Cedar Waxwing Pencil Sketch p64
It’s easy for people who don’t spend much time in nature to overlook something as spectacular as a Cedar Waxwing. They are small, mostly brown birds, and from a distance there isn’t much that grabs your attention. Often it’s their high-pitched, almost ultrasonic call that gives them away. Honestly, the only flashy things about them are a few well-placed, bright patches of color and a small crest. For the Cedar Waxwing it’s all about subtle beauty. Once you get a pair of binoculars on one, it transforms into one of the most beautiful birds you could imagine.
Their feathers seem to be the finest, smoothest structures around, giving them an airbrushed appearance, with perfect gradients of tan fading to grays, yellows and whites. Their eyes are somewhat hidden within a jet-black, bandit mask sporting a fringe of white. Yellow feather tips form a beautiful arc along the tail. Among those that have eaten a lot of berries from Eurasian Honeysuckle, an invasive plant, the tail’s fringe can take on an orange hue. The icing on the cake is the bright red, waxy tips of the secondary fight feathers. The purpose of these beautiful structures may not be known with any certainty, but they sure are pretty. Not surprisingly, it turns out that they aren’t just appealing to humans. Studies have shown that female birds prefer mates with more developed waxy tips.
We are lucky to have a large number of viburnum bushes next to our garage. Though the Cedar Waxwings ignore them most of the year, every April they descend upon these “highbush cranberries” to feast after all of the other berries in the area have been harvested. On these occasions I often remove the glass from the garage window, set up the 400mm lens and tripod, and take dozens of photos of the birds only about 8 feet away.
I’ve had the pleasure of finding two Cedar Waxwing nests over the years. They are beautiful structures about 5 inches across with a host of materials woven together.
Occasionally seen hawking insects to eat, Cedar Waxwings almost exclusively eat fruit. Although the Brown-headed Cowbird, a brood parasite, will dump its eggs in waxwing nests, the young seldom survive because they can’t subsist on a high fruit diet. A similar thing happens when the Brown-headed Cowbird parasitizes American Goldfinches. They just can’t make it on a diet of thistle seeds.
Male Dimorphic Jumping Spider on Daisy Transparent Watercolor Step-by-step
Most spiders get a bad rap. Almost all are beneficial, devouring garden pests and presenting no harm to humans whatsoever. Sure, some have a sinister look to them, but they mostly live their lives hiding out, waiting for their next meal. In Michigan there are really only two potentially dangerous species, and they are very rarely encountered: the Black Widow and Brown Recluse Spider.
I like spiders and go out looking for them, but I’ve never come across either one of these. There are many eight-legged stains on the floor that met their fate because of people’s irrational fears. I’ve had people tell me they were bitten by spiders. I typically ask if they actually saw the spider bite them, and the answer is always “No.” I have no doubt that they were bitten by something, but few spiders have the ability to break human skin, and those that do usually only do so when handled roughly.
Personally, I think jumping spiders as a group are cute little guys with goggle eyes and beautiful patterns. In my opinion they share many attributes with cats—and they actually have an advantage or two over them. Before you tell me I’m completely crazy, which I’m not denying at this point, let me present some similarities between cats and jumping spiders:
Both are fuzzy, appearing in a wide selection of stripes, bold patterns and solid colors. A seemingly endless variety are available in both models.
They both have big, beautiful eyes. As a bonus jumping spiders have eight to enjoy!
They both look you right in the eyes and are incredibly observant and curious. Of course this is something you will only see with the jumping spiders upon magnification, but I think my photos demonstrate that they do look right at you—and that they are cute.
Both are visual hunters, relying on stealth to sneak up and pounce on their prey. When a cat does this, it’s considered cute, but when a spider does it, it’s sinister. No fair!
