timwootton
Well-known member
Well documented encounter - lovely drawings. The thumbnail sheet is particularly nice, great work.
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From Woody's 2007 sketchbook (16 Viewers)
- Thread starter Woody
- Start date
ARTHUR BISHOP
Well-known member
Are we getting a Pere Pic. lovely sketches . nice pic in the Dec comp to.
Steve Kershaw
Well-known member
Just been looking at your sketches Mike and would love to see them painted up. They are such magnificent birds that quicken the heart when you see them! We get them only too rarely around here though! Hope to see more of your work in the gallery in 2008? All the best from Steve.
Woody
Well-known member
So it's goodbye to 2007.
I did manage to get out a couple of times during the dying days of last year, despite more crap weather! One of the days was extremely windy (again!) the other, just overcast and dull with occasional spots of cold rain. The first really good birds were in the trees behind the toilets in the car park. During the summer a pair of little owls raised three or four youngsters in the owl box there. On the first trip out two birds were sitting huddled away from the worst of the wind, it's great to see a little owl, they never fail to brighten my day and two together is double the pleasure. On the second visit only one was visible but it was posing nicely so was irrisistable for sketching. Stonechats seem to like the wind somehow and, of course, they do pose wonderfully, if briefly.
On the walk out to the hide I watched a kestrel hanging in the wind over the sea wall, amazing how they can stay so steady in the face of a real buffeting from the wind. While concentrating on the kestrel I managed to overlook two short eared owls sitting in the lee of the bank, well camouflaged amongst the dead grasses. They flushed a few meters from me and gave me a bit of an adreneline rush. I watched as one dissappeared over the bank and the other flew away and settled some way off on another bank, great! My first real short eared owl sketching opportunity! Distance, cold hands and a scope shaking in the wind didn't help but I'm dead chuffed with the result, they're great birds. Once a sketch was made the owl decided that she'd be better off hiding deep behind some large tussocks and out of sight.
From the comfort of the hide I watched and sketched teal, wigeon and pintail visible on the mud. Pintail drakes have such elegant shapes for wildfowl and I may feel a painting coming on!
Elmley is a great place to see raptors, during the winter especially. Marsh harriers are so common that it would be difficult not to see them. But the real stars for me are the falcons, peregrine and merlin. Peregrines like to hunt over the marsh, stirring up great flocks of wigeon and lapwings wherever they go. Seeing the swirling mass of panicked birds is always a good sign that there's a pere about, picking it out from the crowd is a bit more tricky. On this occasion I got lucky and watched through bins as a large adult bird, (female probably, on size), landed at a distance after an unsuccessful hunt. Again I wish she'd been closer but she held my attention even at a distance.
As is often the case, it was on my way down the access track as I was leaving Elmley that I picked up the other star falcon, a lovely female showing me her back. I managed some small sketches before a kestrel (bless 'em) chased her off her perch but even that small success left me a happy man.
Here, then is the last of the 2007 sketchbook. Bring on 2008!
Mike
I did manage to get out a couple of times during the dying days of last year, despite more crap weather! One of the days was extremely windy (again!) the other, just overcast and dull with occasional spots of cold rain. The first really good birds were in the trees behind the toilets in the car park. During the summer a pair of little owls raised three or four youngsters in the owl box there. On the first trip out two birds were sitting huddled away from the worst of the wind, it's great to see a little owl, they never fail to brighten my day and two together is double the pleasure. On the second visit only one was visible but it was posing nicely so was irrisistable for sketching. Stonechats seem to like the wind somehow and, of course, they do pose wonderfully, if briefly.
On the walk out to the hide I watched a kestrel hanging in the wind over the sea wall, amazing how they can stay so steady in the face of a real buffeting from the wind. While concentrating on the kestrel I managed to overlook two short eared owls sitting in the lee of the bank, well camouflaged amongst the dead grasses. They flushed a few meters from me and gave me a bit of an adreneline rush. I watched as one dissappeared over the bank and the other flew away and settled some way off on another bank, great! My first real short eared owl sketching opportunity! Distance, cold hands and a scope shaking in the wind didn't help but I'm dead chuffed with the result, they're great birds. Once a sketch was made the owl decided that she'd be better off hiding deep behind some large tussocks and out of sight.
From the comfort of the hide I watched and sketched teal, wigeon and pintail visible on the mud. Pintail drakes have such elegant shapes for wildfowl and I may feel a painting coming on!
Elmley is a great place to see raptors, during the winter especially. Marsh harriers are so common that it would be difficult not to see them. But the real stars for me are the falcons, peregrine and merlin. Peregrines like to hunt over the marsh, stirring up great flocks of wigeon and lapwings wherever they go. Seeing the swirling mass of panicked birds is always a good sign that there's a pere about, picking it out from the crowd is a bit more tricky. On this occasion I got lucky and watched through bins as a large adult bird, (female probably, on size), landed at a distance after an unsuccessful hunt. Again I wish she'd been closer but she held my attention even at a distance.
As is often the case, it was on my way down the access track as I was leaving Elmley that I picked up the other star falcon, a lovely female showing me her back. I managed some small sketches before a kestrel (bless 'em) chased her off her perch but even that small success left me a happy man.
Here, then is the last of the 2007 sketchbook. Bring on 2008!
Mike
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timwootton
Well-known member
WOW! What a return to the Forum!
Possibly amongst your very best fieldwork here Mike, amazing repertoire you have and a very dynamic range of species, all perfectly seen. At least 5 paintings ready and waiting, I would think.
Superb!
Possibly amongst your very best fieldwork here Mike, amazing repertoire you have and a very dynamic range of species, all perfectly seen. At least 5 paintings ready and waiting, I would think.
Superb!
nickderry
C'est pas ma faute, je suis anglais.
Excellent stuff, and as always a great narrative, no chance to get bored here. You're the master of little owls, can't wait to see the finished result of that one, also the stonechats, got to be something good to come from those. Plenty of things for you to be getting on with, can't wait to see.
jomo
Well-known member
Phenom, just spectacular fieldwork, Woody. Love the little owl pair, quite the characters! I'm giving those 'grin sketches a good study before I head out this weekend, I want to catch the lift bridge bird in Burlington while I have another go at the hawk owl -- just great stuff!
peter mathios
Well-known member
Inspiring field work!!
Steve Kershaw
Well-known member
It just gets better and better Mike! The illustrations and the narrative go so well together! We are privileged to be able to share your experiences and your talent through birdforum. It would be great to see them published someday?
birdpotter
Well-known member
My guilt overcame me. I have always loved your work, Mike. Sorry for not getting over here lately to check it out. I promise to be more diligent...don't tell anyone on the joint thread.
I love the ease you have with the sketches...inspiring, really.
I love the ease you have with the sketches...inspiring, really.
timwootton
Well-known member
Ha! You're going to have to be EVEN MORE diligent, Beth - 'cos not only has Woody started ANOTHER thread, but he's also cunningly reverting to his given name of 'Mike' - as in 'From Mike's Conservatory'
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=104550
(He's got some nice stuff going on there too
)Having said that - I'm really glad you 'resurrected' this sketchbook thread - it has some gems on it that I'd forgotten about. Note to self - I must be more diligent!
