Seeing dozens of American Robins working in the grass and hunting for worms is a welcome sign of spring.
This weekend I was out on the dreary overcast day (Sunday) and found some robins. This was taken by sitting in the grass next to a garbage can to help "blend in" a little, and hand held (probably braced against the can). The birds were a little weary of me, but I waited long enough and the few turned in to a dozen where I was sitting and I managed a handful of images.
When I was a kid, I used to like to draw. I would draw cars, trees, boats, whatever.
Fast forward and now I like to take photos. A ton of photos. I usually take more than 100,000 photos a year. A typical day could be 500-2000 images depending on how many places and cool things and action I encounter.
A month or so ago I bought a couple of sketch books and some pencils, erasers, etc.
Thursday I sat down with a pad and pencil and stared at it for a while. Then I drew a box with a vertical line through it. And I scratched my head so to speak... What is that and why did I draw it? I didn't know. I still don't know, but it was a starting point. I figured out that was NOT what I wanted to draw. Usually my doodles are boxes, three dimensional distractions that are a waste of time but accomplish the goal.
Then from somewhere the idea of drawing a bird came to me. I decided to try to draw an osprey, and drew about 8 that first night, each roughly a quarter of the page I had to work with. Here are 3 from the first night.
Tonight (3/25/2017) I drew another osprey portrait but I didn't like the way it came out. It was too dark and there some issues with the proportions being a little bit askew.
So I drew a second image and here's what I came up with, it is from an image I took today of an osprey eating a fish. All these drawings are based on photographs I took at some point. I put the image up on my iPad and then drew...
Tonight's second drawing (above) is the first that has the tail and the repeating patterns in the feathers, and the first with talons. I drew it quickly and probably because I had done another image and given up on it, I was fast to call it done. Looking at it more I could work on the eye more and the left leg might need some adjusting. But part of this exercise is to go quick and make drawings and learn and move on.
I'm still playing with a few modes of doing the drawings. 2 days ago I started with the eyes and then added around that slowly. Today I tried starting with the tree branch and then added the eye and then more of an outline of the bird. In the future I want to try to do more of an outline of the entire bird/subject and then as I go fill in the details. That should help me get the scale and proportions better. But I also know from some past drawings that starting with small details and adding slowly to that can have a surprisingly good result because it is details added to details and the scale is considered for each small area vs. trying to get the scale correct all up front...
Hope you like the drawings, I had fun making them and plan to make more.
When the osprey leave at the end of the summer I always anticipate their return 6 months later. Usually that means early March, some osprey are back and I look forward to seeing my first ones of the year.
First osprey (1/2 of pair) of the year, from March 2017:
Possibly my 2 favorite osprey photos of 2016, from out at St. Michaels on the Maryland Eastern Shore.
Male delivering a fish to a full nest:
I don't previsualize photos very often, but this is one I planned for and hoped to capture. The only thing I went to shoot on this and one other day were 2 specific osprey nests, which each had 3 chicks.
Female shading her 3 chicks on a near 100 degree day:
A bright day with the hazy Sun peering through stratus cloud; blackthorn blossoms sweetened the air and heightened the senses, spring seems to have begun. Bees delicately visited the pink-white flowers and the song of small birds came from every tree.
We made a bee-line for tower hide, spotting greylag and Canada geese lining up along the banks of the lagoons on the way. Cetti’s warblers exploded in song, buried somewhere deep along the edges of the path. Tufted duck, pochard, mute swans and great crested grebes dabbled and drifted on the pools of water. Tower hide boasted mixed rafts of shoveler and teal, with the occasional shelduck and gadwall. A heron hunted in the distant pools. A majestic marsh harrier perched in a scrubby tree, surveying the view over the reedbed. Taking to the sky on broad, fingered wings, looking straight into the hide, or so it seemed, then skimming the roof and away.
Rather than risk the sticky mud that can frequent the trail at this time of year, we turned back and made our way towards fen hide. At first, little moved, except a dabbling coot. Then, thanks to some other visitors who pointed out the ‘ping’ call coming from the reeds, my first ever photograph of a wild bearded tit – a pair presented themselves to the onlookers from the hide, the male showing off his beautiful markings from the tip of a reed momentarily before flitting away and beckoning his mate to follow.
Seeing such a small version of a turtle that is hoping to grow so large and has a huge struggle in front of them was something I found interesting and something to reflect on and gain perspective from.
In day to day life we think we may have it hard and things aren't going our way, and it is such a struggle. But when compared to this little guy we have it easy! He has it so hard I could have easily not spotted him and stepped on him and that's it. Some giant shoe ends his entire life. Over.
And yet we worry and complain and feel like it is so hard our lives.
![July Osprey [1]](https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/409/31402089070_c9fee244b6_b.jpg)