Now for some important differences:
While both are deft hunters, their targets are vastly different. Spiders mostly take out garden pests. On the other hand, cats that are allowed outdoors are incredibly efficient predators. In its 2014 State of the Birds Report, the U.S. Committee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative reported that cats, the most abundant pet in the United States, kill as many as 2.4 billion birds in the U.S. and 196 million in Canada, per year! The American Bird Conservancy offers in-depth information about cats as bird predators on their website. Cats are fantastic pets but should be kept indoors.
And a few less serious differences between cats and jumping spiders:
You never hear about jumping spider allergies!
Ok, it is hard to pet a spider, but then again, jumping spiders don’t leave hairballs around the house.
And finally, no kitty litter cleanup!
Spur-winged Plover Transparent Watercolor Step-by-step
The boldly patterned Spur-winged Plover (Vanellus spinosus) is a fairly common lapwing from Africa and the Eastern Mediterannean. The bird has a loud call to match it’s in-your-face plumage, described as sounding like “Did he do it?” Of course this just leaves me with more questions, like “Who is he?” and “What did he allegedly do?!”
If I ever find out, I’ll let you know, but don’t hold your breath.
American Robin Pencil Sketch p63
American Robins are beautiful birds. They seem to be most commonly seen on a green lawn hunting for worms. I always think it is nice to spot one posing in a tree.
Wattled Jacana Transparent Watercolor Step-by-step
Wattled Jacanas are attractive birds with elongated toes that allow them to stride along water lily pads on the edges of the shallow lakes and ponds where they live in South America. The males incubate a pair of eggs on a floating nest. How neat is that?
This painting is bit unusual in that I had the sketch sitting around for years before getting around to making it into a painting. The original sketch was done from slides that I took at the Cleveland Metropark Zoo. While the pose of the bird was decent, the bird itself was just standing on a cement floor. That isn’t the most natural looking habitat for any bird other than a Ring-billed Gull looking for a French fry.
While I had a nice sketch of a bird, I didn’t have much to go on other than imagining the bird walking along lily pads. After a bit of research I thought it would be fun to paint the bird standing in pond full of Victoria Water Lily. Probably the most dramatic specimens frequently found around Wattled Jacanas, these water lilies are massive and have prickly blood red veins growing on their sides, contrasting beautifully with their green leaves. This genus of water lilies has some of the most spectacular specimens in the world, including the Victoria amazonica, which can grow to almost 10 feet in diameter!
I photographed these plants at Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania years ago, but none of the shots really matched my Jacana sketch. Lacking the perfect photo reference for these dramatic plants, I sculpted a 3D scene with the water lilies on the computer to go along with the sketch, as you can see in the step-by-step. I think it created a convincing scene worthy of such an interesting bird.
I must admit that I got a bit carried away with the details on this one.
White Rhinoceros Pencil Sketch, p62
I’m officially way behind on posting things. It’s been a busy spring with lots of birding. Here is a drawing of a White Rhinoceros from the Potter Park Zoo here in Lansing.
Rhinos are fun to draw. They have a fantastic shape with lots of interesting textures to render. Albrecht Dürer did a woodcut of a rhino in 1515 based only on written descriptions and someone’s quick sketch. Considering he’d never seen one, it is a fascinating illustration, although it does look a little as if it’s dressed for Halloween in medieval plate armor and chain mail.
Here are some facts I find interesting about the White Rhino:
- Rhinos are Odd-toed Ungulates of the order Perissodactyla, which in Greek means “uneven toe.” Being Odd-toed Ungulates, the Rhino’s close relatives include the Horse and Tapir.
- White Rhinos lack front teeth, instead using their prehensile lips to pluck off vegetation to eat. Now that must take some talent!
- Their spectacular horns aren’t made of bone but of keratin.
- Rhinos are hosts of various highly specialized parasites. Gyrostigma fly eggs are laid on the “softer” skin around the rhino’s head. Once hatched, they bore through the tough hide, eventually finding their way to the animal’s stomach, where they in time pass with the feces and pupate on the ground. (Yech!)
