Roughin' It in the Park

Dan Ellison invited us to Helena to spy on and photograph this Merlin nest in a downtown park. I just drove 2 1/2 hours but Nick Dunlop (center) flew in from Central California, Bruce Haak drove the 8 hours from Boise and they stayed the week. Three young are in an old crow nest at the top of this spruce tree (check out the cones!) and parents bringing in birds from all directions. What fun, despite all the darned rain. Nick's photos will be in our New!Revised! Falcons of North America book.

Capital City Merlin Nest

WAY more news on the way, whew and wow.

Raptor Ranch This Weekend

Siblings at the Art Museum!

 The Flores - Reed and Scout, Snowy Owl and Peacock

Grahams - Liam and Eamon, Peregrine and Kestrel

Lurgios - Lachlan and Amelia, Turkey Vulture and Great Horned Owl 

Raptors And Art Camp

We finished our paper mâché raptors today (plus a Western Meadowlark and Peacock.) A Ferruginous Hawk, two kestrels, two Snowy Owls, an Aplomado Falcon, a Boreal Owl, Turkey Vulture, Bald Eagle, and Sibley the Peregrine. The best kids ever!

600 !!!!

Sibley the Peregrine's 600th program was today at the Missoula Art Museum! !! !!! Joining our family in 2003 as a tiny baby, she's also celebrated 816 tours for a total of 1416 appearances with kids and their parents, the public fun, plus starred in 4 films. Wow, so proud, Sib. 

Blackfoot Trip

Back to the Blackfoot with Mom, sister Betsy, and Jay Sumner. Where are the Johnsrud Peregrines?! These cliffs have been a mystery for years, with both adults showing up, acting like they are nesting, then no young. Last time we saw fledglings was 2016, three here:

Lewis's Woodpecker

My favorites, and (mostly) only here in the warm months, "hawking" insects over the river. I never noticed how they jam a mouth full of the buggers and keep on hunting.

Another Paper Malfunction

Well, I picked up some good ole Rives BFK creme printmaking paper at the UC Bookstore and ran four more Peregrines. This time I accidentally got too light of a stock! When I went to paint it, the paper buckled and warped with each application of gouache.  I had to use a clothes iron to flatten it over and over. Wash. Iron. Repeat.  I think I’ve ironed two shirts with that $4.99 special from the Goodwill and twenty times today on a Peregrine.

Live and Learn

I wanted to tone down my Peregrine etching a bit, so spent Sunday afternoon printing on creme-colored paper I had on hand. "Perfect!" I kept thinking, and pressed and dried six prints ready for painting Monday morning, three at a time. As I applied the first brush stroke of gouache to the falcon cheek, the paint was soaked up immediately, blotting out the face! I looked on the back and it had soaked through in seconds. Boy, did I have the wrong kind of paper! It reminded me of the movie “Alien" when they cut through the parasite trying to remove it from Kane’s face and the dripping blood burned holes in the floor all through the spacecraft. Just like that.
ps: my buddy Nick Dunlop suggested I could use the bad prints to mop up spills on the floor, and that's what we'll do!

Got some new paper to use today. Live and learn.

Happy B-Day, Sis!

Film Buffs

Yesterday I was at grocery store and watched a woman's cart with supplies and her purse slowly  roll downhill away from her car so grabbed it right away. I returned the cart and asked if she remembered that famous scene from the movie "Battleship Potemkin" (1925, Eisenstein , I just looked it up) when the baby carriage rolled down the staircase at Odessa.  She replied, "Sure." HA!
And here is my new dry-point etching called "Peregine Cliff."  I pounded various coarsenesses of sandpaper into the plastic to get the different textures, painted with gouache.  Total experiment and still working on the color. 11" x  8"

No Owls

Back to our secret spot and no baby owls this time. Does an Eastern Kingbird count? Oh, and a Black-chinned Hummingbird at the house.

New Calendar

Here we go, Pyramid Printing in Missoula and out by July! Photos from right here and all proceeds to benefit our program.

Double Header

Missoula Community Access Television was filming a spot here Thursday with Neil Falcon Wells and icon Joel Baird. An intro in the office with Sonora the Aplomado Falcon, then  great tour of the facilities and sculptures.  Yesterday we had a program at Lolo Pass Visitors Center with Woodman School and my pal and young ornithologist Elsie Quigley with Simon, Sibley in the background, photo by her mom Meggan. Nigel the eagle and Owen the Saw-whet were also stars. Fun two days in a row!