Round 'Em Up!

"Drawing makes you see things clearer, and clearer and clearer still, until your eyes ache."
                                                                                                                      - David Hockney

Male broad-tailed hummingbird glistens in the morning sun.

You may be familiar with the idea of a cattle roundup, but a hummingbird roundup might be a more unusual concept. Every spring a hearty group of volunteers captures and bands migrating hummers at a ranch tucked away in the mountains. For one day, they invite the public to come and observe, ask questions, and maybe even hold a hummingbird.

The beautiful setting for the Roundup

I have never seen so many hummingbirds buzzing about in one place. Four species are found in this one area; broad-tailed, black-chinned, rufous and calliope. In a typical roundup, the volunteers examine an average of 600 hummers.

Feeders are placed inside of cages to capture the hummers.

Trained volunteers measure and weight these tiny birds. 

If a hummer doesn't already have a leg band, they are given one.

After their physicals the hummers are marked with a spot of temporary paint so they aren't captured again,
then they are released. It often takes them a moment to get their bearings before zipping off.

A sketch from my notebook. 

By using binoculars and patience, I was able to sketch the activity at a hummingbird feeder. The hummers are so quick that I couldn't draw individuals. Each time a different hummer would visit the feeder in the same position as a previous one, I could add a little more to my drawing. I still have the  wrist brace, but despite it being cumbersome I didn't want to miss this opportunity to observe and sketch on this amazing day.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure
as long as life lasts."
                                                                                                                     - Rachel Carson

Male yellow-headed blackbirds gorging themselves on insects.

We just had one of the best birding days EVER. The kind where you feel exhausted at the end of the day because of the sheer number of birds observed. Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge on the Great Salt Lake is an important fueling stop for migratory birds, many of which have traveled from South America and are still headed further north, some as far as the Arctic. Phalarope, white-faced ibis, avocet, coot, great blue heron, great egret, cattle egret, stilt, white pelican, grebe, ducks, swallows, raptors, curlew, whimbrel, western kingbird; our senses were on overload.

One of the most amazing things we saw were flocks of male yellow-headed blackbirds in a feeding frenzy. I'm not that knowledgeable about the types of midge-like insects that live in marshes but whatever they were, there were millions of them. From a distance, the swarms rising up into the sky looked like dark smoke. Everywhere we looked, there were yellow-headed blackbirds on the ground eating these insects. We'd never seen so many of these beautiful birds all in one place.

Swallows collecting mud for their nests.

Clark's grebe enjoying a morning swim.

An avocet taking a well-deserved break after its long journey.

Unfortunately my artistic endeavors have hit a bit of a snag. I've got tendonitis in my right wrist (in three places!) and have to wear a brace for a month. I still manage to sketch and paint a little but my hand cramps up pretty quick. Hopefully as I get used to the brace that will improve.

Brace or no brace, there are important things that must be attended to.

The Owl and the Pussycat

Saw-whet #1

I have a birding friend who has the best luck finding owls. It seems like every time I go out birding with her, we see an owl. She claims I'm good luck for her, but I think she is the one with the gift.

We got together around Christmas for an afternoon of birding in between our respective family obligations. Within 15 minutes of heading into the woods, she spotted a saw-whet owl in a cedar, and a second one not even a 5 minute walk further down the trail. Talk about luck!

Saw-whet #2

The weekend after we got together, my friend led a team in her local Christmas Bird Count. I asked her if she spotted any more saw-whet owls and unfortunately she did not. But she did find 13 screech owls! Like I said, I think she has a gift.

---

Gallery Cat #1

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know I love cats. I particularly love cats in businesses, such as used book stores and galleries. A lot of people bring their dogs to work, but cats are not as common. This exchange between a pedestrian and a gallery cat caught my eye recently and I wanted to share it with you.

Gallery Cat #2

And here's another gallery cat, just watching the world go by.

I'll return to some art posts soon. I have to get my butt in gear and finish the watercolor of the white pelican for a show in February and I'm working on an abstract piece! 

