the Tiny Aviary

The Story of a Wisconsin Dark-eyed Junco

2012-01-12T14:11:00.001-06:00

So as I have been promising this is how the junco came to be the Tiny Aviary bird of 2012:

In a little farm cottage tucked amongst the hills of the Wisconsin driftless region, sat four adults. My daughter Isabel was in bed. It was 10pm and the aforementioned adults, at least 3 of the 4, were struggling a bit to make it to midnight to ring in the new year. After some debate, we decided to pop open the champagne and celebrate with our northern brothers and sisters in Newfoundland, as they were 2 hours ahead of us.

As we sat on a well worn couch and sipped our bubbly, there came a fluttering and scratching at the the large window behind our couch. Tis a quiet and dark location of the world we were in, and thus this modest commotion quite scared the bejeezus out of us. My mind immediately screamed "IT'S A BAT!". This is ridiculous for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I adore bats, and have never possessed the hysteria some other individuals like to reserve for these creatures. Funny how the mind works sometimes...I digress.

As we tried to figure out what it could possibly be, it happened again. This time, however, when we turned to look at the window we saw the source of the scuttering: a junco. The junco was not so much flying in to the window as it was flying right up against it. It would fly up and down the window's length, using its claws to aid in climbing. All the while it peered at us. It did this repeatedly. Various hypotheses were tossed about as to why a junco was engaging in this risky, precious energy expending behavior. I mean, it should have been tucked safely away with his junco friends in one of the gigantic pine trees that surround the cottage. Had it been flushed out by an owl? Was it attracted to the light? Did it want to come in a join our little soiree? It was hard not to invite the little fellow in.

We debated as to how we could encourage it to cease its activity and fly off to find a cozy roost. Then it became quiet again, convincing us it had come to its senses and flown off. My husband Jay, however, was skeptical. He took a small flashlight, flicked it on, and directed it to the window sill outside. Sure enough, there sat Confused Junco Buddy. It sat calmly, while arching its neck a bit to be able to look over the window moulding, and peer in at us. Finally, we resorted to shutting off all of the lights, and this seemed to do the trick. So, it was possible that CJB was attracted to the light. Who knows? A little avian mystery for 2012, but we all thought he had earned his right to being Tiny Aviary bird for the year.

About the paintings above: this was a batch I did over the last couple days while waiting to hear back from an illustration client. The wren and junco are sold, but the pair (Nest Egg) is still available here.

Tiny Aviary Winner 2012

2012-01-10T08:51:00.002-06:00

Even though there have only been a few Tiny Aviary contests, it gets harder each time to draw a winner. There are so many that I would just like to give this painting to as I know how supportive some of you have been over the last years by commenting on posts and buying my work. So to remove any bias I might have had in the drawing, I enlisted the help of Isabel. It may look a little messy from the photo, but she was able to pick just one and hand it to mama.

Congratulations to Rebecca! Please contact me with your shipping info.

Junco story coming up next.

Tiny Aviary Bird of 2012: Dark-eyed Junco

2012-01-05T15:12:00.001-06:00

Sorry... not posting the winner yet. I ran out of time this week. But at least I thought you should see the painting. A Dark-eyed Junco was not the first bird I saw New Year's morning. It was a Blue Jay. But I can tell you that little Junco earned its place in 2012 for the Tiny Aviary. Have a lovely weekend, and check back on Monday or Tuesday for the winner, and the junco's story.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T11:04:00.001-06:00

I'm back from the blustery charms of southwestern Wisconsin. Our time there was too short, as always, but it was a special year in that we were able to introduce Isabel to this cherished tradition of ours.

I saw many birds, and one that I will be doing a painting of as Tiny Aviary's bird of 2012. I have a busy week of catching up with work deadlines, but I am hoping to get the painting finished and draw a winner for the giveaway by the end of this week. Stay tuned.

I hope you all had a wonderful start to this new year!

Tiny Aviary New Year's Giveaway

2011-12-28T11:20:00.001-06:00

2011 is wrapping up. Amongst other things that means I am getting ready for my annual trip to the wilds of Wisconsin's driftless region to stay in a cozy farm cottage with beloved friends and family. It will be my daughter's first experience of this little tradition and I am counting the minutes!

Another tradition is that of first bird sighted on New Year's Day. The first bird I see

New Year's Day I will make a painting of it, and that painting will be offered up in a little giveaway here on Tiny Aviary. If you wish to be included in the drawing, please leave a comment on this post. You do not need to leave your full name unless your google/blogger identity is very common like "John". Tutto capite, amici?

Ok, I wish you health, happiness and warmth. Be kind to each other and the critters with which we share this planet. I'll be back to check on you peeps in 2012.

I will NOT be giving away this sublime bird-of-paradise print, but this one and others can be viewed here.

Thanks to my lovely friend Aaron for pointing them out.

xo Diana

Vermilion Flycatcher - Pyrocephalus rubrinus

2011-12-20T09:56:00.000-06:00

Fellow bird nut, artist and friend Gennine Zlatkis of Gennine's Art Blog fame, has been posting amazing photos recently of Vermilion Flycatchers she has been spotting around her home in Mexico. The males are so brightly colored, they almost don't seem real. Anyway, I kept seeing images of these crimson fellows on Geninne's blog, and eventually couldn't resist the urge to do a painting of one!

In addition to being quite common in Mexico, Pyrocephalus rubrinus can be seen here in the States in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. They prefer riparian habitat, and thus often spotted in woodland habitats along streams and rivers. Like other flycatcher species, Vermilions forage by sitting and waiting on exposed perches, and then employ a number of aerial acrobatics to pick off various arthropods out of the air.

If you have been living under a stone, and haven't seen Geninne's blog or her art yet, get your hiney over there. It's one of my favorites, as Geninne is amazingly talented, and truly generous in sharing her work and home.

Carolina Parakeet - Conuropsis carolinensis

2011-12-19T12:39:00.002-06:00

It's a busy time right now, with the holidays and all, and I am sure that you can relate. I wasn't able to go in to the museum last week due to a bad cold, and have been catching up on various illustration work. I don't have much right now but can share some more photos from the collections.

The two photos above are of a Carolina Parakeet Conuropsis carolinensis specimen from the Field's collection. As you can see from the tags it's from 1893. The Carolina Parakeet was extinct in the wild by 1905. When I looked at this specimen it's roughly the size of a Monk Parakeet. Monks, also known as Quaker Parrots, are a species of parrot that have been introduced in the wild here. They have established several feral populations in various U.S. cities like Chicago and Austin. I've seen Monks in both of those cities, and every time I spot one, I think of the Carolina even though they are two very different species of parrot.

Monks are from the genus Myiopsitta and is native to South America. Conuropsis carolinensis is from the genus Conuropsis and was native to North America. Carolinas could be found from the Ohio Valley down to the Gulf of Mexico. They needed old growth forests as they were tree cavity nesters, and they feasted on plants such as thistle and cockleburs. They also loved to dine on fruit and corn. For this they were considered an agricultural pest, and were killed by the thousands by farmers.

The next time you take a hike and come home with cockleburs stuck to your clothing, or the next time you have to brush them out of your dog's fur, give a thought to what was our only indigenous parrot here in the States.

SALE!

2011-12-15T14:17:00.002-06:00

Yooohoooo... Holiday Sale over at my Big Cartel shop! Save 20% off of your entire order when you use this coupon code:

HOLIDAY20

Sale ends tomorrow at 8PM

Winter Birds

2011-12-13T20:11:00.004-06:00

I am not able to get out and birdwatch a whole lot these days, but I have a couple of feeders set up in the backyard. I have a suet, then one feeder full of black oil sunflower seeds, and another with thistle seed. It is true that many of our feathered friends head south for the winter, but there are quite a bit that stick around and tough it out.

