Birders' Nest

[Elgarian Redux]

On the way back we were startled by a great flapperation of wings and two red grouse* battered their way out of the grass and across the path. They settled too far away for me to get anything like a decent photo, but here are two blurry messes, for what they're worth.

*Why don't we call more than one grouse, 'grice'?

[Elgarian Redux]

Those are lovely sketches, Elgarian! What a broad panoply of talents you have!

You're very kind (as always), but please don't be misled. I have no artistic talent whatsoever. All I brought to those drawings was careful looking and patience, which anyone could do. Honestly. At the time (a long time ago now), I was using drawing as a tool to help me to look more carefully, and the drawings are just a record of what I saw.

[owlice]

You're very kind (as always), but please don't be misled. I have no artistic talent whatsoever. All I brought to those drawings was careful looking and patience, which anyone could do. Honestly. At the time (a long time ago now), I was using drawing as a tool to help me to look more carefully, and the drawings are just a record of what I saw.

hahahahahaha!! You "have no artistic talent"?! hahahahahahaha!! So so SO not true, dear friend!!

Oh, that's funny!!

Iota has it right about the tree trunks. They are lovely renderings. I dare say Iota has it right about everything!

While walking the yard this morning to pick up burrs and whatever chestnuts I might find (8!), I heard American Crows calling; This was notable because Fish Crows have been dominating here for the past couple or four years.

Heading eastward soon. One meeting and packing still to go, and then I'm off.

[owlice]

On the way back we were startled by a great flapperation of wings and two red grouse* battered their way out of the grass and across the path. They settled too far away for me to get anything like a decent photo, but here are two blurry messes, for what they're worth.

*Why don't we call more than one grouse, 'grice'?

Lucky you!! I would love to see these birds, singular or plural, regardless of what they are called! Grouseasaur are very pretty birds.

I made a guide laugh (hard!) when I referred to several mongooses as mongeese.

[Elgarian Redux]

hahahahahaha!! You "have no artistic talent"?! hahahahahahaha!! So so SO not true, dear friend!!

Oh, that's funny!!

Iota has it right about the tree trunks. They are lovely renderings. I dare say Iota has it right about everything!

Really, it's not false modesty. I'd better explain. Way back in the 1970s/80s I tried to teach myself to draw, primarily using John Ruskin's fabulous little book The Elements of Drawing. After over 5 years of hard work, I found that I'd only produced a tiny handful of drawings that I felt constituted some sort of artistic statement, as opposed to a series of more-or-less accurately observed studies. They were honestly and earnestly done, and if you and Iota think the tree trunks are lovely, then I'm delighted, of course I am, but truly I only intended them to be memoranda of close observations of tree trunks. Pieces of reporting: "the trunks looked like this." (That's all Ruskin claimed that his book could do for his readers.) I don't think there's any artistic insight in them, which is what I'd been hoping, all along, might emerge from doing such studies. I love art, Heaven knows I do, for my walls are covered with it - but I'm no artist myself.

While walking the yard this morning to pick up burrs and whatever chestnuts I might find (8!), I heard American Crows calling; This was notable because Fish Crows have been dominating here for the past couple or four years.

Are fish crows as hard to tell from American crows, as our crows are from rooks? From what you say, it sounds as if the call might be characteristic, is it?

Heading eastward soon. One meeting and packing still to go, and then I'm off.

Travel safely Owl. Best wishes go with you, as ever.

Love the histogram, by the way!

[owlice]

Are fish crows as hard to tell from American crows, as our crows are from rooks? From what you say, it sounds as if the call might be characteristic, is it?

I would need more experience with your crows and rooks to answer your first question, but for the second, the only way I know how to tell Fish Crows from American Crows is by their voices. If there's a way to tell them apart by looking at them, I don't know it. So far as I can recall, none of my birding buddies have IDed them by sight. Kind of like a number of Empid flycatchers; gotta hear them to know what you're seeing.

Travel safely Owl. Best wishes go with you, as ever.

Thanks so much!

Love the histogram, by the way!

Thanks! It needs to be updated; one of the chestnut kids found one chestnut this afternoon and I found another. That brings the total to 427 for the season, a very respectable number (and a huge improvement over last year's yield).

[Elgarian Redux]

Just a note to say that we saw the red grice again today. Fleetingly - no time to point the camera - but enough to see a male and a female and another, too far away to see clearly. We know roughly where they hang out, now, so I shall be on the lookout.

[owlice]

Just a note to say that we saw the red grice again today. Fleetingly - no time to point the camera - but enough to see a male and a female and another, too far away to see clearly. We know roughly where they hang out, now, so I shall be on the lookout.

YAY!!! Red Grices!! I'm delighted you saw them again!!

I went eastward, and must amend my thinking... I don't like to travel. The airlines have made that miserable; what I like is to be in other places. But I had time to look at photos from previous other places, so have a few birds to share.


Yellow-winged Tanager (Belize)


Red-throated Ant-Tanager (Belize)


Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Belize)

[Elgarian Redux]

YAY!!! Red Grices!! I'm delighted you saw them again!!

I went eastward, and must amend my thinking... I don't like to travel. The airlines have made that miserable; what I like is to be in other places.

Sorry to hear it's been a rubbish journey. John Ruskin said similar things about the railways in the 19th Century. It isn't travelling, he said. It's being 'shot like a parcel' to another place. (His ideal method of locomotion was by horse-drawn carriage, where you could stop to look at the wild flowers along the way.)

