Thanks all, and thank goodness for vociferous empidomax flycatchers! At least some have eyerings to help the ID when they're not singing. But I sure prefer to hear them singing away. I remember the first time I heard a Willow calling 'fitz-bew!'. It was an aha moment.
Russ, all of the pens I've been using recently are from Faber-Castell. The hard metal point ones, as in the Tree Swallows, are called 'Pitt Artists Pens.' The points come in four sizes and three colors I think. The felt-tip drawings I've done recently, and which I include here, are done with 'Pitt Artist Pen-Brushes', the difference being that they are soft and flexible. Because of that though it's hard to get a thin fine line. I'm unfamiliar with Hermann Heinzel but will see what I can find out. I see the Galapagos book on Amazon with a few illustrations. And you're right about the lovely dendroicas! Can't get too excited about anything else when they're around! Sad to say the spring migration I think has ended here. I've seen one wood warbler, a yellow, in my last 3-4 trips out.
Ah if only I had kept it clean, that blue shadow might have worked well Mike. But I got a bit sloppy. Ah well always can do another version.
I'm including a couple of new felt-tip pen-brush drawings today. I'm not thrilled with either. But I do want to keep up the experimentation. One is of two tree swallows, based on some photos I took of the ones I drew in field the other day. The other is one of the first Yellow-rumped Warblers of spring sitting on some beeches, whose golden-orange leaf buds were shining brightly. It was a really striking photo but I couldn't figure out how to make anything of it. Then I thought that felt-tips might capture that brilliance.
