It's not often that Picture Perfect Days come along and I'm not noticing them on my way into work. But today was one. I had the day to myself and spent four hours at Morris Arboretum drawing birds as seen through my scope. The only unusual bird today was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and he was gone too quickly to sketch.
But sometimes it can be a pleasure to just really look at, and sketch, very common birds like American Robins, Canada Geese, Mallards, and Tree Swallows. Also shown here are a headless Northern Flicker, a House Finch with a mangled head and an unidentified turtle. With a scope, and birds that sit still for a bit, there's a world to see and portray.
I used pen and ink here, a Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pen. Sometimes I find that I'm less tentative if I use something permanent like ink. No need to worry about mistakes and erasing. I just have to live with what I put down. It always surprises me how much fun it is to work this way.
I hope to continue a full schedule of field sketching. Hopefully by the peak of migration I'll finally be able to capture some of those splendid migrants, especially the wood warblers, live!
