Traversing the country, drawing lines of a sort and making scrawls on a geography vast enough to spur both awe and despair, I have been keeping lists. This is a Big Year. It is not a year in which I am trying to break records for numbers of bird species seen, as that would be ridiculous. I have neither the funds nor the willingness to visit a place – as every place is a Place – merely to tick something from it, and then run to the next place, to tick something from that.
Sightings are sightings however, and records are useful. I like to make my records tangible, give my memories a form. I thought I would share some of my lists from my trip in a few posts this week. It isn’t physical here though, is it? Paper is a beautiful thing, in its physicality, for its tactile qualities. All the little scraps I have collected will likely long outlast me, even if they flutter off to sink into a landfill somewhere. This has become something different; everything has become something different this year.
Images, top to bottom (click for larger image):
Studies of Plain Chachalacas, digital sketch (drawn in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet)
List 01 (Summary): Digital image and ink on paper
List 02 (TX): Digital image and ink on paper (detail below)
I think you spelled one of the birds names wrong…………………no I am only kidding. Lovely as usual and the pigs are wonderful
Catherine,
Thank you for posting your pelagic photos on Facebook. Your Red vs Red-necked Phalarope picture was particularly instructive. I was on that trip and learned alot. I also agree with you about the tern on the kelp patty–Common, IMO, not Arctic. And, wow, you managed to catch one of those white-sided dolphins, too! We could only capture those slippery little devils on video.
Enjoy your Big Year, and hopefully you will make a return to RGVBF!
Thank you Craig, and Mary.
Mary, I am hoping to be at RGVBF again this fall – it would be a great finish to the year.