#35: Say's Phoebe

Another one from the archives... soft pastels on canvas board from 2012.

If you are walking along a warm, sunny sidewalk or golf course in Phoenix, and you happen to hear a soft, yet insistent Peeeep... Peeep... Peeeeeep!... look up. Most likely, you will see a small, brownish bird perched on a phone wire, a wall, a fencepost or a branch nearby, bobbing its long, narrow tail downward and twitching its head at you inquisitively. It might flutter up into the air and show off a few acrobatics as it catches flying insects in its thin little beak before descending gracefully back to its perch.

This is a Say’s Phoebe.

Sibley’s says the Say's Phoebe is one of the "Tyrant Flycatchers," which makes me picture it wielding a staff in one claw, shaking it menacingly and telling all the other birds what to do. But there doesn’t seem to be anything tyrannical about them. In fact, entire families hang out next to my office in busy Scottsdale, placidly feeding their babies and picnicking serenely. They don't seem to care one bit that they are surrounded by a vortex of noisy machinery, blaring loudspeakers and gunning engines. I guess there is peace to be found anywhere.

#34: Black Crowned Night Heron

Here's an oldie but goodie. This is a Black-Crowned Night Heron in colored pencil on black card stock. I drew this in 2007, at the beginning of our birdwatching adventures.

Black Crowned Night Herons are pretty easy to find around the Phoenix area. They nest in the trees around the ponds at the Gilbert Water Ranch, and you can also find them in the Nature Conservancy park right next to downtown Phoenix.

I really love the colors on these big shorebirds, along with that elegant tuft wafting from the tops of their heads. But the best thing about BCNH's is the noise they make. They're nicknamed "sea dogs" because of the loud barking noise they make when you startle them and they fly off.

#33 : Northern Cardinal

Well, well, well... look what we have here.

Coming out of nowhere like the musical notes of a bright red Northern Cardinal buried in the bushes, a POST to the long-stagnant bird jar!

Life, messy icky life, got in the way for the past couple years. I actually have been doing quite a bit of drawing all this time. Mostly life drawing and portraits (for which I started another blog). But a few birds now and again.

Re-opening the Bird Jar is an emotional test for me, now that it's been over a year and I am no longer married to my birdwatching partner. Birding was OUR THING. The birds are so intricately tied in my mind with our life together. Do I even have a right to continue to watch, let alone draw, them? I don't know. I feel guilty and weepy when I try to do either. Just pulling up this pastel piece of a male Northern Cardinal, in fact, makes me cry because it used to hang in my husband's classroom. He left it, without a word, on the seat of my car when we split up.

Maybe I just need to learn how to re-claim my birding as well as my drawing. If I start drawing them again, maybe I will build up enough courage to raise my head and start looking at the birds some day. But for now, I will dig up some of my old drawings I've done and post them here. Baby steps.