- The Rhino Filarial Worm, Rhinomusca, specializes on eating rhino blood. You’d assume that a rhino’s thick hide wouldn’t be that productive for a blood-sucker, but given that they live in hot climates, they need to dump a lot of heat and are highly vascularized.
- Rhinos are hosts to a myraid of other nasties including ticks, tsetse flies, trypanosomes, the Euglenoid protozoan parasite, which causes African sleeping sickness in humans, not to mention over 40 species of worms. No wonder they are covered with Oxpeckers looking for a meal! They are practically a moving buffet table.
- Black Rhinoceros and White Rhinos are almost undistinguishable to your average observer… yet they aren’t even the same genus.
- The name White Rhino was actually a mistranslation from the Dutch word wijd, which means wide. It refers to the White Rhino’s mouth, which is wider than that of the Black Rhino. The scientific name of the White Rhinoceros is Ceratotherium simum. Keras is Greek for horn, and the Therion is for beast, while Simus is for flat- or snub-nosed. Seems fitting.
I can’t think of Rhinos without thinking of two great books. Last Chance to See by
The picture book Hippo? No, Rhino! by is simply awesome. One of the big drawbacks of my kids getting older is that I don’t have as much of an excuse to explore all the great children’s books. Now I go through the library looking purely for my own entertainment. This one has fun art and an awesome story.
Male Dimorphic Jumping Spider Pencil Sketch p61
As you can tell from the content, I intended to post this a few weeks ago, but my spare time was spent birding…
Yes! I love spring. I always get excited by the reappearance of plants and animals that didn’t attempt to tough out a Michigan winter. April is always full of promise. Birds that we won’t even get excited over in a few weeks, like Turkey Vultures, White-throated Sparrows and Song Sparrows, are reason for celebration in our house and are noted on the calendar. I’m always impressed with how close they are to arriving “on schedule” each year, often within a day or two of the previous year.
While were still awaiting our first warblers, we had the treat of the mating flight of the woodcocks, or “timberdoodles” as we like to call them, to enjoy while we awaited the “main attraction” of songbird migration. Getting to see the early birds moving through, like Hermit Thrush, just gets us more revved up.
In addition to the birds, I really love seeing the other animals “come back to life.” Seeing the first snakes, turtles, frogs and toads always puts me in a good mood. Opening up the windows at night to hear Spring Peepers in the nearby woods is about as good as it gets. The quack-like call of Wood Frogs is a classic sound of early spring. Mourning Cloak and Tortoise Shell butterflies are the first lepidoptera we usually encounter, although at night while listenning for the woodcocks I’ll often see numerous tiny moths that I can’t identify.
Our kids, knowing my fascination with jumping spiders, seemed to have a competition to see who would find the first one this spring. Soon we’ll have plenty of these great guys to enjoy when the hot weather comes in.
This sketch is of a male Dimorphic Jumper, Maevia inclemens, which is a fairly common jumping spider. This species displays a very rare phenomenon in zoology. While the females all appear the same, the males come in two distinct “flavors”: dark and light. I seem to always get cooperative light morphs to photograph. Maybe this summer I’ll have some luck with the dark morphs. The dark morph has a solid black body and pedipals, while the grey morph has zebra stripes and orange-yellow pedipals. You’d assume they were completely different species.
Now for the interesting part: the two morphs use different courting displays to attract females. With most jumping spiders the males have an elaborate series of highly specific dance-like moves that they use to attract a mate. The elaborate choreography ensures that the female will allow the potential “husband” to approach without being pounced on and devoured. It isn’t uncommon for some species of jumping spiders to eat each other. This dance sort of acts like the IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) signal on military aircraft. If you send off the wrong signal to a highly efficient predator like a jumping spider, then you are probably going to die a fast but rather gruesome death in a few seconds.
Somehow the females have adapted to be accepting of both types of body morphs AND courtship displays. Not only do the two morphs use different dances to attract the same females, but research shows that each type is equally successful, with males being split 50-50 across the two morphs. I guess the females don’t play favorites. They are amazing little beasts!
