Wilde about Bird Art (1 Viewer)

Hirundines!

I can feel this is developing into a sort of ad hoc trip report as I seem to have mislaid my written log of the survey period and now going through sketchbooks and photos (hope people won't mind if I post a couple of pics too).

Sooooo, how does it go ..... Well, at the foot of two picturesque mountain ranges, near the border of Bulgaria, Lake Kerkini is a man made lake on an inland delta system. It not only is a RAMSAR site for birds, but also boasts 400-500 species of moths, 125 species of butterflies, 26 species of reptiles, over 25 species of mammals and 27 species of dragons and damsels ...and so on and so on ...

Actually I think this is more fun than doing a typically written trip report - for me anyway - it's all impressions and snippets and not in any order either! Needless to say, birdlife was fantastic although vis mig was very disappointing on all the transcepts during the working mornings, with Sardinians about the only warblers moving through in any great number and Great Reed Warbler far outnumbering any other warbler in the lower delta areas - still couldn't work out how to draw the things though, as you can see from the awful sketch below!

Thousands of Hirundines including Red-Rumped Swallows, (Pallid Swift at the Airport on the way home and with nearly two hours until my flight, plenty of time to have a wander/a sketch/take some pics - spend some time watching a female Marsh quartering over the police headquarters adjacent to the airfield - nearly getting arrested into the bargain for peering through security fences with a pair of Swaros! ). It was a great experience to arrive to a European summer from a rather wet Blighty to see my first Common Swifts of 2009 in great number at Thessalonika airport. Strangely enough, no House Martins inland until well into the second week. Red-rumps were out numbered by Barn Swallow (many of the eastern transivita ssp since this area is a real E/W clinal crossover of many species) but still good numbers although most had moved on by beginning of second week. Up in the mountains, I had a pair of Crag Martins (which was nice!) and on the lower level, Sand Martins had arrived long before the House Martins.
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Dan, draw a Hoopoe, I dare you! Thanks for your comments Ed - could have done with a few more sightings though than a measly few minutes.

great postings Deborah, I'm really enjoying how you are "unpacking" all this, and I LOVE the storks....

Fantastic sketches all around, but I'm really digging those flight studies -- one thing I've never done much of myself (though I should!), and these are certainly something to aspire to. Phenomenal.

A joy to look at

Thanks for the comments - I hasten to add these are very quick and rather messy incomplete snippets straight from the sketchbook obs/musings, so don't expect any 'finished' water colour sketches or 'nice pieces of artwork' etc from this lot. I've yet to spend any time doing anything with them - there are far worse scribbles amongst the pages too (that you won't see! ) - but since I don't like drawing and painting much indoors and also working/studying etc, anything like a properly 'worked' drawing/painting will be a long time coming! I started a painting of a Red-Footed Falcon about 2 weeks ago, which is still sitting on the mantlepiece awaiting some inspiration and lots more paint!

Oh God, this has made me think that I should really get back into sketching again - I have spent way too much time playing with cameras and big lenses over the past couple of years. I'm not about to give up my photography, I'm having far too much fun with it, but the sketchbook needs to come out again!

Awesome stuff, Deborah.

Raptors

Memories of thunderstorms, mist and frustratingly distant specks in the northern Greek skies... well that was a major part of my raptor experience but it could have been a lot worse, it was just hard work. Especially as I was left alone to do the raptor surveys and had no transport to get to the decent raptor spots on my afternoons off. The whole area though was generally good just thin on the ground with each species. There was no sign of visible migration - why would they migrate through here anyway I found myself asking on more than one occasion ... whatever ...

A pair of Booted Eagle appeared to be sharing one particular transcepted territory with several pairs of Black Kite and I spotted several of each species in different areas over the course of the fortnight. Lesser Spots were by far the most dominant aquila species and they'd turn up just about anywhere. Short-Toed Eagles were easier in the higher areas although I saw a few in the lower delta region. I managed all the usual stuff also: Peregrines, Common Buzzard, Honey Buzzard, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Hobby, Osprey (actually that one may have been on the way through since no others were spotted over the fortnight I was there). Also one Levant Sparrowhawk made a brief exit from the trees on my last transcept of the fortnight. Most of the distant raptors were easy enough to ID on gizz although I struggled for a while with a dark phase Booted and a very possible Bonelli's that I gave up on. The raptor action of the trip goes to the 10 minute battle between a White-tailed Eagle, a Black Kite and a Carrion Crow - the latter two trying and finally succeeding in flushing the WTE from it's hiding place in a row of trees bordering the lake where I'd spotted it fishing earlier. My favorite for sheer entertainment value and brazen cutiness, were the many Red-Footed Falcons and there was ample time to observe them displaying and hunting - they were generally in small groups of four to six - and the easiest way to find them is just scan the many telegraph wires lining the roads and crossing the fields.

