back to the wall

It's been a struggle painting-wise over the last few weeks. I've been determined to grab the moment when the low evening light at Mistley just laid a BT Godwit's shadow across a Pintail's chest down at Mistley Walls.  But the first over-engineered shot at it just started to look oily and overdone.

So I took the big stick stick to it:  garden hose and brush, but even with the muddy paint blasted off it, still just looked a bit dead.

Nothing for it but to try another tack, so this morning I took another run at it and here's the result, watercoloured onto a some blue card (a file divider filched from the office stationery cupboard).   Definitely better..

Pintail and Black-tailed Godwits, Mistley

over the wall

Not a birding trip as such, but a jaunt to Berlin to hang and to wander included a really fine bird moment: 250 Bean Geese heading southwest over the painted remnant of the Wall.  Loud enough and low enough for passing tourists on a "Trabant safari" to stop point and stare.

Also I managed to engineer a diversion into Linum, Brandenburg on the way into town from the airport, where a marvellous throng of Cranes came into roost at the appointed time.  Might have been 20,000?  30,000?  Here's a poor digigrab of a tiny part of the mighty host-  0 out of 10 for photoquality, but you get an idea of the shifting shapes of the flocks.

off the walls

The wonders of modern technology!

Down at Mistley Walls there's a van serving coffee with a choice of six types of coffee bean, and with scope and digicam you can see and capture the red-over-red flag on a Greenshank's leg at a far-off distance of...778 metres according to Google earth.

flagged Greenshank

With a whole flock of Avocets way off in the distance.

Birding life wasn't always like this round these parts!

going going gone

Well finally it does look as as if the Hobbies are finally on their way.  All three juveniles still camped out in their favourite two oaks mid-week, but only two yesterday and one today.   But the last one still seems to be doing nicely- skimming low over the sugarbeet field to pluck Willow Emerald Damselflies out of the riverside hedge.  Tense moment when a presumed migrant juvenile Peregrine drifted in from the north:  here's a digiscope of the young Hobby looking up and keeping an eye.

Time to head south!

Meantimes one last Hobby painting for the season- hopefully some sense of lazy late September, with the ash beginning to turn to autumn

branching out

The young Hobbies are racing ahead in the fine weather:  whizzing about, chasing butterflies and generally enjoying these early autumn days.

I wouldn't claim to any serious digiscoping skills, but its startling to see how much detail you can capture these days from 300 metres + .  Google maps tells me it is 365 metres from my watchpoint to the base of their tree, but that little pencil-thin eyebrow still carries all the way, so long as there's no heat haze.

A distinct improvement in viewing conditions today as they've set up camp in a stag-topped oak close to the footpath.  It's certainly a different digiscoping proposition!

But enough of digipics- it's time for a painting of the gang of 3:  here's a working-out of bird 1 preening and hopefully birds 2 and 3 to follow.

Hobbies Hobbies Hobbies

It's been that wonderful week when Hobbies fledge and all is chaos around a selected hedgerow oak. Here's my local male, who has the happy habit of sitting up on a dead branch and catching the low morning sun as I motor past on the way to work first thing.  So it would be rude not to stop and wish him good morning.  Happy days!

Hobby

I saw the female whip in a couple of evenings ago, pass a dragonfly to a juvenile who dropped it, at which she flipped into a loop, caught and re-presented it with silky ease;  just perfect.  Here's a long distance digivid. of some action, just for atmosphere:   Hobby vid.

stepping out

I'm slightly trapped for technique at the moment- not sure whether to stick with wet and splooshy painting, with the light shining through from the unpainted canvas or paper, or press on with something more like an oil-painting method and paint in the lights with thick and creamy colour.

Here's a bustard from the Hungary trip, looked promising when mapped out in wet, but hasn't quite turned out as richly as I had hoped in the final version.  Still a marvellous beast though, as stately and monumental as the church behind.

Great Bustard, Kiskunsag