Some new paintings

Actually, one old and one new. The old is this comparison of Black and Bare-headed Laughingthrush for the most recent issue of Suara Enggang, illustrating an article by James Eaton.



The new is a rendition of a Chestnut-capped Thrush seen pre-dawn at Poring, Sabah, two days ago - my latest lifer.



More photos from there to follow...

Bornean and Malayan Banded Pittas

I've got thousands of pics of harriers and Oriental Honey-buzzards but no time to process them! In the meantime, here's a digipainting of female Bornean and Malayan Banded Pittas done for the recent issue of Suara Enggang.

15th February 2011: Work in progress - Whimbrels

I'm working on a digi-painting of a small flock of Whimbrel I saw last Sunday. I thought I'd post it in stages as I develop the painting. This is done using a Wacom tablet and pen (an older version of this) and Photoshop Elements.



Stage 1: I pencil-sketched in the Whimbrels and then added a pale watercolour wash layer.



Stage 2: The background roughed out on a third layer.



Stage 3: Layer 4 - the background layer is developed till looking reasonably finished. I'll come back to it once the birds are done to harmonize the detail levels in both.



Stage 4: In a fresh layer I've started work on the birds. At this stage I'm more interested in getting relative tones right rather than fine details. This is as far as I've got so far!

For more examples of what can be achieved by this medium in the right hands, see here!

Amazing bird art

I've been freshly inspired by some amazing artwork on the net of late. Four in particular stand out. Check them out (but be prepared to spend a few hours drooling!)

http://manssjoberg.blogspot.com/

http://www.fugleillustrasjoner.blogspot.com/

http://ojeailustraciones.wordpress.com/

http://rodrimrf.blogspot.com/

Some of these guys are using a digital tablet and pen to create their masterpieces. After taking a close look at some of their techniques, I was inspired to have another go myself.



A Greater Spotted Eagle.



A close-up of the head. Hoping to learn more!

Waders: Bar-tailed Godwits and unBar-tailed Godwits!

A visit to the Sydney area in the northern winter is a good opportunity to get to grips with the 'baueri' race of Bar-tailed Godwit. The one we get in Malaysia most commonly is 'menzbieri', and the principal difference between them in the field is the back colour. What do I mean by 'back'? Oddly enough, you only usually see the back of a wader when it is in flight. It's the bit above the rump, between the wings. In 'menzbieri' Bar-tailed Godwits, it's white, whereas, on 'baueri', it looks dark, owing to it being heavily barred.

The Entrance, about an hour north of Sydney, is a great place to get up close to waders as they're pretty used to people. A small flock of three juveniles (the three front right) and two adults. Bar-tailed Godwits are one of the easier waders to sex, as the bill length of the females is pretty consistently longer than the males (and they're visibly larger too). So this is an adult female. While these are juvenile males.Interesting to note the difference in the amount of feather wear between these two birds. Juveniles often don't have fully grown-bills. I wondered whether the lower bird might also be a female. This was an interesting bird - an adult-type with barred rear flanks and some interesting patterns on the inner coverts (lesser, median and greater). Also, quite a range of feather ages, from very worn inner lesser coverts (or are they rear scapulars?), to moderately worn upper scaps, to very fresh lower scaps, tertials and inner primaries. I wondered whether it might be a 2nd year bird. The birds would often move around the sandflats, giving me the chance to snap some in flight. Here's a juv, showing off that characteristic dark back. Here's an adult. Take a look at the tail.. The central feathers are rather plain, and the outer webs of all but the outers have a strong greyish wash. Quite different from the typically barred tails of juveniles. This adult has an even less barred tail. These two contravene the Trade Descriptions Act altogether! You should be able to deduce that the bird on the far left is an adult and the one onm the far right is a juv. So why are these called Bar-tailed Godwits?! I have a few questions about these unbarred-tailed birds... i) Is this a characteristic unique to adult non-breeding 'baueri' Barwits? ii)Is the extent of 'unbarredness' related to age (ie the less barring the older the bird)? If anyone can enlighten me I'd be much obliged! So this would be a juvenile on the right and an adult on the left... no, wait! It's a first winter Red Knot dropping in. Briefly! And a tattler. There's a slim chance of a Wandering Tattler down here, so I go over the salient features of Wandering...Dark upperparts? Well - it looks dark but the sky is overcast. Dusky flanks? Check. Supercilium poorly defined behind the eye? Check... Surely I can't be this lucky? Call? "Weee-wee-wee." Typical Grey-tailed, and completely unlike the trill of Wandering. Oh well, keep looking!