Male Eastern Bluebird on Hawthorn Transparent Watercolor Step-by-step
Over the years we have had Eastern Bluebirds nest in our yard. What an incredible treat! In the past ten years the field nearby has been slowly taken over by trees, and we have seen less and less of them. We used to regularly get Barn and Tree Swallows too. On the plus side the warblers have picked up, and we’ve had both Yellow-billed and Black-billed Cuckoo.
Redbud Treehopper Pencil Sketch p60
I came across numerous examples of these treehoppers feasting on our Redbud tree last summer. They seemed to be more abundant for some reason. My only guess is that the treehoppers liked the fresh, young growth the tree was forced to produce after about 2/3 of it was destroyed; the previous winter our neighbor’s Box Elder tree fell into our yard during a severe ice storm, narrowly missing our house but taking out most of the Redbud, some Lilacs and a small Black Walnut. We were without power for six days, including Christmas. As much of a pain as that ice storm was, it was incredibly beautiful, and there were lots of great photos to be had right in the backyard.
Adult Redbud Leafhoppers mimic thorns quite effectively, helping them avoid predation. The adults and nymphs feed on sap from the plants. In great numbers the females can damage the tree when they use their ovipositors to bore into the twigs to lay their eggs. In small numbers they don’t do much harm at all. Like that ice storm, there is an up-side. They certainly look fascinating! These treehoppers are almost cute in a bizarre alien sort of way.
Insecta » True Bugs, Cicadas, Hoppers, Aphids and Allies (Hemiptera) » Free-living Hemipterans (Auchenorrhyncha) » Cicadas, Leafhoppers, and Treehoppers (Cicadoidea) » Treehoppers (Membracidae) » Membracinae » Membracini » Enchenopa sp.
Editor’s note: Matt was almost flattened by this tree as well. He was taking photos and standing between the Redbud and the Box Elder (behind the Spruce) when the “snap, crackle and pop” noises from the ice suddenly increased. He rushed to the spot from which this shot was taken just in time to avoid being part of the carnage.
Black-capped Chickadee Pencil Sketch p59
Black-capped Chickadees are great little birds. They are probably one of the most recognizable birds in North America. I can almost imagine Black-capped Chickadees, American Robins and Cardinals arguing about who actually is the most popular. They seem too agreeable to hold a grudge though. Judging by the US State Birds, the Chickadee has only two states while the Northern Cardinal has seven. I guess we know who is more popular, at least when it comes to politicians. I was a little surprised that the non-specific “Meadowlark” came in second with six states.
One reason I like Black-capped Chickadees so much is that they seem so friendly and trusting. There aren’t many wild animals that will eat out of your hands. This winter while filling the bird feeder, one particularly brave little Chickadee landed right next to me. I grabbed some seed and put out my hand, and the little guy hopped right into my hand and grabbed a sunflower seed. It is hard not to fall for someone that comfortable with a stranger.
Over the years I’ve had some interesting “close encounters” with wild animals. My earliest one was when I was probably only about 6-7 years old. One summer morning I had stopped to tie my shoe while walking around the south side of our house. I sat down and was completing the job when I sensed something behind me. I turned around slowly and there was an enormous white-tailed deer only a foot or two away. We looked at each other for a few moments, neither moving. Then she sniffed me over and leisurely ambled off.
One of the stranger occurrences happened as an adult hiking here in Michigan. I had my tripod over my shoulder, binoculars and a backpack full of camera gear when I heard what turned out to be two very young Red Squirrels fighting. They were right nearby, chattering up a storm, so preoccupied that they seemed oblivious to my presence. The two were chasing each other up and down a tree next to me. I froze motionless, watching. The squirrels ended up zooming right down the tree in hot pursuit of each other. The lead squirrel hopped on my boot, ran up one pant leg and then straight down the other leg with the second squirrel following right behind. That was the first and only time that I know of being mistaken for a tree. If you are wondering… yes, their toenails are sharp.