I've been wanting to do a painting of all of the birds that frequent my backyard in winter. The Northern Cardinals, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Black-capped Chickadees, and Dark-eyed Juncos are the regulars. Less frequent are the nuthatches and creepers, but every once in a while they swing by. It's nice to be able to sit and look out the window identify our avian visitors. In the starkness of winter, they're a very welcome sight. I can't believe my daughter was born almost a year ago. She likes to look out of the window and in to our backyard at the flurry of activity at the feeder. I look forward to the day when she can identify everything she sees there, but for now "buh buh buh" will do.

This painting is available in my shop.

Flinchy Sale

2011-12-06T14:42:00.002-06:00

Here's a shameless plug for Flinchy, the t-shirt company I create designs for. We're cleaning house and having a huge sale: $15 on all t-shirts. So if you have been wanting to pick up a Darwin's Finches for yourself or your sweetie for the holidays, here's a great chance. The other design pictured here is my 'Worrypup'. Modeled by Chicago artist Anders Nilsen.

Nuttall Ornithological Club

2011-12-05T11:55:00.005-06:00

Saw this in the NYT recently. Lovely article on the Nuttall Ornithological Club with a couple of great specimen photos. It warms my cold, crunchy heart to read about that 12 year old attending a meeting.

Hope you all had a great weekend. The above image is from the Field Museum collections. I took it last week. I need to confirm the species, but aren't they spectacular? Something to brighten up a grey Monday.

Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise. Paradisaea raggiana

2011-12-01T22:11:00.005-06:00

I went in to the Field Museum today to work in the prep lab, and afterwards nosed around the bird collections. This is a very old skin of a Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise (Paradisaea raggiana.) It's of the male's tail feathers, which are spectacular, of course. They belong to the Paradisaeidae family, which also includes the Lesser and Greater Bird-of-paradise, and are native to New Guinea. I took a lot of specimen photos and will post more next week. Have a lovely weekend!

Taxidermy and Museum Collections

2011-11-29T08:39:00.012-06:00

The photo above is by Klaus Pichler. It's from a NYT article that was pointed out to me recently, and can be viewed here. The photos were taken by Pichler behind the scenes at Vienna's Museum of Natural History. I love the photos, of course, and identify with Pichler in the sense that we are both artists snooping around the dark corners of a natural history museum. But the photos bring up other issues about museums, and more specifically, taxidermy specimens.

As I have been posting more photos recently of my work at the museum, and of study skins from the collections, I have been feeling the need to address some of the conflicts these objects represent. I'll begin by saying that I find the study skins and mounted specimens of the Field's collections (and other natural history museums) incredibly beautiful. They are beautiful as art objects, for their skilled craftsmanship, and as animals that I would otherwise never have the opportunity to study so closely. Working with birds that I make in to study skins and the collections' specimens is a privilege I try never to take for granted. I respect that these were all living creatures.

This brings me to my next point which is that while as beautiful, and as inspiring I find the specimens, they are essentially, well...dead animals. As one begins to spends more time around them, and as Pichler points out in the NYT article, you begin to wonder: where did they come from? How were they obtained, and why are so many needed? The answers to these can be pretty complicated, and would merit a much longer post than the already lengthy one I have here. For example, in my previous post about the Ivory-billed and Imperial Woodpeckers, few would miss the irony that museums have drawers full of species like the Ivory-billed and Imperial Woodpeckers, Passenger Pigeons, Carolina Parakeets, but that none of these exist in the wild today. In the case of the Passenger Pigeon and Carolina Parakeets, they have been extinct for close to a century.

While I acknowledge there was a time in museum's histories where collecting specimens went unchecked, and was often another colonialist stab of pillaging another country's natural resources, museum collecting was not the reason why a particular species went extinct. In the cases of Imperial and Ivory-billed (if they are indeed extinct) it is mainly due to habitat loss. The Passenger Pigeon went extinct due to massive market hunting that slaughtered birds by the millions. Carolina Parakeets were seen as a crop pest, as well as hunted for their beautiful feathers for womens' hats. As someone that will never, ever see a live Passenger Pigeon, I look at a specimen of it as a symbol of human greed, a valuable scientific research tool, a piece of American and ecological history, as well as a beautiful animal and object. Also, not least of which, it is a tool to educate as to why a species as once numerous as Ectopistes migratorius went extinct in the first place, and as of evidence of its existence.

The specimens I mentioned above are very old, as most would have been collected around the late 19th century. But museums continue to collect for research, and in my case, I work with some of those specimens. The birds I work on die as the result of colliding with downtown buildings, or exhaustion from being confused by skyscraper lights. These birds are collected by volunteers, brought to the museum, logged in, made in to specimens that are used for research, and thus help our understanding as to how urban areas are affecting these migrating species.

That is one way museums, and the Field in particular, obtain current specimens. The other is that they will occasionally go on collecting expeditions to other countries. While these expeditions are closely monitored and controlled, collecting means hunting. There is a lot to make one uncomfortable, and I know people make the distinction between a bird that dies via colliding with a building in Chicago or New York, and one that is caught in a mist net in Africa; one was an "accident" and one a deliberate kill. Both are used for research, and research that will directly benefit the survival of a particular species. I have to tread carefully here, as I am not a scientist, obviously, and not really qualified to justify all of this fully. But as someone that has worked with the specimens, the biologists, and has seen the results from data gleaned from these specimens has had on helping to preserve a species and the environment, I would say the positive outweighs the negative.

I'll leave it at that for now. Trust me, I could go on. My mind is racing with thoughts on the nature of collecting, colonialism, animal rights, factory farming, poaching, vegetarianism. Yikes. Thanks for indulging the rambly-ness. If I am to continue posting photos of specimens and the work I do at the Field Museum, I wanted to talk about some of the issues I have with it.

Imperial Woodpecker - Part II

2011-11-17T22:18:00.005-06:00

As I had promised, here are some woodpecker specimens from the Field Museum collections. I went in yesterday to work my usual post in the prep lab making study skins. Dave Willard (collections manager) kindly assisted in locating the Imperial and Ivory-billed study skins that you see above. Both specimens are very old, and both species are most likely extinct at this point. The woodpecker on the right is an Imperial, and on the left is the Ivory-billed; both are very large birds. The Ivory-billed is about the size of a very large crow, to give you some idea. Both birds belong to the genus Campephilus. They needed large swaths of old growth habitat with the Imperial occupying montane pine forests of Mexico, and the Ivory-billed living in pinewood and tupelo swamps of the southern United States. The Ivory-billed is often confused with the Pileated Woodpecker, a similar looking species. Although sharing similar habitat and looks, the Pileated belongs to the genus Dryocopus.

The Pileated is quite common in areas of older forest growth, while the Ivory-billed is a ghost that most likely just haunts our collective human psyche rather than the swamplands it used to inhabit.

Imperial Woodpecker - Campephilus imperialis

2011-11-15T09:06:00.003-06:00

Last week Science Friday posted a video of an Imperial Woodpecker. You can watch the video and listen to the interview with SF video editor Flora Lichtman here. I plan on volunteering at the Field Museum on Thursday and hope to look up and photograph one of their specimens there, in the meantime I found this image on Wikipedia. Imperials (native to Mexico) are closely related to our Ivory-billed woodpeckers, which is also most likely extinct. Ivory-billed are large, but the Imperials are massive. They would average 2 feet from head to tail. Anyway, check out the video on SF. It's truly amazing, but a little sad. As ornithologist and writer Tim Gallagher said, it's like seeing a ghost.