New Home, New Birds

One of my new favorite walks in town.

I was so disappointed when I woke up to rain this morning. I had planned on going on a walk in a lovely preserve area on the east side of town. But by the time I had showered and eaten breakfast, the rain stopped and it looked safe to venture forth.

The walking trail is at the top of a rise that overlooks the town and you can see the whole valley stretched out to the farthest mountains. On a clear day, you can see all of the mountain ranges that ring the valley but today I could only see the ones closest to the northeast. Still, a lovely view.

The walking trail is in a natural area that has been carefully preserved. In summer, there's a great diversity of prairie wildflowers in bloom. Now in fall the aster family puts on a show, including this blazing star.

Dotted blazing star - Liatris punctata

I was disappointed that there weren't more birds in evidence on my walk, just the usual robins and ubiquitous magpies. As I was descending back down to the parking lot at the end of my walk, I saw some little birds hopping around in a shrubby area. I pished a bit, and one bird popped up in a clearing. I'd never seen one like him before but my brain was recalling an image from the field guide. I flipped it open and Bingo - a lifer!

My lifer green-tailed towhee. He was a bit of a stretch for my little point and shoot camera.

A Few More Photos

We have of course been very domestic lately, mostly because of the move, but also the soggy weather. But once the rain let up (1.9" of rain in June to date - unheard of in these parts) we slipped outside when we could. Here are a few photos from our forays:

I actually managed to get this photo of a western tanager at work during
my lunch break. The back patio area is surprisingly a terrific bird habitat.

A mountain bluebird in all its glory. How can seeing this not make your day?
When I zoomed in to see what was in its beak, it looked suspiciously arachnid.

These nestlings were nearly ready to fly. A few days later and we
probably wouldn't have seen them.

And I can't leave you without a picture of the Divine Miss M,
having an afternoon bath in the sun.

I know I haven't posted any art lately. Soon, I hope!

Spring Sabbatical

A little bird reminded me today that I've been absent from the Blogosphere for a while now. We've been busy apartment-hunting, packing up our lives, getting our apartment ready for house showings, and trying to get outside and catch Spring as much as possible. It's been a colder than usual Spring, but the first brave wildflowers are blooming and the birds are slowly coming back.

The hooded mergansers are pairing up.

The osprey are back.

And my jacob's-ladder is blooming.

We were starting to panic, but we finally found an apartment...and it is walking distance from three bakeries, a Dairy Queen, a cafe with gelato, and a locally-made ice cream stand. Life can't get much better than that! We'll be downsizing a little in the main living areas, but I will have space for my own art studio with natural northern light so I'm not complaining about the tighter quarters. When you've been married for 21 years, you've seen it all anyway. We'll be moved in by June.

If I have time, I do want to share some before and after shots of the place as it is a diamond in the rough. Its low ceilings and small rooms could make for either a depressing and cluttered claustrophobic space (as with the previous tenants), or a simple and cozy retreat (my goal). If you love interior design challenges as much as I do, you should check out Apartment Therapy I stumbled onto the site while looking for design inspiration for small spaces and they just happened to be having a "Cool Small Space" contest. And they have a fabulous sister site called Re Nest that focuses on green design and DIY projects with recycled materials.

Given my to-do list for the next two months, I may be absent from the Blogosphere more often than not. But stay tuned - when the dust finally settles in July, I should have some exciting art, stories, and photos to share!

More Signs of Spring

A robin joined the throngs of sun-starved people along the river this past Sunday.

