Sinensis Cormorants again

I was passing Swords yesterday so decided to pop in for a while as it has been so long since I have been out in the field. Driving along the river on the north side I picked up the 1st winter sinensis feeding close to the bridge. It was difficult to follow through the trees along the road, but eventually it sat out under the flyover. 1 ruff and an adult little gull showing the start of a hood showed nicely infront of the dog kennels.

While out on a break this morning I finally pinned down an adult sinensis that had been present all winter on the canal near my house. Most times I saw it I was on the bike and it would dive, re-surfacing 30-40 metres away so I could never confirm it. Other times I saw it from the car as it sat on street lights but views were never clear enough.

Was delighted to finally be able to confirm it before it departed. It has been niggling me all winter because it has been so close to the house. The  ring-billed gull seems to have left, I last saw it on waste ground a week ago. Still no signs of spring, not a single migrant yet.

Harrier project

As part of one of my final college projects I have been working on identification plates for harriers in Ireland. I am only half way through the plates, but as part of another class I have to lay them out as they would appear in a book spread. I am planning to finnish them off with my own text, at the moment it is just a dummy text. 

 Northern harrier, I am still learning the best ways to paint on the card. I am finding it a much easier surface to work on than water colour paper for finer detail, but am still struggling a lot with larger areas of colour. I find that a lot of my usual process's when working with water colour paper are the opposite of how I work on the card.

 Pallid harrier. I tried quite a few approaches with this plate, starting with darks and lights in some images and with the lights building to dark in others. I really like some of the results but am finding the consistency difficult to maintain.

 I was trying to come up with a few rough layouts for a finished book spread, trying to keep it simple, clear and easily read. With the easter break starting this weekend I hope to get all the illustrations finished and a layout template settled on.

I have also been working on a few logos, collared flycatcher was an obvious choice.

Local patch

 I have seen the ring-billed gull almost daily lately on my way to and from college. It was around this time last year that he disappeared, so I spent lunchtime today sketching and photographing him. I was finally able to lure him down off his favourite roof having ignored my bread on previous visits.

 Also along the canal were atleast 3 scandinavian jackdaws, all of which frustratingly stayed on the far bank! An adult brent goose has been with the mallard for atleast 2 weeks now. I thought originally that it must have been injured, but it looks in good health.

 I have been working away on college work for the last few weeks, above is some of my rough work and studies for my plates on Irish harriers.

 I have done a few illustrations of acrocephalus warblers recently, above is a water colour on card study of a Blyth's reed warbler.

Sinensis Cormorant

 This first winter sinensis cormorant has been at Swords estuary in north Dublin for several weeks. I spent yesterday morning there to try and get some studies of it compared to carbo's, but this was the only cormorant there in over 2 hours! It showed really well, sitting out and preening for most of my stay before flying to the outer estuary. A little egret and a few buzzards were also around, and a female sparrowhawk made a few attempts at the huge flock of golden plover present.

 Some head studies of the cormorant. The angle of the yellow gullar patch on the throat is the simplest way of separating the continental sinensis from the atlantic carbo.

It was great to work with such a co-operative subject!

Waxwing wing

 I was given a waxwing wing before Christmas by a friend so I could see the details up close. I have been busy in the last few weeks with college and finally had some time to work on it in recent days, but still couldn't finish it. It was great to see how the tertials and secondaries overlap.

College work

 Some more recent work on the harrier project. I am still working on the layout and plumage features, and how best to show all the relevent details.

I have been working on a few types of card and paper in the last week and think that my days using water colour paper are over.

Gulls, gulls, gulls

 I finally managed to pin down the ring-billed gull at the end of last week. It spent all of friday on the dulux roof top and was there again on sunday morning. It was only this time last winter that I first found it, so hopefully it will hang around until march again.

On saturday I was down in Cork and travelled out to Baltimore to try for the American herring gull that was found last weekend. I have missed countless Americans over the years and was really hoping to break the pattern. This 1st winter glaucous was one of 2 behind the fish factory as soon as we arrived and remained on show throughout our stay. The 2nd bird flew out into the bay very quickly.

 We were there almost 2 hours with no sign of the American, and I was beginning to give up hope. Half way through my final loaf of bread, the smiths arrived in from the harbour and landed infront of us. We had great views of it for 30-40 mins before it flew off again without warning. Above is the only flight shot I got of it.

 Smiths and glauc from saturday morning.

 Ring-billed and black headed gull from Rialto last week. The ring-billed refused to come down to bread and I was only able to see the head and upper body over the edge of the roof.

Worked on a few illustrations today trying out bristol board as a surface. I have been pretty frustrated with water colour paper lately, and over the weekend I was lucky enough to see an Ian Lewington original. The paper was similar to bristlol board so it gave me the motivation to try it out. So far I am really happy with it and have a few more illustrations to work on. Above is the american herring gull from saturday.

 Great excuse to do up a few collared flycatcher illustrations. Still trying to figure out the best way to to paint on the card.

Brown shrike, sketched from a photograph of a juv. cristatus from China a few years ago.