For the birds.

A real favorite of mine.
Sorry it doesn't fit on my blog properly, but click on the youtube in the bottom right corner and then watch it in full screen.
Enjoy.

Blue footed Boobie

Thematic Photographic is 'Blue' this week.
So here's Stanley, my Blue Footed Boobie, whom I made a couple of years ago.
In fact he's already featured on my blog with his pal George.
He's a bit of a twit but I'm very fond of him!

Illustration Friday "Proverb"

Just having a good old gossip.

Darling Starlings

I have recently moved house from rural to more urban settings.
Luckily there is a small but beautifully landscaped garden with the new place.
But this post is about my new feathered friends, the street wise starlings.
They really are an urban bird, I never had them in the garden of the country cottage.
I do miss my blue tits and my cheeky robin but these guys are a scream.
Literally..
They always announce themselves with a rather raucous greeting.
It is almost like a challenge to Miss Tippytoes whose cat food they are coming to raid.
And they do have a very musical song as well when they feel like it.
I am able to stand in the kitchen with the door open poised with the camera but I find that the click of the camera startles them unless there is some other background noise to drown it out.
So as long as the radio is blaring or the vacuum cleaner is on I can click away without bothering them in the slightest!
It's all about what you're used to!

Windblown Sandpiper

The lonely flipflop, at the mercy of the ebb and flow of the grey stormy sea, was a poignant reminder that Summer was over. But watching this little sandpiper, scurrying along the shore from one seaweed pile to the next with the wind playing havoc with his feathers, made me smile all the same.

Check out all the other 'Drab' entries this week at Thematic Photographic

Wordless Wednesday/Thematic Photographic

Ya, I know it's friday but I've had a busy week and I'm only catching up now!

Does anybody out there remember the LIGA ad,
"Where's my Liga"..."Children these days, so demanding"
Well that's what my photo reminds me of anyway:)

Thematic Photographic this week is 'Kids'
Check out other Wordless Wednesdays here

Big Bird's new car.

Illustration Friday's topic is 'Enough'
Well Big Bird had enough of waiting for the bus as it was always late and packed with people and she was tired of bumping her head on the low ceiling.
So she bought herself an open top blue convertible and can now be seen flying along the open road with the wind in her feathers.

acrylic on canvas 8"x 8"

Treecreeper, up close and personal

Today I was lucky enough to be up close and personal with a tiny bird called a Treecreeper.
Poor little thing flew into the window pane and stunned himself badly.
Maybe a hawk or something was chasing him.
I placed him on an outdoor potted plant to give him a chance to recover and then took advantage of his stupor to take these photos.
I'd never seen one before, they're so tiny and delicate and yet he did recover, took one look at me and flew off!

Remarkable Birds

Takahe, an endangered flightless bird found only in New Zealand.


Kagu, Flightless bird with an extraordinary voice, can sound like a cross between a rooster and a puppy!


Black-winged Stilt, have the longest legs relative to their body-length of all the worlds birds.
So there, I wasn't exaggerating!

Just a few sketches I did in ink and watercolour from a beautiful bird book,
Collins Remarkable Birds by Stephen Moss, that a friend gave me.
Thank you J. xxxx

Wedding Illustration Friday

Being the best man, Pete wore his favorite penguin suit and had his hair done specially for the wedding.

I was inspired by this Dude

momentum 3

Acrylic on canvas.
An old piece that seemed to fit the bill for Illustration Fridays topic 'Momentum'.
Just thought I'd post it even though I've already submitted to this weeks I.F.

momentum 2

Drat!

Momentum

Greylag Geese

I saw these Greylag Geese on Achill Island a few years ago.
They were priceless to watch, full of character and indignation.
I witnessed them chase a poor sheep off what they obviously decided was their patch.
There was quite a gaggle of them and at the same time everyday the traffic (all of one car and a tractor) would grind to a halt, while Goosey Gander, full of self importance, herded his waddling flock over the road to the lake.

I was reminded of them and inspired to do this piece by a gorgeous post on
janeysjourney
I love her style, I find her work very happy and uplifting .

Background madness

Still working on getting a lighter touch with the water colours.
Tried to get a slightly better composition and ran out of room for the little lady's tail.
Running out of room is one of my problems, so I now buy the largest sheets of watercolour paper!
But this one I did in my sketchbook...
Backgrounds are another Major nightmare for me. My usual trick is to photoshop in a background, which is fine for prints but I'd like if the original painting had a finished quality to it as well.
So, to start dealing with my phobia, I very tentatively gave these two birdies a wishywashy background on the actual paper.
What do you think, is it better with or with out? Not that I have a choice anymore which is why I balk at backgrounds!!

Charming Goldfinches

Illustration Fridays topic this week is 'visitors'
My submission is this watercolour of a pair of Goldfinches that were frequent visitors to my garden up until recently.
They always came as a pair and fed from the nut feeder together.
I assumed they were a Mr. and Mrs, hard to tell because, unusually enough in the birdy world, the female is as colourful as the male, with just a little less red around the head.
But now that I think about it, they never showed up with their brood in tow like the Blue tits and the Green finches, and if they always ate together then who was minding the chicks?
So maybe they were two Dads out shopping for their Mrs' and hungry brood back at the nests!



Anyway I haven't seen them around lately, they're probably livin' La Vida Loca in Spain 'till next spring, lucky devils!

By the way, the collective noun for a flock of goldfinches is a 'charm' of goldfinches.
Charming!

Seabird, poetry in motion

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is Poem.
So I wrote a poem for an acrylic painting I had already done!
I don't actually write poetry, but this is my second attempt and I really enjoyed doing it.

flight from the night
subdued sunset
casts
bruised hues
on a white breast
agile wings
beat
winds of chaos
before the clash
of sea and sky
ashore
lonesome cry
fly storm bird fly

Illustration Friday Twist

Lucy was trying to teach Tony how to do the twist but somehow they got a bit tangled up. Love was definitely in the air.
"Forget about the twist" said Tony "this is much nicer, how about a smooch insted, I'll lead?"
Lucy giggled "Oh you smooth talker, you, lead away"

Another cute chick

The last of the fluff balls!

I think these are the last of the fluff balls for this year.
The picture above and the one below were taken at the start of June.



The two below were taken a week later and I think you can see a big difference.
The fluffiness has sleeked out and there seems to be a more knowing look in their eyes.



Kids these days, they're just growing up too fast!