from one of the photos I  took as well as two field sketches done from life. In the second you  can see I've portrayed the white tuft that occasionally is visible behind the tertials on this bird. It's also visible in one of  the photos below.

Because this seems to be an unusual bird in Philadelphia I've included the two photos above for ebird reviewers or anyone else who wants more 'proof' than my own say so. In a way I hate to encourage the reliance on photos since they're so often unreliable. But when they're clearcut I guess that they do no harm. Still I do try to avoid them. There are a few trillion blogs with photos. I think some people hunger for something different.

In the page of field sketches above are a female Black-throated Blue warbler, a Chestnut-sided Warbler, an Eastern Phoebe, tiny Northern Parula seem from beneath and another flycatcher that sketching helped me to ID as an Eastern Pewee. I'm still struck by how much sketching is a from of learning, not so much about the skill of drawing as it is about seeing better. It's long been a British tradition with birders. It's too bad it's not so here.