birdspot

A wise person does not walk around Central Park barefoot, it is just not safe. There are things in the grass that might pinch you.

Like crayfish??? I first realized there are crayfish in the park by watching a Hooded Merganser on the reservoir wolf one down, as voraciously as one might wolf something down that has claws and an exoskeleton. Since then I have seen them in the streams of the North Woods (they were fighting at Glenspan Arch on Tuesday) and at the Harlem Meer.

For a list of birds seen Sept 15-16, click (more…)

On Tuesday, September 29th, NYC Audubon is hosting their Fall Roost gala and auction at the Central Park Boathouse (home of great martinis on the veranda and terrible burgers on the back patio), and yours truly has humbly created a drawing just for this event. This has been fulfilling (in ways other than financial) for me, and as such I do not mind putting a huge plug on this decidedly non-commercial blog for the drawing and the event. Proceeds from the gala and auction go to much needed conservation and educational programs here in New York City.

The drawing is pencil on paper, 22 x 18.5″ and is signed and dated on the back. It will be framed by the auction date. *UPDATE* auction over, drawing sold.

running running running.
Husonian Godwit, pencil on paper, 10 x 7.5″
this one is taking me a while; I think I might post it in stages, like I used to. I’d like to see one of these “finished.” this risks ruining it, of course, and do I really want to draw all of those spots?? why yes, actually, I think I do.

Words like attenuated, decurved, and gonydeal angle are running through my mind and threatening to come out in casual conversation.

Study of a Greater Yellowlegs, pencil on paper, full sheet about 14 x 11″

shore bird also shore·bird (shôrbûrd, shr-) n. Any of various birds, such as the sandpiper or plover, that frequent the shores of coastal or inland waters.

or:

shore bird (shôrbûrd, shr-) n. an avian creature put on this planet to cause anguish and obsession.

Shorebirds lead certain susceptible people into chasms of study and observation that are difficult to emerge from intact and wholly sane. Certain susceptible people who hate mosquitoes vehemently and who should not be spending hours out in the sun.

Study of a Semipalmated Plover and a Least Sandpiper, pencil on paper, 14 x 11″
Shorebird week! I’m going to try to post a drawing a day…

Walking through the mud of Jamaica Bay for the first time last Sunday, I fell in love a little. I don’t know if there are many people who find wading through pitch black, sulphurous muck to be a romantic adventure, just as I full well know that few would find hours of shorebird watching to be a reliable mechanism for tapping into the sublime, but my heart is still out among those reeds, or perhaps more correctly floating on the Lemna or hanging in the humid air between a lens and a flock of birds, drawing lines in the interstices of small sandpipers flying along East Pond, flashing silver and moving in that awesomely single organism sort of way, or tracing paths in the sweat that runs beneath annoyingly protective clothing. Words are so clumsy for love, and my love is more clumsy than most, and amorphous, indeterminate, always on the cusp of existing, floundering after Calidris wings and the tide.

Bird list/image info: (more…)

There is a sinister arboreal presence in my life. At the end of May or first week in June, London Plane trees become completely toxic to my overly active immune system, mysteriously causing events like sudden throat constriction and an inability to breathe. Stupid, evil trees. Whomever decided that these are the ultimate park and urban planting did not consult with me first. Instead of being outside, I am hiding out in studio, swimming a river of inhalants and antihistamines, and generally acting a little fearful. I am working with a slew of photographs, of which these are two, taken in happier moments.