Books

2011-11-14T09:58:00.003-06:00

Hello - Good Monday to you. I love natural history books (duh), and have a very modest collection. In these cases I do judge a book by its cover. I bought the egg collecting book on Ebay for its gorgeous chromolithograph plates, and got The Real Book about Amazing Birds in trade for some books I was selling to a local used bookstore. I love the cover and the endpapers. It was published in 1955.

California Quails

2011-11-11T10:34:00.003-06:00

I posted a couple of photos of this in process a while back, so here is the completed commission. Have a lovely weekend!

Robins, Robin, Robins

2011-11-10T10:28:00.005-06:00

In the previous post, there's an image of a painting that was the first one I did for this particular job, but decided to go with this one instead. Both paintings are of an American Robin - Turdus migratorius. T. Migratorius belongs to Turdidae family, which also includes Wood and Hermit thrushes.

This fellow, however, is a European Robin Erithacus rubecula. European Robins are not related to T. migratorius, and belong to an entirely different family: Muscicapidae. Europeans settlers in N. America laid eyes on T. migratorius, and perhaps getting a pang of homesickness for their similarly red-breasted feathered friends at home, bestowed upon it the name of robin.

Little collage painting of Erithacus rubecula is in the store.

American Robin Gouache Painting

2011-11-09T15:49:00.002-06:00

I was working on a commissioned painting of an American Robin today and yesterday. This first one I completed, I didn't think was appropriate for the taste of the person that commissioned it, so I made different painting and am offering this one for sale in my shop HERE.

I was in Austin, TX all last week, and so am catching up with work. I'll be posting more soon. : )

Morran of the Forest

2011-10-31T18:54:00.005-05:00

Ok, this is a bit of a stretch subject matter-wise for this blog, but I'll post it anyway. Recently illustrator and artist, Camilla Engman, had an open call for submissions to create a portrait of her beloved dog, Morran. I am an avid fan of Camilla's work (and Morran), so I had to do one. Camilla resides in Gothenburg, Sweden. She and Morran often find themselves hiking in the lush, mossy, be-ferned woods of the Swedish countryside.

Now available here.

Color and Pattern

2011-10-28T18:53:00.003-05:00

Browsing some of my Field Museum photos tonight, and came across these two. I think they are from the Tibetan collections. I love the colors and patterns. Traditional Tibetan clothing seems to have a lot of red and turquoise; a color combination I love. Have a lovely weekend

Maide Weide

2011-10-27T15:36:00.007-05:00

I love this woman. Look at her happily making models of placoderms and jawless fishes. Isn't she the awesomest? I pass by this display of Maide Weide's work in the hallway on the third floor of the Field Museum every time I go in to work in the bird lab. Apparently Weide took over for this guy. She made paintings and models, and you can still see some of her handiwork in the public collections.

Evening and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

2011-10-26T08:55:00.003-05:00

This fall, I've worked on several of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks in the Field Museum lab. I've only seen a grosbeak once in the field, and it was a beautiful male Rose-breasted at my backyard feeder. I'm pretty sure I have never seen an Evening in the field. Even though these two species share the name of "grosbeak" and certainly share some similar physical traits, they belong to two different families. Rose-breasted belongs to the Cardinalidae family, and Evening to Fringillidae. Cardinalidae includes the ubiquitous Northern Cardinals. The species of Fringillidae, on the other hand, are considered true finches and include species like the lovely Chaffinch. Rose-breasted are known for their very melodic, robin-like songs, while Evening Grosbeaks are more quiet and secretive; even during courtship.

Great-crested Flycatcher - Myiarchus crinitus

2011-10-24T20:27:00.005-05:00

Last month at the Field Museum, I was able to work on a Myiarchus crinitus. You can read about that here. I finally got around to making a painting of it. Great-crested Flycatchers are known to be rather agressive (spirited?) birds, that have benefited from the current fragmentation of our suburban landscapes. They prefer the wooded edge of an open lot to the deep woods. M. crinitus are secondary cavity nesters, meaning that they will often nest in an abandoned woodpecker hole. They're quite beautiful too with their lemony yellow breast, and touches of burnt sienna in the wings.

This painting is available in the store.

Tiny Aviary on Twitter

2011-10-24T11:31:00.008-05:00

Hello. Happy Monday. Seriously.

Pigs are flying, so I finally felt compelled to get a Twitter account.

If you'd like to join me:

New Flinchy T-shirt Designs: Darwin's Finches

2011-10-20T12:59:00.004-05:00

Hello there! A while back I told you about the t-shirt company that I am involved in: Flinchy. I am one of 3 artists. The other 2 very talented fellers being Jay Ryan and Tom Stack. We've got some new designs up in the store, including my Darwin's Finches. Available HERE, and modeled above by the very kind Mr. Andrew Bird.

Commission: California Quails

2011-10-18T12:30:00.005-05:00

I've been working on a commissioned painting this week, and the request was for California Quail. The male is pretty close to being finished. The female's plumage has less blue and contrast than the male's, but it's still really striking. I love their little question mark feathers on top of their heads.

Kloempken Prairie

2011-10-13T10:25:00.006-05:00

A couple of evenings ago I was able to get out for a solo hike at a local forest preserve. I chose Kloempken prairie and Carle Woods. For those of you in the Chicago area, these are preserves right near the Oakton Community College campus off of Golf Road. The woods and prairie have been undergoing restoration since the 90s, I believe, and benefit from controlled burning on a seasonal basis. There's no trail system (yet), and access is from an Oakton college parking lot. Due to the controlled burns, the woods were impressively free of brush and invasive plants. Almost immediately upon entering the forest, I saw a group of 5 deer, one of which was a mature stag. Reading about the preserve, there are supposedly oak trees over 200 years old, and the place definitely had the feel of the ancient about it. The only real bummer was the overwhelming noise pollution from Golf Road and 294. The constant drone of cars filled the area, and made it difficult to hear the birds at times. That said, I heard and spotted a couple of Red-bellied woodpeckers. I occasionally came across patches of ferns. The ferns were often ghostly white; really beautiful. Anyway, I made these 3 gouache paintings inspired by my visit there. I've just listed them to my STORE too.

Patch of leaf litter and white ferns in Carle Woods, IL.

White-tailed deer hiding behind giant felled oak in Carle Woods.

Red-bellied Woodpecker snooping around tree branch.

Black Squirrel

2011-10-10T20:53:00.006-05:00

This is my second gouache painting. I'm really liking the medium. I've been looking at a lot of early American folkart recently, and love some of the flatness, and just plain weirdness of some of the imagery. Scale was often really skewed; whether this was intentional or not isn't always clear either. Anyway, I made this image of a black squirrel with that aesthetic in mind.

We have some black squirrels around here, which are in fact just a melanistic variation of grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis.) I love them, and have always wanted to do a painting of them. Their dark fur is almost mink-like. A biologist at the Field Museum told me they tend to do better in suburban areas, rather than more rural or wild areas. This is because due to their darker fur, they are usually more easily detected by predators. Suburban areas will have lower predator populations, giving these fellows a better chance at beating the odds.

Text on painting: He was the only one of his kind in those parts, towering over the land. He sang to release the leaves from the trees. And with that, autumn arrived with its sweet chill.

This painting is available in the STORE.

The Magic Hedge

2011-10-10T11:11:00.002-05:00

Hello Patient Readers. It's been a very busy couple of weeks. I was wrapping up a very large illustration job, and so much of my time has been spent huddled over my drawing table. Although I haven't been able to get to the Field for a bit to volunteer, or work on my own painting, I did get to go birdwatching for the first time with my daughter. Isabel is only 9 months old, but she loves being outdoors. We met our friend Renate at The Magic Hedge.