Surviving
Where the winds of disappointment
dash my dream house to the ground
and anger, octopus-like, wraps its tentacles around my soul
I just stop myself. I stop in my tracks
and look for one thing that can
heal me.
- Maya Angelo

I found this inspirational poem by Maya Angelo on a blog* that I find very inspirational anyway, so it was a double-whammy of inspiration, which is A Good Thing because I've lost count of how many whammies we've had of the uninspirational kind lately. Our apartment saga took a major turn for the worse this past week and it is looking very probable that we will have to move. We spent the weekend looking at available apartments, except for a lovely one hour walk along the river on Sunday. However, that one hour walk did us a world of good. Firstly, every person in town that owned a cute dog was out walking, too. Secondly, the birds were amazing. Not a lot of diversity yet, but the few species present made up for it in sheer exuberance. The red-shafted flickers were dueling through their calls, as the song sparrows were dueling with their songs and we spotted a female common merganser floating down the river, her beautiful dark green head glistening in the sunlight.

I know that I have hardly posted any art lately. I've just been so distracted by things that it has affected the success of my paintings and I am loathe to post this particular set of paintings publicly. However I AM STILL PAINTING, regardless of the outcome of the pieces. Come hell or high water, I WILL complete the challenge - even if my art table is a packing box and I have to sit on the floor!

*If you or someone you know is dealing with post traumatic stress disorder, I highly recommend Parasites of the Mind: a Healing Blog http://healmyptsd.com/ptsd-blog It is so important for PTSD sufferers (and their loved ones) to know that they are not alone and that there is a way to heal!

Unidentified Toucan No More!

The mystery is solved! This photogenic bird that posed so nicely for me at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle back in September is a green aracari (Pteroglossus viridis); a type of toucan. You may remember I did a painting of it as well, but I couldn't identify what kind of toucan it was. Today I was surfing the internet, dreaming of someday being able to have the time and money to visit the Canopy Lodge in Panama for a birding vacation and noticed a photo from a visitor that looked a lot like my mystery bird. It was identified as a collared aracari. So I hopped back to the Seattle Zoo's website and typed "aracari" into the search feature instead of "toucan" and sure enough, I got a hit for "green aracari". I then google-imaged (I can hear the grammar mavens out there shuddering) "green aracari" and bingo - tons of photos of my bird!

The green aracari is found in northern South America and is the smallest of the toucans. It is also the only toucan species in which the male and female look different (called sexual dimorphism). Males have a black head whereas females, which is apparently what my bird is, have what is described as a rusty chestnut head (looks dark maroon to me...) and a slightly smaller bill.

So daydreaming and surfing the Web today turned out to be a productive activity for once. Plus fantasizing about seeing a green aracari in the tropics took my mind off the latest cold snap we're headed into. Brrr.

International Birding I

blue tit (Parus caeruleus)

My husband and I have made many sacrifices while he has been in school working on his PhD. However, once in a while there's a perk to the process that is just so priceless, I start to wonder if maybe he shouldn't become a life-long student. For example, Paul presented a paper in Paris and I got to go along. Poor me.

But while I was enjoying this amazing opportunity, I was still thinking like the nature nerd that I am. One day during our trip (one of the few sunny ones) while Paul was busy working, I ran over to Notre Dame. I was in the gardens at the back of the cathedral, admiring the magnificent architecture, when I heard and then spotted a little songbird in the trees. So picture the scene - everyone else is oohing and aahing at the Cathedral, pointing their cameras at the spires and the flying buttresses, meanwhile I'm running around peering frantically into the trees. The other tourists must've thought I was nuts. We all have our own priorities, I guess.

You Crazy Tourist!

What I was missing

Out Enjoying the Weather

After a very rainy week and before more wintry weather arrives tomorrow, we wanted to get out and soak up the sun and fill our lungs with fresh air while we could. Turns out a lot of other creatures had the same idea.

A flock of about 7 wild turkeys were grazing in someone's yard.

We spotted this spruce grouse up in the mountains. Sorry about the quality of the picture. They move quickly and this was the best shot I got. Check out his gorgeous red eye combs!

We watched as two gray jays made their way from tree to tree down a forest service dirt road. I wasn't able to get a picture today but I took this photo last year in the same general area so just maybe it is the same bird! (Er, yeah sure.)

Around our place the box elder bugs are congregating.

