How to Recognise Yorkshire Bird Calls. Happy birthday Olivia for yesterday.
Yorkshire Bird Song
Category: Birds
Penguin Dance
I’ve often seen great-crested grebes go through their head-shaking, ritualised preening display, but at last this morning at RSPB St Aidan’s, we got to see the presentation of beakfuls of water-weed and the penguin dance where the male and female rise from the water, breast to breast, paddling furiously and swaying heads. They appeared to drop the weed as they started this routine. They then returned to head-bobbing display.
We’ve yet to see the ‘ghostly penguin’ and the ‘cat display’ which apparently start off the whole routine.
Canada Goose
This morning a skein of 60 or 70 wild grey geese went over, heading west. Our local Canada Geese meanwhile had gathered on a shingle bank on the quiet inner bend of the meander of the River Calder around the marshy field known as the Wyke.
This is my final spread for my Naturalist Animal Illustration with Procreate Domestika course by Román García Mora, drawn on the iPad in Procreate.
Tawny Owl Feather
A primary feather from the right wing of a tawny owl, which I picked up on thee lakeside path at Newmillerdam in the summer.
Canada Goose Plumage
Canada goose plumage swatches, drawn on the iPad in Procreate for my Naturalist Animal Illustration with Procreate Domestika course by Román García Mora.
The Birds of Paris
The original Collins Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe included bird names in Dutch, French, German and Swedish. The rose-ringed parakeet didn’t get a mention in my 1967 edition. Since then its made itself at home in Paris and on just one occasion we watched a pair briefly visit our bird feeders.
Happy birthday to Antonin.
Operation Osprey, 1973
Fifty years ago today I was halfway through a 3-week stint as a volunteer warden for the RSPB’s Operation Osprey at Loch Garten.
A squirrel came down from the shutters into the hide and ran off with an entire Rich Abernethy biscuit.
The female osprey seemed considering an extension to the nest . . .
- Because the young are growing and knock her out of the nest every time they exercize
- the nest slipped over the other day.
WEDNESDAY 1st of AUGUST
Up Cairngorm with Linda & Bill . . . by chairlift to the middle station: the top section was closed because of high winds. Just beyond the Ptarmigan Restaurant a noise like a motor starting or one of the snow fences creaking in a the wind . . . a ptarmigan, no 3, no 10 . . . we walked towards them when they started moving we counted thirty but when they were still their plumage looked like granite only the white wings showed. Cairngorm had his head in the clouds. We turned back down.
Owl Feathers
Another homemade brush for my Procreate course.
Procreate Feathers
We’re onto feathers in Naturalist Animal Illustration with Procreate, an online course from Domestika. Following Román García Mora’s instructions I’ve made this brush to help build feathery textures.
Outlet
A mallard – possibly a youngster as it seems to be in the process of growing secondary wing feathers for the first time – standing at the cascading outlet of Newmillerdam lake this morning.
Meanwhile this adult female and her mate were paddling alongside the Boathouse Cafe.