The Magic Hedge is a birding spot I have known about for years, but have never been. It's a wonderful little preserve on the lakeshore by Montrose Harbor. It's well known as a birding hot spot, so Renate and I were eager to check it out. It was beautiful. It was large and dense enough that most of the time while we hiked its trails, we could neither see or hear the buzzing city. It was dense with aster, goldenrod, and drying seed heads of prairie dock and purple cone-flower. The trees were radiating with the golds and oranges of fall. Isabel was nestled up against me in her Ergo carrier, and took it all in; a wonderful way to ring in autumn.

Wandering the Halls of the Field Museum

2011-09-22T12:14:00.002-05:00

I found this. I was wondering where they were keeping it.

Edward Lear Sketches of Parrots

2011-09-21T10:43:00.002-05:00

If you haven't been on Bibliodyssey yet today, you have to go check out these fantastic watercolor sketches of parrots. I especially love all of the brush/color testing mark in the margins of the paintings. Incredible.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak - Pheucticus ludovicianus

2011-09-20T20:49:00.021-05:00

Last Thursday I was able to clock in some time at the zoology lab. I made a study skin of another Pheucticus ludovicianus. This is the forth that I have worked on since returning to the Field to continue my volunteer work in the bird division. Two were fully mature males, one was a female, and then this one (in the photos above) was an immature fall male. Adult Rose-breasted Grosbeak males have bold color contrasts: solid black head, wings, and back contrasted with a white breast and a patch of rosy red at the neck. Adult females look more like large sparrows: brown, with lots of dark streaking. An immature male will sort of look like a hybrid between female and adult male plumage. It will be brown with lots of dark streaking except there will be some patches of that gorgeous strawberry red.

Aside from the plumage, another indication that this was not a fully mature male was that when I looked at the skull, the bone was not fully ossified. Bone ossification in passerine birds will yield a fine stippling pattern throughout the skull. This male's skull was only about 40% ossified, meaning the stippling pattern only covered roughly 40% of his skull bone.

The last I checked, grosbeaks are in the Cardinalidae family, which of course include cardinals.

John Conrad Hansen

2011-09-15T22:16:00.016-05:00

I started today in a rotten mood. Rotten. Phooey. I went to the Field Museum and it helped disspel that state. One of the things I love is that in the hallways that I walk through to get to the zoology prep lab, there are some great little display cases. This is one of my favorites. It's a case that has original paintings by this old Field illustrator, John Conrad Hansen. It's hard to be grumpy while gazing upon little elephanthippos, and wooly mammoths. And really, Mr. Hansen looks like he had the potential to beat me at grumpiness any day of the week.

Variation on a theme, new medium

2011-09-05T10:40:00.007-05:00

I've been wanting to try gouache for some time, and recently bought a set of gouache paints. To familiarize myself with it a bit, a I made a small painting on clayboard that's a variation of theme from my last raven watercolor. I think I like gouache; the flatness of it. Anyway, this little 6 x 6 inch gouache on board is available in the STORE.

Raven Creates the World

2011-08-31T08:25:00.004-05:00

This time of year I am usually on a plane headed for the Pacific Northwest. For various reasons, we weren't able to make our usual work/vacation trek out west. It's strange how my body and mind seem to know that I am supposed to be there right now. It knows I am supposed to be listening for ravens and looking for orcas. I love flora and fauna of the Pacific Northwest so much that I get a little wacky when I can't be around it at least once a year. Hopefully, the next time I go it will be with my daughter. I have fantasies about taking the ferry from Anacortes to the San Jauns with her and my husband, and pointing out orcas, dolphins and harbor seals to her. Taking hikes on Orcas while telling Isabel that the croaking call that she hears echoing throughout the hills and towering stands of cedar is that of the raven, and then explaining that the raven created the world and is a bit of a trickster.

Great-crested Flycatcher - Myiarchus crinitus

2011-08-29T09:34:00.007-05:00

Hello - it's time for your Monday morning study skin lesson. Last week at the Field I was able to work on a beautiful specimen of a Great-crested Flycatcher; a bird that I have never seen before, neither in the prep lab or while bird watching. As flycatchers go it's quite large. As you can see, its breast is a beautiful light, lemon yellow, and it has long sienna brown tail feathers. I was sad to see it in the lab as it was a window kill, but I was excited to have an opportunity to study up close such an amazing species.

Last week I posted a couple of photos of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak that I had made in to a study skin, and thought that I would provide a few more process photos this time around. At this point, I am generally able to identify what I am working on, but in this case I didn't recognize the species and had to look it up in a guide. All specimens have a tag tied to their feet with a number, its scientific name, and the date it was collected.

The second photo shows what the bird looks like right before it is stuffed. I have removed everything except for the skull, wing bones, and leg bones. The skin has been cleaned of any fat and blood (usually there is little) with some sawdust. The larger piece of cotton will replace its body, with the thin part threading up through its neck and out the beak. The q-tip looking dowel will lend some support to the neck. The cotton end will be gently pushed up in to the skull, and this will also aid in keeping the eye cotton in place. Once all of the cotton is in place, then I sew up along the breast. This was the first (and only) incision I made to skin the bird.

Once sewn up, legs are tied together, and beak is tied shut. Some of the info that is included on the new tag: who the skin was prepared by (me!), sex (m), amount of body fat (low), tissue taken (yes), size and type of gonads (4 x 7 mm, testes), and skull ossification (100%). We only note skull ossification in passerine species. In the case of my flycatcher, the skull was fully ossified. This means that when I looked at it after removing the brain, a fine stippling pattern could be seen throughout the bone. This indicates that it is an adult bird. If I was working on something like a waterfowl, hawk, or an owl, ossification would not be relevant as their skulls develop differently.

The final step is to then pin out the bird to dry for a couple of weeks. I find that this is sometimes the most challenging part, and can determine a beautifully done study skin. The actual skinning can be challenging, depending on your skill level and the species on which you work. Bird skin varies greatly in strength from species to species. Robins and nightjars have infuriatingly delicate skin; tearing if you glance at them. Hummingbirds, on the other hand, have shockingly tough and elastic skin. But once the skinning is complete, there is the matter of putting feathers back in place and to make the bird look as natural as possible. I could spend twice the amount of time fussing and fidgeting with smoothing and positioning feathers compared to what I spend on the actual skinning. An experienced skinner will have developed an understanding of anatomy and feather placement, and it always shows in the final resulting specimen.

Well, I think this post is long enough! I hope to have time to do a watercolor of this fellow this week. We'll see. If I do, I'll be sure to post it.

Star Map

2011-08-25T19:54:00.008-05:00

Oftentimes when I am working in the zoology prep lab at the Field, Dave Willard (bird collections manager) will come in with a tour group and give a brief talk about the birds (specifically the ones me and other volunteers work on) that are brought in to the lab, and how urban areas such as Chicago can pose hazards to migrating birds. Last week I overheard him say "these birds are born with a map of the stars in their heads" , and thus when they come upon a mass of lights in a dense urban area such as Chicago, it interferes with their ability to guide by the night sky.

I left the museum thinking about the phrase "born with a map of the stars". The idea that we all are born with some type of internal navigation system, whether it be a star map or some other type of intuition. I thought about how we start with these mechanisms to help guide us through life, and how there are so many things in life that can convolute these instincts and knock us off course. There's so much audio and visual noise that we ( bird and human) have to sift through on a daily basis, that a lot of the time it's as though we have to dumb down our senses, instincts, and internal guides just to cope. I often come to this realization whenever I am out camping or staying in a quiet rural area for more than a couple of days. Know what I mean? Anyway, I was inspired to make a little watercolor.

Have a lovely weekend, and do something to check in with your internal star map. I promise that it is still there.

p.s the watercolor is in the STORE, along with THIS watercolor too.