A couple of them always manage to get inside the apartment. Madeleine has learned that they don't taste very good so she leaves them for me to escort back outside. I think they are beautiful.

Thanks everybody for putting up with my whining about my cold last post. I was being a total wimp. I feel much better now!

Look What the Wind Brought

There's a wind advisory for our area today and tomorrow with gusts of 35 - 45 mph. I know this isn't even close to hurricane force winds, but this evening the wind was so strong that it knocked out our power for a couple of hours. We live in a basement apartment so when the power goes out, it's dark, especially on a cloudy evening. With nothing better to do, I stood at our door and watched the wind blowing branches and garbage cans around the neighborhood. So it is amazing that with all that movement all around, my eyes caught sight of two little birds hopping about the relative shelter of our garden across the yard. And they weren't the usual house sparrows, either. Cursing the fact that my binoculars were in the car, I grabbed my camera instead and zoomed in, through the dusty glass in the door and all the yard debris. This is the best shot I got. I believe this is an adult (right) and immature (left) white-crowned sparrow. (You more experienced birders out there let me know if I misidentified these, please!) Not a lifer for me but a first for our yard/neighborhood and certainly an unexpected treat.

Speaking of birds, Heather of the Hills jogged my memory by thinking that the first photo of the tropical birds in my last post was a trogon and sure enough, it is a white-tailed trogon. And Maree from Art & Creativity said that the second photo was a Bali mynah. She's got a lovely watercolor of one over on her blog, as well as some good natural history information on this highly endangered bird. Thank you ladies!!! I still have not tracked down what kind of toucan that is, though. Sadly and surprisingly the Woodland Park Zoo's website does not have a complete list of all of their species.

As I've been trying to write this post, the power has gone out yet again, so now that it is back on I am going to post this before it goes out a third time. At least this time when it went out, I had found new batteries for the flashlight!

S***, I realized I made a boo-boo. It was Eve who mentioned the trogon!!! I'm so sorry, Eve! I had lit candles during the power outage and it must've been the lead in the candle wicks affecting me. A million apologies!

Lazy Birding

I am not a heat and humidity person. When I step outside and it is as if I never toweled off from showering, I wither and get grumpy. I'm just not into my clothes sticking to me. Sure my skin looks terrific and my hair curls beautifully (with a little help from some anti-frizz product) but I don't want to do anything but sit around in the AC feeling sorry for myself. So why in the world would I willingly go to Florida in the summer??? Simple - it's for the birds.

Florida has a lot of big birds that really don't seem to care much about flight distance. Pelicans, great blue herons, great egrets and vultures - they are all much more interested in any possible food source you may have than worrying about skedaddling. This means that I can get pretty close to them to sketch and take reference photos. Of course when they realize I'm not going to feed them, they give me a dirty look and wander off, but by that point I've gotten what I wanted out of the deal. And the birds such as sandhill cranes, pileated woodpeckers and anhingas that do tend to avoid close proximity to humans are still big enough to be easily observed from a comfortable distance. So for lazy birding, I'll put up with the heat and humidity. Plus there's some amazing BBQ and seafood to be eaten, in air conditioned comfort of course.

Florida Scrub Jay

Anhinga

Roseate Spoonbill

Black and Turkey Vultures

Green Heron

Snowy Egret

Great Falls Tease

(Say's Phoebe fledgling)

We had an amazing birding trip around the Great Falls, MT area this weekend. Stay tuned...

Skimmers

There are so many reasons to love birds: they are beautiful, graceful, they can fly. I could sit for hours watching Sir David Attenborough go on about birds on the nature shows. But specifically I get off on all of their way cool adaptations. And one of my favorites for this is the black skimmer. Check this out - I mean first they've got the clown coloring. (That works for puffins, too.) Then see that ridiculous longer lower bill? They use that to catch fish. This is why they are called skimmers; they fly along the surf, just inches about the water, and let that big beak skim under the water until they feel a fish with it and then snap! Away they fly to have a delicious seafood picnic on the beach.



Is that not a very cool thing?