Alicia

That's really beautiful!

Activity 1: These animated range maps are the coolest thing! It's fascinating to be able to see practically week by week over the course of a bird's year where they are, where they're most abundant and try to imagine how they're traveling and why they spend time in specific locations. I would imagine the Blackburnian Warbler's small, highly-concentrated wintering range is because they need a very specific habitat that's only in that area, or because this way they avoid competition with other related birds. It was interesting that the Scarlet Tanager looks like its wintering population shifts throughout the winter, unlike the Blackburnian Warbler that stays focused in one winter range. And I was surprised to see how concentrated the Ruby-throated Hummingbird population is in Missouri in May - the place to be to see them in spring. Activity 2: Three local migrant birds are the Common Swift, Lapwing and Reed Warbler. I guess the large areas showing no data on the animated range maps for some birds are because there are no eBird observations from those areas - such as for the Swifts crossing the Sahara. It's interesting how the Lapwing's migration is east to west, from eastern Europe and China to spend the winter in north-western Europe. I didn't realize how the entire world population of Reed Warblers is concentrated in west Africa for the winter, in Mauretania, Senegal, and Gambia. It was surprising too how in February some move to around Lake Victoria, to then move up through the Nile Valley to cross the eastern Mediterranean. Definitely a little brown bird with a big story... Activity 3: The Goldfinch male has bright yellow breeding plumage, which must be the brown tips of his non-breeding plumage wearing off by spring to show the brighter colors. The same must be true of the Common Loon, but I wondered how his white throat and breast feathers wear off to reveal the black underneath.

Activity 2: Like other participants in the discussion I saw there were more small birds at Down House - birds more of woodland, scrub and open areas. Before I looked at the comments on eBird and the satellite map I also thought there might have been some water at Down House, because there were some gulls observed (but it turns out they were flyovers). For Sevenoaks I was sure there had to be extensive water habitats because of the species of shorebirds, waterfowl and marsh birds recorded there. Since there was a higher total of species recorded it also seemed to me there had to be more varied types of habitat than at Down House. And I was right...:-)

Activity 1: I spent about 25 minutes watching the Cornell feeders cam on Oct. 16th, and saw a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds (it was raining). No other birds came, but I could there were others calling. Maybe there were some little birds on the ground under the feeders - it would be great if the feeder cam could also give us a view of the ground feeders (and the chipmunks...). Activity 3: From eBird I saw there are some interesting birds around Brussels I haven't seen much locally or never at all - the Graylag Goose, Wigeon, Eared Grebe, Common Gull and Rook.

Wow - what a gorgeous picture! At first I thought you were going to say the eagle showed up at your bird feeder. :-)

Activity 3 - Three common birds from where I live (Brussels, Belgium) are the Wood Pigeon, Rose-ringed Parakeet and Magpie. I don't know if the Wood Pigeon has an equivalent in the US, unless it's maybe the Band-tailed Pigeon, but I've never seen one. They're big chunky pigeons, like a small chicken, and they trundle around in the leaf litter in the fall searching for beech nuts. In the spring they eat buds and young leaves. There's a pair that nests in the ivy in our garden each year. The Rose-ringed Parakeets are all over Brussels. They come from a collection of parakeets that were deliberately released in Brussels when a local zoo went bankrupt. The authorities complain about them, but most people like them. They might take over some nesting holes that would otherwise be used by native birds, but they seem to mostly eat seeds from ornamental, non-native trees that other birds aren't interested in. The Magpies are everywhere in Brussels where there are some big trees to perch in. They don't get along at all with the local Carrion Crows - the crows chase them and they chase the crows.

Aw, come on :-) - I think you did a great job with the subtlety and variety of the colors, especially since watercolor is so difficult.

@Rose Yes - I used a 0.4 water-proof pen to go over the pencil.  I planned on using watercolor for the colors, but I'm not too happy with the result... I have a lousy color sense, and I usually don't have the patience to get them all just right. Plus the paper in my journal probably isn't ideal for watercolor - it drinks up the water too fast, and makes the result blotchy. Maybe I'll use colored pencil instead... or maybe I'll stick to B&W!

@Allie Thanks!

I made this sketch of a plant and was wondering if anyone out there could please tell me if they know what it could be - I hope you can tell from the drawing! I found it in a park in Brussels, but a lot of the local weeds are the same as the ones in the US.