Avian Architecture

2011-08-24T19:37:00.007-05:00

Recently I acquired a copy of a new, amazing bird book: Avian Architecture by Peter Goodfellow. As the title suggests it is all about how birds design and build their nests. It's fascinating. Just about anybody can marvel at the diversity of technique and the sheer ingenuity of our feathered buddies, but architects, crafters, and builders do take note. The book is organized by nest type: cup-shaped, aquatic, hanging and woven, mounds, and so on. Each chapter through writing and illustration details each technique while focusing on several species that employ that specific method. Techniques range from the beautifully complex, woven hanging basket of a Baltimore Oriole to the mound of stones that an Adélie penguin hords and lays its egg upon.

Speaking of orioles, the book helped me to identify a nest that my husband had found on a walk this spring as that of a Baltimore Oriole. You can see in the photos above that the nest is stitched together using a number of different materials. What's even more amazing is that the materials have been carefully selected and placed. There is an inner and outer layer. The outer layer consists of string, some type of black fishing line, and some shredded plastic-y material of the sort with which you would line an easter basket. The interior layer is entirely lined with finely woven grass or some other plant matter. All is stitched in to a surprisingly strong structure while also being delicate and light weight. Tis truly some of the finest craftsmanship I have ever seen in a functional object.

HERE's a NYT article on Peter Goodfellow's book.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak - Pheucticus ludovicianus

2011-08-15T09:43:00.004-05:00

My apologies if this is a bit too morbid to go with your Monday morning cup of coffee, but I thought I would show you what I do when I volunteer at the Field Museum. Yes, this beautiful, male P. ludovicianus is dead. He was a window kill. A volunteer found him near a downtown building, and he was brought to the museum to be made in to a study skin. That's where I come in. He died in May of this year, and has been sitting in a museum freezer until last week. He'd been catalogued, weighed and measured, but needed to be turned in to a study skin. I went in last Thursday, and Dave Willard ( bird collections manager) removed him from the freezer to thaw. It took me roughly 1.5 hours to remove all his viscera and stuff him with cotton. I also have to measure his gonads and take a tissue sample. After he's been cleaned and sewn back up, then (as you can see in the photo above) the specimen is pinned out to dry for a week or two before going in to the collections. He'll rest in the collections with others of his kind, until needed for research. Sad, I know, but at least this way we can maybe find something out that will help reduce the number of window kills annually. I'll talk a bit about the species in depth in a following post.

Garfield Park Conservatory Benefit

2011-08-09T08:43:00.005-05:00

Hey there. A while back I posted a couple of paintings I did to benefit the Garfield Park Conservatory. Here's another one, except this will not be available in my online shops. It will be available for silent auction at Lincoln Hall here in Chicago. On Thursday, August 18 Lincoln Hall is hosting a music event and silent art auction to benefit the Garfield Park Conservatory. In the area? Come on out for a great night of music, and a wonderful cause!

British Soldiers - Cladonina cristatella

2011-08-08T09:11:00.007-05:00

Some of my in-laws had been doing work on their home rooftop, and apparently there is quit a little, biodiverse lichen and moss habitat up there. It's my husband's aunt and uncle's house, and when my mother-in-law saw what they were removing she snagged a couple these wooden planks for me. She knows I am interested in lichens (in addition to knowing I am a world class nut). Currently the planks sit out on my front porch. It's been so darned hot and wet here, that all sorts of crazy fungi have been popping up all over the place. I saw a couple of my first stinkhorn fungi yesterday, and yep, they look and smell exactly as the name implies.

You can see the lichen and moss abundance that was growing atop my in-laws roof in the photo above. It looks like someplace that Tinkerbell would bed down for the night. The red belongs to "British Soldiers" or Cladonia cristella. I had never seen lichen of this sort in an urban area before, but apparently C. cristella is pollutant tolerant, and thus fairly common and well known. There is also some species of pixie cup lichen (Tinkerbell has to be able to drink her cocktails from something) mixed in there; perhaps Mealy Pixie Cup or Cladonia Chlorophaea.

I hope to do a little painting of these guys a bit later. I'll post it if I do.

Hut Point

2011-08-01T13:47:00.004-05:00

A watercolor commissioned for a friend, by his girlfriend for his birthday. He's been to Antarctica many times, and has wintered over. His girlfriend has done penguin and skua research there, and Hut Point became a special location for them. The peninsula still has Robert Falcon Scott's hut from one of his expeditions. Being the big Antarctic history, flora, and fauna nut that I am, this was a lot of fun to do.

Album Illustration, Ross Bleckner

2011-07-29T13:57:00.007-05:00

I've been working on album artwork for a band in Barcelona, Spain. I was given a lot of freedom, which is always nice. These are just a bunch of little spot illustrations I whipped up for the interior art. I stuck with what I love and know best: lot's of mosses, coral, spores, lichens (surprise!).

The second image is not mine ( I wish). I've been thinking about the work of Ross Bleckner a lot recently. I have a book of his amazing watercolors. They always make me think of really elemental lifeforms: pollen, cells, spores, amoebas, moss etc. etc.

The 2 paintings from the previous post about the Garfield Park Conservatory sold (YAY), and if you are reading this and you are one of the individuals that bought one: Thank you! If you are reading this and did not buy one but were hoping to, I will be posting a couple more next week.

Have a lovely weekend!

Garfield Park Conservatory

2011-07-26T10:50:00.006-05:00

If you live in Chicago, then I hope you are familiar with the Garfield Park Conservatory. I live in Evanston, just north of the city, but when lived in Chicago proper, the conservatory was one of my favorite places to go, especially in winter. It provided respite from all sorts of urban stresses, and satisfied cravings to connect with nature. It was designed by architect Jens Jensen in 1906. The fern room is amazing. It houses cycad trees over 150 years old, has a waterfall and everything is covered in ferns and mosses. It's a slice of botanical heaven in the heart of the city.

Last month Chicago was hit by a hailstorm and the conservatory sustained terrible damage. Much of the glass windows were shattered, sending shards of glass in to plants. There are photos of the damage on the their website that could make you weep. I am working on a few paintings to benefit the reconstructions efforts of the conservatory. These are first two here. Both are homages to the fern room. One is a maidenhair fern, the other a cycad tree. Both are up in the STORE.

100% of the sales will be donated to the Garfield Park Conservatory. So come on people, get a sweet little painting and help a great cause!

Chimney Swift - Chaetura pelagica

2011-07-21T15:41:00.015-05:00

Hello: long time no postie?. It's been a full summer; strange too. I've had more changes in my life in the last 8 months than I've had in the previous 8 years, but that's subject matter for a different blog. Everything is fine, but my, how life can change on a dime. The positives are that my family and I are well, and my plate is full of great illustration jobs; work that I am truly excited about. More on that later.

Back to Tiny Aviary business:

The other day I found a dead chimney swift in our alley. It broke my heart, as swifts are some of my very favorite birds. I await their arrival in our skies every summer. When I finally hear their rapid clicking calls and see their little cigar shaped bodies fluttering up high like bats, I know that summer is undeniably here. If you have never seen one up close, they really are amazing. Swifts have small, short legs unfit for perching like other birds, but perfectly adapted to clinging vertically to walls. In addition, their tail feathers have rachides (the central shaft of a feather) like stiff bristles that extend beyond the length of the feather and aid in their vertical, wall clutching ways. Their eyes are enormous dark pools; almost insect like.

