Green-tailed Towhee Sketch

This is the third year in a row we have found Green-tailed Towhees among the flowering manzanita shrubs in the Sierras. I love the various greens and the way the orange cap of the towhee mirrors the orange in the manzanita branches.

Towhee and manzanita sketch 2019

Towhee and manzanita sketch 2019

Five-striped Sparrow Sketch

May 14  - Box Canyon Arizona

May 14 - Box Canyon Arizona

These were not shy and even came out and posed for us. I loved that there were a pair foraging together, and I was also taken by the beautiful coloration, with a gray head grading into a brown body.

Common Mergansers

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It has been raining constantly for the past week and Steven’s Creek, which can be dry in the summer, is overflowing it’s banks. Yesterday we came across a pair of common mergansers in the flooded stream and, while I’ve shied away from painting ducks in the past, these two in the stormy woods spoke to me.

Ferruginous Hawk Sketch

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In general I don’t like using Dave’s photos as references for my paintings - except when the photo is flawed in some way.. In this case the hawk in the photo was lopped off on the right side. But I loved the pose and used it as reference for this quick sketch. It was amazing to see this hawk up close on our trip through Panoche Valley.

Rufous-collared Sparrow

Rufous-collared Sparrow

Rufous-collared Sparrow

This perky bird has an extensive geographic distribution, occurring from southern Mexico to the southernmost tip of South America. We encountered a small group of them at the entrance to Los Quetzales National Park, Costa Rica, which is located near Cerro de la Muerte, the mountain of death, on the Pan American Highway. Once you drive this stretch of road, the origin of the “mountain of death” becomes apparent. We observed these birds around 9,000-10,000 above sea level. It was a cold, blustery, gray day when I photographed them and I wished there was more light to work with, but their beauty stands out even so.

Sandhill Cranes

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One of the draws of driving to Merced National Wildlife Refuge is to see sandhill cranes. We did not see huge numbers as in past years but several groups were quite close. I love seeing the blue grey birds against dried grasses.

Mountain Plovers

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The last three winters we have driven two hours to Panoche Valley to look for Mountain Plovers with no luck. But this year they were there! In fact there was a flock of over 80. In spite of having ‘mountain’ in their name these are birds of short grasslands and were once associated with bison herds.