Marbled Wren-babbler sketch

The leaf-tosser from Fraser's Hill! Not really happy with the way this turned out - a bit bland, but since it's done, I thought I'd post it! Maybe I'll have another go at it some time...

Purple-backed Starling

A sketch of one of yesterday's birds.Amazingly complicated wing pattern they have!

Feather wear and moult in Waders: Part 2: Juveniles

Generally, adult waders leave the breeding grounds earlier than juveniles, which presumably need to spend longer growing and developing peak condition for the southward migration.

This means, rather amazingly, that the juveniles have to navigate their way southwards without the benefit of guidance from birds that have travelled the route before.

In Malaysia, in my limited experience, the first juveniles turn up three weeks to a month after the first returning adults.

In a study I did 2 years ago, Lesser Sand Plovers were the first juveniles to arrive - around the end of August, followed by Greater Sand Plovers in the first week of September. These two species breed quite well south of the majority of northern breeders, a factor which may have something to do with their earlier arrival. Curlew Sandpiper, Ruddy Turnstone and Common Sandpiper juveniles arrived in the third week of September, and and juveniles of most other species by the last week of that month.

How does one go about telling juvenile waders from adults? It is easier with some species than others. Generally, the larger plovers, curlews and snipe are rather tricky, whereas smaller sandpipers, shanks, and godwits should be quite obvious given good views. For details on how to tell the difference between juveniles and adults, you need to get a decent field guide to birds of the region. I find Robson's Birds of South-east Asia one of the most accurate, though the large selection of birds illustrated can be confusing to the beginner.

In many species, juveniles have more highly-patterned upperpart feathers than adults. The scapulars are smaller than adults, which can make the wing coverts more visible.



Continuing with the theme of Curlew Sandpipers (see Part 1 here), fresh juveniles often have a gorgeous pale peach or buffish wash to their breast and upperpart feathers. Note also the distinctive dark 'arrowheads' on the larger upperpart feathers - the scapulars, tertials and greater coverts. These will become darker and more obvious as wear takes place. Juvenile Red-necked Stints have similarly-patterned scapulars (hint - scapular pattern is one of the key things to look for when trying to identify waders!)


The initial effects of wear can quickly make a big change to the appearance of juvenile Curlew Sandpipers. The peach-buff colour quickly wears away, making the bird look much more grey. The dark parts generally become darker and the pale areas lose their colour, becoming either grey or whitish.


As abrasion continues, pale feather fringes wear away, and the colour of the bird darkens, making it more nondescript. By this time, the bird is ready to undergo its first moult - into '1st winter plumage'. But that will have to wait for another post!

Click here for the animated version!




You can see a similar process at work with these juvenile Lesser Sand Plovers. Both pictures were taken at the same place on the same day, 8th Sept 2006 - see here for the proof! The lower bird is much more worn than the upper one, and in fact it may have started its moult into 1st winter plumage (the crown?).

This variability can be confusing, but understanding the process of feather wear and how it affects the bird's appearance is an important key to making sense of it all. For a helpful explanation of moult in waders (though with a British bias), see this article by Keith Vinicombe.

Dec 19th, Suffolk, UK

Here's the finished painting of the Greenfinch I mentioned yesterday, and in addition, a sketch of a Goldcrest seen this afternoon in the local churchyard.

December 17th, England

Time to blow the dust off this blog and see if it still starts!

I haven't done a great deal of proper birding over the last month or so, since this has mainly been a time to catch up on old friends and spend time with the family.

I have enjoyed getting reacquainted with the common English birdlife, and it's been especially good to see ducks, gulls, thrushes and the like, as those families are poorly represented in Malaysia.

Quite a bit of my birding has been from the kitchen window - watching stuff coming into the bird table.
























Here are a couple of sketches of a male Greenfinch that found a sunny spot in the hedge and was soaking up a bit of December sun. I'm in the process of turning one of these into a painting.






















This is one of a small flock of House Sparrows that regularly hangs around the feeder.

Another short project was redoing the house sign.



I took part in the BTO Atlas project, and did a 2 hour 'Timed Tetrad Visit' for the square around our house. We've managed to record 49 species in our square, which isn't bad for an 'agricultural desert' miles from any decent waterbody.

In the past month Peter Kennerley and I have published an article detailing our observations of some interesting plovers which once appeared on this blog as 'Malaysian Plovers'. The full article is here, with an link to a forum that gives opportunity to comment on or discuss the article. If you want a potted summary of the article, you could try looking at this link.

And if you haven't got time to even look at that, here's what all the fuss is about!