Before European settlers came to the North America, Chaetura pelagica were very numerous and roosted in the hollow cavities of large, ancient trees. We quickly pillaged our old growth forests, but almost as quickly swifts adapted to our urban structures. Instead of those old trees, they now roosted in our brick chimneys. And NOW we are tearing down, or sealing off our old chimneys. What's a good C. pelagica to do? The most recent issue of Audubon had a great feature about a lovely Texan couple that have been pioneers of Chimney Swift conservation. Paul and Georgian Kyle have figured out how to build swift friendly structures and have published their findings. Their very informative site is HERE.The site contains excellent information on Chimney swifts, as well as photos, videos, and pdfs on how to build one of their "swift towers". A great video of swifts gathering up at a chimney to roost for the night can be viewed HERE.

Do you have Chimney Swifts in your town this summer? Don't know? Go out and look, silly.

In the meantime, I'm putting up my little swift portrait in the STORE.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher - Polioptila caerulea

2011-06-20T22:03:00.006-05:00

Blue-gray gnatcatchers are tiny birds that in years past I have spotted occasionally, but this summer there seems to be a couple that have set up shop in a park near my house. The park follows the Northshore Canal. There are lots of trees, and shrubby, wet habitat of the sort preferred by this species. I always hear them before seeing them. They have a thin, nasal, buzzing call. Gnatcatchers are the subfamily Polioptilinae of the Syliviidae family. The other half of the Sylviid family are Sylviinae or Old World warblers. There are four species of North American gnatcatchers, with the Blue-gray being the most widespread. They mainly eat small insects, gleaning them from the tips of tree branches. They form monogamous pairs, with the males vigorously defending their foraging area. I'm starting to wonder if I should be looking for a little nest in the river birches, where I keep seeing these little guys.

More Tiny Thumbs

2011-06-13T09:12:00.005-05:00

A few recent posts ago, I put up some little thumbnail watercolors I made for a project. I decided to do another round for the same client to give them plenty of options. I was given the freedom to do whatever flora and fauna I wanted, so it was fun to figure out which to depict. Shown here: Ammonite fossil, flying squirrel, pangolin, quartz, and a Wilson's Bird-of- Paradise.

Narwhal Print

2011-06-08T16:17:00.005-05:00

I just completed a new screenprint. The first one I have done in months. I wasn't able to print this myself, though. I had to have Jay print it up due to me having hands full of baby. It's for a set of prints that are raising money for a friend with cancer. The proceeds from the print set sales will help to cover his medical costs. Check it out HERE; lots of wonderful artists are involved. The photos above are respectively: my ink color notes to Jay, the original line drawing, and the finished four color screenprint.

I am fascinated by narwhals. I made a print of some a couple of years ago. I also have a photograph taken of a big group of male narwhals popping up through a hole in the ice, by Paul Nicklen. Nicklen just did a fantastic TED talk. He tells of his encounter with an Antarctic leopard seal. I had read about this particular encounter somewhere else, but to hear Nicklen tell it himself is a real treat. You can watch his talk HERE.

Great Snipe - Gallinago media

2011-06-06T21:58:00.012-05:00

My fellow Field Museum volunteer Meera Lee Sethi is currently hiking through the wilds of Sweden at the Lake Ånnsjön Bird Observatory in the village of Handöl. She's there this summer working as a volunteer field assistant, banding (or "ringing" if you want to use the local lingo) Great Snipes. To cover travel expenses, Meera created a Kickstarter fundraiser. Her backers (of which I am one!) have been enjoying her updates and beautiful photographs from the field. Meera is also planning to release a book of essays called The Language of Birds. Some of the books, which will include my illustrations, will serve as gifts to her Kickstarter backers. During her time as a Field Museum volunteer, Meera has become a dedicated and skilled member of the zoology prep lab, and so it is really exciting to see her extend her knowledge and experience in this manner.

Check out Meera's excellent writing HERE.

Great Snipes are native to northern Europe, and are known for migrating enormous distances. They winter in Africa, and the males use leks to display to attract mates. They prefer marsh habitat, and forage like other birds of the genus Gallinago: by poking their long bills in to the mud via a sort of sewing motion. As with other snipe species, they can be hard to spot due to their cryptic plumage. All in all a very interesting species to be studying.

Best of luck, Meera!

Original Watercolors posted to Store

2011-06-02T16:06:00.004-05:00

Some of you have been asking when I will be posting new, original watercolor paintings to the store. I don't have much right now, but I did just post a couple to my Big Cartel STORE ; one of which is this musk deer painting.

Tiny Watercolor Series: Prairie

2011-05-31T22:12:00.007-05:00

Here's another set I made of tiny watercolors. This set is all flora and fauna of prairie habitats: Prairie dog, Great Spangled Frillitary, prairie chicken, purple coneflower, American bison.

Tiny Thumbnails

2011-05-26T14:30:00.004-05:00

These are some thumbnails from a project for which the client requested small drawings of things that would represent geology, botany, and zoology. We're still in the very beginning stages, and I am not sure if the job we'll go through, but it was fun to work on these. Depicted: geode, fossil, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Lady Slipper Orchid, Great-horned Owl, and an echidna.

And the Winner Is...

2011-05-25T14:23:00.006-05:00

Paper Stories!

Congratulations! I had Isabel help out and choose the winner, as she is little Ms. Grabbyhands these days. Contact me with your shipping info so I can get a copy of the Galapagos Finches to you!

Here's the thing - My printer is running a bit behind on schedule with the Galapagos Finch print. It won't be ready until the end of next week (BOO), BUT I am listing it in my shops at a special pre-order price of $25 for this week only. After that, it will be $30.

Also, as promised I am having a sale in both my Big Cartel and Etsy shops. Type in this coupon code when checking out and you will get 15% off:

galapagos15

Spring

2011-05-24T14:41:00.003-05:00

Spring is in full swing. I've been able to get out for regular walks again, and now am joined by my little daughter in her stroller. Lovely to see all the blooming plants, and migratory bird species visiting my back yard once again.

That's it. That's all I've got for you today, chicken littles, other than check back tomorrow for the winner of the print giveaway!

New Endeavors: FLINCHY

2011-05-23T10:20:00.009-05:00

Hello! Grumble grumble - yeah I know it's Monday. I wish you "Happy Monday" even if you are having a creaky start to your week. I will be announcing the winner to the Galapagos Finches print contest this Wednesday. If you weren't aware of the giveaway, hop over to the previous post and get your name in to the hat. In the meantime, I wanted to share with you one of my new projects. I am part of a new t-shirt company called "Flinchy" along with fantastic artists Jay Ryan and Tom Stack. Jay, Tom, and I create all of the designs. We just got it up and running a while back, and are getting close to having another round of new designs up (one of which will be my Darwin's Finches image). The lovely Chicago writer Gretchen Kalwinski is modeling my Raven Heart design. Go to FLinchy HERE!

New Print Giveaway: Galapagos Finches

2011-05-19T13:06:00.006-05:00

I took one of my recent sets of tiny watercolors and had them made into an 8 x 10 inch giclee. It has four species of Galapagos finches: Geospiza scandens (Cactus Finch), Geospiza magirostris (Large Ground Finch), Certhia olivacea (Warbler Finch), and Camarhynchus parvulus (Small Tree Finch). Galapagos finches, drab they may be, have been oh so important in helping Charles Darwin (and thus the rest of us) understand how animals adapt and evolve. Yay for you, tiny Galapagos Finches! You each get little ornate frames.

Ahem.

Time for a Tiny Aviary Giveaway. Post to the comments section here, and I will enter your name to the contest drawing. Next week (Wednesday perhaps?) I will draw one of your names, and the winner will get a free copy of the new Galapagos Finches print. That day I will also have a 15% off of everything sale in my shops; a little spring cleaning.

Post away!

Tiny Watercolor Sets: Arctic

2011-05-18T16:15:00.011-05:00

This is another of these little flashcard-like sets I have been working on. This a set of arctic flora and fauna: pika, arctic poppy, musk ox, rock ptarmigan, and arctic fox.