But I had time to look at photos from previous other places, so have a few birds to share.


Yellow-winged Tanager (Belize)

With a head made of blued steel! That guy means business.

Red-throated Ant-Tanager (Belize)

"Did someone say 'cute'?"

Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Belize)

Astonishing how so many birds compose themselves into an attitude that we seem able to recognise as 'human'. This guy assumes a natural authority, as if he's thinking about Great Matters of State, or Deep Philosophical Issues. Nothing troubles him. Calm. Aloof. Whereas actually he's just spotted a tasty aphid or something.

[owlice]

Sorry to hear it's been a rubbish journey. John Ruskin said similar things about the railways in the 19th Century. It isn't travelling, he said. It's being 'shot like a parcel' to another place. (His ideal method of locomotion was by horse-drawn carriage, where you could stop to look at the wild flowers along the way.)

Not quite rubbish, but definitely not very comfortable nor fun. Well, it started out comfortable, when there was a boundless supply of chocolate-covered mini-pretzels available to me, but after that, not so much, alas. What IS it about chocolate-covered mini-pretzels and airports??

Astonishing how so many birds compose themselves into an attitude that we seem able to recognise as 'human'. This guy assumes a natural authority, as if he's thinking about Great Matters of State, or Deep Philosophical Issues. Nothing troubles him. Calm. Aloof. Whereas actually he's just spotted a tasty aphid or something.

hahahahaha!!! He does look rather knowing, doesn't he?
Or maybe she; not sure if the fieldmarks are the same for these as for Red-bellied, which look very similar to these. If this were a Red-bellied, she would be apporpriate. I should check!

[Elgarian Redux]

Not quite rubbish, but definitely not very comfortable nor fun. Well, it started out comfortable, when there was a boundless supply of chocolate-covered mini-pretzels available to me, but after that, not so much, alas. What IS it about chocolate-covered mini-pretzels and airports??

I can't say, because
(a) I have never eaten a chocolate-covered mini-pretzel.
(b) The last time I travelled by air was in 1969.
[By some standards, I would barely count as a person, with such limited experience.]

He does look rather knowing, doesn't he?
Or maybe she; not sure if the fieldmarks are the same for these as for Red-bellied, which look very similar to these. If this were a Red-bellied, she would be apporpriate. I should check!

I just looked it up: it says here that only the male has a red cap.

[Iota]

.. but I'm no artist myself.

As you wish. I do understand what you're saying in that post, and perhaps it's just a semantic difference about the word 'artistic', but your drawings are alive with a feeling of love for their subject, are eye-catching and elegantly drawn, and evoke various aspects of just why trees are such a warm and fundamental presence in life to me. Whether or not you want to call that artistic, it is something that you unquestionably have a talent for.

[Elgarian Redux]

As you wish. I do understand what you're saying in that post, and perhaps it's just a semantic difference about the word 'artistic', but your drawings are alive with a feeling of love for their subject, are eye-catching and elegantly drawn, and evoke various aspects of just why trees are such a warm and fundamental presence in life to me. Whether or not you want to call that artistic, it is something that you unquestionably have a talent for.

I read what you wrote twice over, thought about it, and decided that you're seeing something that I am missing - especially when you wrote about the evident love for the subject, which was certainly genuine. And if you think those drawings do capture something of the warm and fundamental presence of the trees, then I think you must be right, and you're seeing them more clearly than I am. Thank you for pointing it out to me. It gives me something of a warm glow, actually, to think that there is some artistic merit in them, so you've done me a pretty big favour here.

Never too late to learn! Thank you.

[owlice]

As you wish. I do understand what you're saying in that post, and perhaps it's just a semantic difference about the word 'artistic', but your drawings are alive with a feeling of love for their subject, are eye-catching and elegantly drawn, and evoke various aspects of just why trees are such a warm and fundamental presence in life to me. Whether or not you want to call that artistic, it is something that you unquestionably have a talent for.

^ That. Iota, you put it perfectly.

[owlice]

Wood Pigeon
I think I'd stay away from this one...


Greylag Goose
Eyeing me skeptically... and who can blame him?


Oh darlin', wipe your nose!


Great Crested Grebe

[Iota]

Wood Pigeon
I think I'd stay away from this one...

Haha, I didn't even want to 'embiggen' that one. 

Greylag Goose
Eyeing me skeptically... and who can blame him?

And there's such a kind of slapstick, comedic look to that face up close too. I really do see birds in so many new ways in your photos, owlice!

Oh darlin', wipe your nose!

Yes indeed! I feel like reaching into that photo and plucking that feather out! Pretty impressive set of 'teeth' there too!

[Elgarian Redux]

Wood Pigeon
I think I'd stay away from this one...

Hey, did you steal him from our garden?!

Greylag Goose
Eyeing me skeptically... and who can blame him?

But he does look friendly. "Really? You want to photograph me?"

Oh darlin', wipe your nose!

It is a curiously disturbing photo!

Great Crested Grebe

Majestic. Some really nice ripples and reflections too.

[Elgarian Redux]

The sun returned today so we were up on the hills. No grice (we were on the other side of the valley this time), but we were accompanied as we walked by stonechats, reed buntings, and a couple of goldfinches. They all know just how far away they need to be to keep my camera stretched slightly further than it can go, so the photos are not great I'm afraid. Nice to see the stonechats though (they haven't been around for a while).