Karen

The more often I practice this, the better I get at moving my eyes and pencil in concert. Muscle memory is definitely taking place.

Currently, I paint wildlife from the photographs I take.  I would love to be able to quickly paint a sketch of what I see.  My block has been picking and choosing from all my tools in my studio...I cant take my studio with me, but can easily take a camera.  That has been my excuse.  My diary has kept the dates, location, weather, etc. for the photos I take.  The journal would do the same.

I am blessed with living on a farm where we have several habitats, including crop fields, pasture with hedgerows, an orchard, pine forest, mature hardwood forest, pond and lakeshore.  I watch Canada Geese, mallards, wood ducks, mergansers and grebes on the pond and lake.  Osprey and kingfishers also choose to fish there.  The Kingbirds that spend time catching insects in the pasture will often come skim the pond surface for water bugs, or to get a sip of water.  (I’m not sure what they are getting, I just see them swooping down to the pond’s surface.) Great Blue Herons also stalk around the shallow edges of the pond and lake and they hunt for fish. The hedgerows along the pasture are home to field sparrows, Gold Finches, and Purple House Finches.  We often see Meadowlarks and Mourning Doves in the pasture, along with Redwing Blackbirds, Cowbirds, and Starlings. Bluebirds and Kingbirds perch on the power line above the pasture searching for insects to catch.  In the orchard, I see Mockingbirds, Blue Jays, Cardinals, and sometime, Phoebes. The crop fields host a variety of birds, depending on the crop planted there.  Corn, soybeans, peanuts and cotton are the crops usually grown, rotated yearly.  Seagulls fill the field the days the fields are tilled, and for a couple days thereafter.  Tilling time is the only time I see Seagulls on our farm. Once the crops begin growing, the bird population in the field changes. Killdeer have been known to nest in the field between crops. The mature hardwood forest hosts Great-horned Owls, Wild Turkeys, and Pileated Woodpeckers.  Many small birds flit between trees and I struggle to identify them when I only get a brief glimpse. (this course is helping, as I am using Merlin, and a camera to capture pictures I can study)

this morning, I was able to see and hear Cardinals, a Mockingbird, Crows, and Field Sparrows. I saw a Phoebe, a Kingbird and a Bluebird. I also saw four Turkey Vultures. My walk lasted more than 15 minutes, but time flew by with so many birds to see and hear.

Activity 1: I enjoyed the Bird Wall and recognized birds from around the world that I had previously seen on Planet Earth and in the pages of National Geographic.  It was great to learn more about them. Osprey and Bald Eagles are some of my favorite birds to watch. Activity 2: I enjoy watching osprey fish in the pond on our farm and in the nearby river.  Like the Bald Eagle, the osprey is a bird of prey that is a very strong fast flyer and can dive to catch its prey.  Living on a farm, I also get to see Canada Geese and several different ducks.  Watching them nest and raise young is one of my favorite activities.  We have many different songbirds in our orchard and hedgerows.  I love listening to the songs of the mockingbirds and cardinals early in the morning. Activity 3: One of the birds I most enjoy watching is the gold finch.  The female is more dully colored than her mate, who is bright yellow with a black cap and wings.  They will hang upside down to feed from thistles that have gone to seed, and from tube feeders with thistle seed.  I always smile when I see them at our feeder.  They also clean up the flowers that are allowed to go to seed in our pasture and garden.