At the end of this week I am going to announce a little give away. Stay tuned!

Blackpoll Warbler- Dendroica striata

2011-05-16T10:19:00.005-05:00

When I went in to the Field Museum a couple of weeks ago, this was the bird that I worked on. It's the first bird I had worked on making in to a study specimen in over a year. I was worried that I would be rusty, but it actually turned out to be a really nice. Or, at least I won't be embarrassed to have it sitting in the collections with my name on it. It was a mature female Dendroica striata. There are a couple of ways to determine that it was a mature female. On passerines (song birds) mature skulls have a sort of stippling pattern throughout the bone. You can really see it when you hold the skull up to a light. Also, I was able to locate her single ovary. During the breeding season, it is relatively easy to locate on a mature bird, as it is somewhat enlarged and full of ovum. The same goes for male birds, as their testes are enlarged during the breeding season. During non-breeding season, it's a different story, as ovary and testes have shrunk to non-breeding sizes. And on a small bird like a warbler, they can be very difficult to locate if you are not a seasoned field biologist.

Blackpoll warbles have an extraordinarily long migration. This little female had traveled all the way from South America most likely, only to end her journey by smacking in to a downtown Chicago building. But we hope that by dedicating her body to research, we can learn more about how to minimize these types of window kills in the future.

Tiny Watercolor Sets - Lichens

2011-05-11T06:52:00.005-05:00

Another set of tiny watercolors I have been working on. These are all species of lichen easily found in North America. I tried to represent a species from each type of substrate that lichens grow on: ground, tree, and stone. The firedot is often found on really old tombstones, the rosette on tree bark, and the trumpet and lipstick on ground substrates.

Musk Deer

2011-05-09T10:26:00.006-05:00

I have a bit of a fascination with the sense of smell: how we use it in our daily lives, it's profound effects it can have on evoking memories, and how we have harnessed elements from the natural world for hundreds (perhaps thousands) of years to create scents to attract a mate. I'm a big fan of natural perfumers like Mandy Aftel. She's a unique artist, and has written extensively about the history of perfume and its use of various natural ingredients. And boy...have we used some strange sources for our scent hankerings: ambergris (waxy, musky smelling substance produced in the digestive system of sperm whales), civit (obtained from glands of civit cat), oak moss (type of lichen), and musk deer (musk extracted from gland of male). I've been wanting to do a little series of paintings based on various "sources" for natural perfumes. This first one is of a male musk deer. I love the fanged males. It used to be that the males were killed (boo) for their caudal gland, and this was used in musk scents. Now, there are synthetics that can reproduce this scent (yay). In an ideal world this would eradicate the hunting of these mysterious, and primitive animals, but unfortunately there is still a high black market value for the glands.

Tiny Watercolor Sets: Galapagos Finches

2011-05-05T08:53:00.010-05:00

I've been working on multiple series of small (3 x 4 inch) watercolors. The idea is to do batches of these small paintings of flora and fauna of specific habitats. So far I have a batch of "prairie" related paintings (prairie dog, buffalo, prairie chicken, purple coneflower, compass plant), an "arctic" group (arctic fox, snow ptarmigan, musk ox, pika, and arctic poppies), and one of different species of lichens. I am hoping to do many, many more and eventually would have prints made of them to be sold in little sets, almost like flash cards. The most recent grouping of watercolors I am working on is a sampling of Galapagos Finches. Right now I have 3 completed, and I've started a fourth. I'll be posting the watercolors from the other completed batches here in the next week or so. And anytime I mention Galapagos Finches I have to point out one of my favorite books by Jonathan Weiner: The Beak of the Finch

Tree Swallows and Good-byes.

2011-05-02T11:12:00.009-05:00

Hello! Well, yes it has been a while since that last post declaring Tiny Aviary was on maternity leave. The months since then have been the fullest I have ever known, and I mean that in the best possible sense. Becoming a mother has been one the most wonderful and challenging experiences of my life thus far. Yeah, yeah, I know. That's what everybody says, but truly, it has been a welcome change. In the spirit of the content of this blog, I so look forward to sharing with my daughter the wonders of the natural world. So far, she is not sure what to make of her mama whistling Black-capped Chickadee songs to her, or blathering on about the migratory warblers and sparrows visiting the native plantings in our back yard. She often gamely replies "gurp", and thankfully isn't old enough to roll her eyes.

So yes, I have been busy adjusting to becoming a parent, as well as getting back to work. I have been able to take on various illustration jobs, as well as a healthy amount of painting commissions. Last week for the first time in over a year, I was able to clock in a few hours volunteering at the Field Museum. It was great to see everyone in the zoology prep lab again, and nice to be immersed in that environment. I won't be able to go in as often as I had been before, but do plan on getting in there on a semi-regular basis to keep my feet wet.

That brings me back to Tiny Aviary here. It's time to get it rolling again, but before I do so, I have to post about something that I had intended to write about months and months ago. So bear with me as I say good-bye to my dog. Yes, my dog. It's with a little sheepish hesitation with which I proceed, because believe me I know, with all of the horribleness in the world, waxing on about the significance of the relationship between human and canine can come off as a bit indulgent and trite.

Seth (my greyhound) was a huge part of my life. Jay and I considered him family, and when we had to say good-bye to him last November, the sadness was as much from the void left in our home, as it was from the knowledge that our daughter would not get to meet this extraordinary, gentle, and joyful creature that had been part of our lives for almost 9 years.

When we adopted Seth, it was around the same time I began to embark on bird watching hikes. On a weekly basis I would explore various nature preserves in northern Illinois, and Seth became an ever present fixture at my side during these excursions. Often we would go to Glacial Park, near Ringwood, IL and hike the giant kame (glacial deposit). We would descend the other side in to a valley that had a cluster of cottonwoods, and a recently 'restored' Nippersink creek. The cottonwoods would be full of tree swallows in spring and summer. I would watch the swallows while Seth would take a dip in the creek to cool off. He opened me up in so many ways, some of which, I am sure, lead directly to my decision to become a mother. I enjoyed trying to see the world through his eyes. Dogs live in the present moment, as do babies. We forget how to do this as adults, I think, and need to be reminded from time to time.

One of the last walks I took with Seth, was through a tiny forest preserve not far from where I live. The preserve is about the size of a city block, and currently is full of blooming trillium, and the sounds of warblers and woodpeckers. On this particular walk, Seth stopped on the path and pricked his ears up. I looked ahead about 25 feet, and there on the path stood a fox. It quietly observed us, and then after several minutes the fox approached even closer, stopping within 15 ft. All creatures, human and canine, regarded one another silently without fear or agression. Then, the fox turned and slipped in to the dense forest undergrowth. We stood for a moment soaking in this little fox benediction, and then continued on our way. Little did I know then that there was a terrible mass festering in Seth's heart, and that as a result of that mass, this would be one of my last walks with him. When I think of Seth now, I often think of that walk and the fox. I am not religious, nor do I have any firm belief in an afterlife. That said, I do like to think that if there is an afterlife, that there was a friendly fox waiting for my dog to gently guide him over that bridge. I miss you, buddy.

Tiny Aviary on Maternity Leave

2011-01-10T15:41:00.003-06:00

Hello and Happy New Year!

Well it's been a bit crazy over here as big changes are happening. As of January 5th, I have embarked on the adventure of new parenthood with the birth of my wee, beautiful (biased? you bet!!) daughter, Isabel. While I settle in to this new part of my life, I will be taking a break from Tiny Aviary, and have temporarily closed my Etsy and Big Cartel Shops.

Thanks for understanding, and I hope to be back in several months. Until then, happy birding and hiking!

