I took a walk this evening to see if I could find any American Woodcocks in Central Park. I did not. I did find about sixty thousand people and fifteen thousand dogs out enjoying the moderate weather, and two Fox Sparrows.
Pretty much the full drawing: 30 x 44″and ink on paper, as usual. The drawings this size really do not translate well into jpeg format.
A wider view: sciurus carolinensis, a really fat one. The vignetting is because I shot this with my elph and had to use the flash.
Just because one has to spend all day sitting on an airplane does not mean that there are no birds to be seen… from the drive to and from LAX and JFK:
Cooper’s Hawk (LA, CA)
Peregrine Falcon (Queens, NY)
Ring-billed Gull (LA, CA)
California Gull (LA, CA)
Herring Gull (Queens, NY)
Western Gull (LA, CA)
Great Black-backed Gull (Queens, NY)
Vaux’s Swift (LA, CA)
I am having some curious problems with some of my links within this blog’s theme editor, so must apologize if you try to hit the ‘birdspot’ home link and it takes you nowhere. It really is a mystery, but we’re working on it. Also, I finally have some images from the last couple of years up on my website, at http://mydogoscar.com/2007/pages/works.htm - click on the slide show icon to view. As always, it’s a work in progress; I’m no html genius (anyone want to design a site for me?).
Perhaps January is a special time for many people, but I think that birders really take this month to another level. Where most people forget resolutions about 11 days into the new year, people who look for birds are often hard at work on their lists to see as many species as possible before Feb. 1st. My January list, for example, is pathetic this year, and today, faced with the dying winter sun and an early a.m. plane flight tomorrow, I am actually considering running out to Central Park to pad… see if I can find a Common Redpoll, for example. I can’t do this for logistical reasons. But I really want to.
Here is what I have seen this January anyway:
Canada Goose
Mute Swan
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Black Duck
Mallard
Northern Shoveler
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Blue Heron
Cooper’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Eastern Screech Owl
LONG-EARED OWL
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Song Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Juno
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
SCOTT’S ORIOLE (not pathetic, BTW)
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
