The resident beavers are building another dam under our bridge across the slough, several attempts over the years. One time our dogs ripped the branches out with great relish every trip to the river, for some reason. This is just three days (nights) work! Before Tom built the bridge 23 or so years ago, a beaver dam was our access to the other side, washed out repeatedly.
New one today, drypoint etching called "Red-tail and her Stick" inspired by a hawk I saw last summer, flying high, dropping a little stick and catching it over and over. Playful fun. 12" x 16" with printing inks, gouache and pencils.
No eagles in the nest Tuesday afternoon and one flew over to the pine trees by the pigeon building at 5 pm. So the earliest fledging since I started watching that nest by the house, 2011. This is my favorite shot of the youngsters, taken in 2017!
I love herons, and this one was hunting mammals right next to the road at Metcalf NWRefuge, lucked out. But she didn't and no mice/voles/gophers/ground squirrels for breakfast.
What a nice eagle flight portrait, just kidding. Over the river today and I must say I would much rather butcher chickens for two hours than transplant little trees from the yard to the front of the Falconhouse for shade. Some shade that might work in 10 or 20 years. So unnecessary, neighbor.
With the new neighbor's 80-foot warehouse built up against our fence/enclosures we were forced to move half the birds, including the two Peregrines. The new Falconhouse is cooking in these summer temperatures so forced to make some modifications. First, thermometers, shade cloth, then insulation across the inner roof, fans running all day and even planting relocated trees in the front for shade. Shade? So difficult.
It is always a treat trying to figure out how to color that first run print, and what you can't hear here is the jazz on the stereo!
Just made this drypoint etching, and on the "new" printing press upstairs. "Rough-leg" and printing inks, gouache, pencils 11" x 13". Tried a little background texture with steel brushes, always want to experiment.
Raptors And Art week, our 22nd at the Missoula Art Museum, me and Bev Beck Glueckert. Sib, Sonora and Wes falcons posing day one, then owls Simon, Portia and Little Billie on Tuesday, sketching sessions. Now, life-size paper mache sculptures, including 5 Great Horned, 3 Barred, 1 Saw-whet, 2 eagles, 1 kestrel, and 1 flamingo (that counts!) Plus 1 Zombie and 1 Elephant Owl.
In the living room! My welded steel Peregrine sculpture and Nico heading for the kitchen.
Thanks Cindy Knutsen for the big printing press, now installed upstairs and my trial run of a Rough-legged Hawk drypoint etching. Donated by Cindy and bought some parts, now ready to rock and roll, 19 inches across instead of the little one for 30 years, 12 inches!
Almost every year Tom's little bridge over the slough has started floating, held tight with ropes and not washing away. Well, thank you Pat Johnson for installing more cinder blocks to keep it above the water. This one with the dogs, just inches from floating. Thanks Pat and a river walk every day.
We love Metcalf Wildlife Refuge, especially Mose and Nico. Right down the road!
Not this! But a big drypoint of a female hawk on a fence post, what fun! Then on to the new printing press up over the garage. First one of this size for me. I am excited.
Just finished this etching, another experiment with tools and ink. "Great Gray" is from a trip I took with photographer/pal Keith Fialcowitz in June 2011. We met up with zoologist Jack Kirkley and visited a Great Gray Owl family. Drypoint etching, 11" x 10" with printing inks, gouache, and brush pens and pencils. It brings back wonderful memories. Check out April 22nd Blog!
Our umpteenth program at Chief Charlo Elementary and here for Kevin Cashman's wonderful 4th graders. First with the neighbor's 80 foot Warehouse looming in the background, then a snapshot. One boy asked me if we had a White Pelican, "No, not a raptor," and I swear a pelican flew over the whole group, circled, less than a minute later! Magic.
A 2009 photo from the East Missoula nest that housed FOUR chicks, all fledged, very rare, and topic of my "Bald Eagle Nest" book from Stackpole Publishing! Finally all four in view at the same time, and took a couple of weeks, I swear.
Finally a snapshot with one of the two nestlings. I was headed to the beach with the dogs and turned around to go get my camera, thankfully.
Yay! One singing in the yard and so much hope they nest near-by, my favorite songbird.
Snipe Really Do Exist
I pointed out a flying Wilson’s Snipe to some visitors this week, and they were surprised to learn that there really is such a thing. Apparently one of our friendswas tricked into “snipe hunts” as a kid, pointless ventures into the night with a sack, a practical joke played on all kids. This was a male snipe performing an elaborate flight display marking his territory, flying high and plunging toward the ground. Special muscles fan out his tail feathers which vibrate and make a beautiful winnowing sound. Instead of the typical 12 tail feathers of other birds including sandpipers, snipe have 14 or 16 depending on subspecies. They must have a nest in the grass near the house, and this guy displays well past dark.
Man I love these birds and trying to get a flight shot today, an older photo here. The one today was circling the house high above with the tell-tale winnowing sound of tail feathers. We never saw one last year, formally pretty common along with House Wrens and hope they show up again to nest near-by. Plus the Soras, Vaux's Swifts and Bullock's Orioles. Fingers crossed.
Actually, Arrowleaf Balsamroot all over the place, blooming now and beaucoup at my favorite secret spot. That sign says, "Welcome Kate!" Will be perfect in a couple days when the bulk of the lupine is in bloom, but supposed to be overcast and rainy, not perfect for photography. Perfect for the flowers, and that's what matters.
This shot from 2002, three young that year and still trying to count the young this year in that giant nest. And two years ago today I had my botched total knee replacement surgery, in pain ever since. Looks like I'll have to undergo another surgery, do it again, utterly awful. I was sick for months, anemia infusion treatments, lost 20 pounds and could't stay awake longer that a couple hours. Botch = mangle in the dictionary.
With Annie Garde at the helm, Montana Public Radio from 2-4 pm MST. 89.1 and left of the FM dial, plus https://www.mtpr.org/
Our friend Holly Pickering invited us to chat with her Kindergarten Kids in Florence, here with Sib and Simon, plus Little Billie and Wes the Kestrel. We are still having major problems with Mischa the Peregrine who is not adapting to the new surroundings since we had to buy a new building and move her across the property. Very disturbing, as last year she was the Star of the Kindergarten!
Lots of Ospreys around thankfully. I heard a House Wren over the weekend, just now a Wilson's Snipe "winnowing flight sound" high overhead. These two birds that were mostly absent here last spring, sadly as they are my favorites.
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