From the sketchbook, some Red-Footed Falcon and a BE Wheatear that nearly had me shouting Finsch's til I saw the side of it's neck. Hope you like ...

Vectis Birder said:

... I have spent way too much time playing with cameras and big lenses over the past couple of years. I'm not about to give up my photography, I'm having far too much fun with it, but the sketchbook needs to come out again!

Awesome stuff, Deborah.

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Cheers Fay - glad you got back from the Asia trip Ok - bet your feet are itching already, I know mine are!

More delights and treasures - will have to look at heading to this area for next year's hols!

deborah4 said:

Cheers Fay - glad you got back from the Asia trip Ok - bet your feet are itching already, I know mine are!

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I am afraid to say they are already itching again! Trouble is, I need to find a job before I can even think about even getting off the IoW let alone anywhere more exotic...and I am not getting far on the job front. :-C

A few more rather amateurish scribbles to be going on with - don't have time to write anything at the mo - gonna be late for work! That's it with the raptors - herons, pelicans and egrets next ...

How weird is that - Lesser Spotted Eagle twice in 24 hours on the art forum! The middle one is perfectly done - exactly like the one I saw yesterday, lumbering wings, pinched outer primaries - superb! Your night heron is simply magical.

There's loads of terrific stuff for working up here, the rff's are especially delightful. It looks like you had a very special trip!

Mike

Great work Deborah - the herons are really super.

great sketching, and from my POV knowing what is what is really super, not sure I'll ever be able to do that....the night herons are a fav of mine, there are lots at the egret tree I've camped at the last 3 weeks and they are so slow and easy going compared to the hyper egrets...they squawk sort of like chickens when the sun goes down, but are very quiet during the day....for some reason a lot more of them are dead on the ground than the egrets, maybe those big feet make them fall out of the nest more.

More brilliant work -- the lesser spots are phenom, and I love the shapes in the hunched over night-herons.

(have sent you a PM mcspudd - many thanks for all your comments - yes Woody, loads of stuff in the sketchbook should I ever decide to actually do a proper painting!)

IBIS

These are iconic birds for me in so many ways. Some years ago my Father brought me back a large Victorian print from Egypt dipicting a Sacred White Ibis and Black Ibis. I struggled (in vain!) to produce a decent painting from a rough sketch of a Glossy Ibis I found in Sussex a few years back with the intent of giving it to my father for his birthday before he died (he ended up with a water- colour of a Blackbird instead). A few days prior to going to Greece, I finally got the Egyptian print framed and placed it on the mantle piece in my bedroom, rescued from where it had been sadly rolled up in a cardboard container ever since it had come into my possession four years ago. It was something special therefore to be able to locate a fairly elusive breeding population of Glossy Ibis very close to where I was staying in Greece. I was spoilt with some excellent views of some 30+ individuals in this particular area. Why are they so special to me? I don't know ... maybe the history of Dad's interest in ancient Egypt, maybe because of the first Glossy Ibis I'd found in Sussex for over 25yrs, maybe because I've been following the trials and fortunes of the population of Northern Bald Ibis hanging on by a thread in Syria since they were discovered ... maybe all of that ... and well ... aesthetically they just do it for me, perhaps that's a lot to do with how in a just a fall of light, rusty blacks turn to viridian hues revealing a powerful ancient form under that mass of iridescence... but it's so hard to do them justice all I managed was a few impressions and one decent photo:

deborah4 said:

(have sent you a PM mcspudd - many thanks for all your comments - yes Woody, loads of stuff in the sketchbook should I ever decide to actually do a proper painting!)

IBIS

These are iconic birds for me in so many ways. Some years ago my Father brought me back a large Victorian print from Egypt dipicting a Sacred White Ibis and Black Ibis. I struggled (in vain!) to produce a decent painting from a rough sketch of a Glossy Ibis I found in Sussex a few years back with the intent of giving it to my father for his birthday before he died (he ended up with a water- colour of a Blackbird instead). A few days prior to going to Greece, I finally got the Egyptian print framed and placed it on the mantle piece in my bedroom, rescued from where it had been sadly rolled up in a cardboard container ever since it had come into my possession four years ago. It was something special therefore to be able to locate a fairly elusive breeding population of Glossy Ibis very close to where I was staying in Greece. I was spoilt with some excellent views of some 30+ individuals in this particular area. Why are they so special to me? I don't know ... maybe the history of Dad's interest in ancient Egypt, maybe because of the first Glossy Ibis I'd found in Sussex for over 25yrs, maybe because I've been following the trials and fortunes of the population of Northern Bald Ibis hanging on by a thread in Syria since they were discovered ... maybe all of that ... and well ... aesthetically they just do it for me, perhaps that's a lot to do with how in a just a fall of light, rusty blacks turn to viridian hues revealing a powerful ancient form under that mass of iridescence... but it's so hard to do them justice all I managed was a few impressions and one decent photo:

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These are fabulous, wonderful watercolour work bursting with life...