-D. Sudyka

Tiny Aviary Original Watercolors

2010-12-09T11:02:00.004-06:00

I had a great time at the Renegade Holiday Sale this weekend past at the Pulaski Field House in Chicago. Thanks to everybody that came by, and supported my work! This was the first time that I have had original, Tiny Aviary watercolors available in my booth, and they were very well received. That said, I *do* have a few left over, and so I have posted them in my BigCartel Shop. Most of them are very small (3 x 4 inches!) and very affordable, so go have a look! As for myself, I shall now crawl back in to bed. Along with the super awesome gifts I picked up at the holiday fair, I also managed to bring home a nasty case of the flu!

*Go to the Shop.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

2010-12-03T14:53:00.004-06:00

Another day, another nuthatch painting.

I'll have a booth at the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale here in the fine city of Chicago this weekend. I'll have a handful of Tiny Aviary watercolors for sale, along with my usual line up of prints. If you're in town, stop on by! If you have never been to a Renegade Craft event, you're in for real treat as there are tons of fantastic artists involved.

This painting will not be for sale, as it was made for my booth helper (she prefers "booth elf") for the weekend.

Long-eared Owl Prints Have Arrived!

2010-12-02T10:29:00.003-06:00

Whew! Faster than I had anticipated, my archival inkjet edition of my watercolor of the Long-eared Owls has arrived from the lovely folks at Iolabs! I didn't think they would be ready until after the weekend, but they're here now, signed, editioned and ready to come live with you. They will be available in both my Etsy and Big Cartel stores, BUT, they will be available in the Big Cartel store for an introductory price of $25 (normal $30) until Saturday December 4th. You wanna tree full of owls?

GIMMEE!

Inspired by Nature

2010-11-30T10:04:00.011-06:00

A couple of times on this here blog, I have featured the work of other artists that draw their inspiration from nature and science. And now, just in time for your holiday shopping, I have another artist: Contagious. Contagious is the vision of a skilled jeweler, Ruth. Ruth draws her inspiration from nature and science, often siting some of the old, vintage biology and zoology books in her collection as source material. The books, charmingly, often show up in the photos of the jewelry items in her Etsy shop. One of my favorite, current items is the "Protozoa" necklace. It's a fine example of Ruth's craftsmanship. She uses top notch materials, with impeccable attention to detail. Her aesthetic vision is sophisticated in that she makes these forms her own. While they reference the original source material, they also have an elegant abstract quality leaving the wearer and observer an open door to many interpretations. So hop on over to her ETSY STORE and have a look, because doesn't that special biologist in your life deserve a protozoa necklace, and a pair of strobili earrings? Yes. Yes they do.

Long-eared Owl - Asio Otis

2010-11-29T12:36:00.007-06:00

Well hello! Happy Monday. Yep, been a bit since the last post, right? I've been up to my neck with this book illustration job. I wish I could share the details of it with you, but it's top secret, so I have to keep my yapper shut for now. Despite the pile of deadlines, I have been able to eek out a few watercolors. This one of some Long-eared Owls is the latest. It's a painting I did for a friend, but it will be available in my online stores as a giclee print this weekend.

I've been wanting to do this image for a couple of years now. If you're a Chicago resident you may recall when a couple of winters ago, a group of male Asio Otis roosted in a cluster of pine trees in a South Loop school yard. It was truly a magical scene. I don't normally use "magical" to describe things, but it was just that; a mysterious visitation. The owls, sometimes numbering up to 13, roosted during the day in a small grouping of pines. Us urban humans came by to gawk, and they in turn seemed not the least bit disturbed by it. They slept, stretched, and yawned through it all, and then, just like that they left. They roosted there for several weeks. It's not unsual for male Long-eared owls to form these sort of winter "support" groups. As far as that specific location, one theory was that there was good hunting along an unused rail line near the school; rats, rabbits, mice etc. Whatever the reason, to many of us that went to observe, it seemed like a blessing from Mother Nature.

What is it?

2010-11-01T14:16:00.006-05:00

Is it a turkey? Duck? Goose? Turducken?

It's an odd little engraving from my modest natural history print collection. I bought it with a bunch of other engravings from a small Chicago frame shop years ago. I didn't know anything about the print at the time. I was in grad school then, and had actually bought it and the others for use in an installation.

Years later I finally did a little research on it. It's an engraving done by the naturalist Frederick Polydore Nodder, and is from volume 15 (I believe) of "The Naturalist's Miscellany" from the late 18th century. What exactly this bird is, though, I still have yet to find out. My guess is the Hugely Wattled Something Something. Any ideas? I'll take suggestions, but keep it clean folks. It's only Monday.

Scientists at Work

2010-10-29T09:43:00.007-05:00

Recently, I have been really enjoying The New York Times "Scientists at Work" blog. It's a blog in which you can follow various world wide field expeditions. It's great, because it provides a nice glimpse in to the work of field scientists as they recount their experiences directly from the expeditions. You get to see the wonder and beauty, as well as the drudgery and danger that can be involved with this type of work. I've been following Chris Filardi's expedition in the Solomon Islands (his writing is really wonderful, in addition to some great photos of rare species of birds and other critters), Noah Snyder-Mackler's expedition in Africa studying the strange gelada (a savannah and mountain dwelling baboon-like monkey), and Doug Stotz's expedition in Peru's northern Amazon area. Doug is an ornithologist at the Field Museum. I don't know Doug well at all, but see him every now and then around the bird division's prep lab. Have a great weekend!

House Sparrow - Passer domesticus

2010-10-27T14:03:00.004-05:00

Once upon a time in 1851 New York City, a certain Mr. Nicholas Pike purchased 100 Passer domesticus for the sum of $200 from England. Mr. Pike was from England as well, and was apparently lonely for the fauna of his homeland. The birds were released in Brooklyn, and have been spreading ever since. These sparrows, being tenacious little cretins, are one of the most successfully introduced species to North America. Their preference for human modified habitats (farms, suburbia, anyplace there are houses) has largely aided this success. They like what we like.

I find the male plumage of this species to be quite handsome, but my praise ends there. Their agressive character that has aided their success, wreaks havoc on our native species of birds, especially blue bird populations. They will invade the nests of native species, peck the eggs or even kill and remove nestlings. I have been dwelling on this a bit lately as it is fall, and I have begun to fill my feeders again. To my delight I have 3 species of woodpeckers that visit the suet feeder, and a red-breasted nuthatch, chickadees, and an occasional Rose-breasted Grosbeak that come to the black oil sunflower seed feeder. To my dismay, all are overwhelmed by the hoards of House Sparrows that swarm the feeders. They gorge themselves until it seems they couldn't possibly fly away. I have switched the suet from a rennet and seed cake to a rennet and insect cake. House Sparrows like seeds, and will less likely ransack the insect cake. I stopped refilling the sunflower seed feeder for a few days, hoping the sparrows will eventually move on. In the meantime I worked up a watercolor of one as therapy. And if you want a fat Passer domesticus, it's in the STORE.

Eurasian Wryneck and Edward Donovan

2010-10-26T15:17:00.010-05:00

I was recently tipped off to the work of self-taught, British naturalist Edward Donovan. Donovan was active during the earlier part of the 19th century. I have a very small collection of natural history prints. I am sure there is nothing there that any serious collector would consider valuable. I buy what I like, and what fits my very modest antique print budget. Donovan's work fits my requirements perfectly, as it is generally very reasonably priced. And so I have become the proud owner of one of his small, hand-colored engravings.

Seeking out Donovan's work not only provided me with an opportunity to learn about another naturalist artist, but also to learn about a species of bird with which I was not familiar: the Eurasian Wryneck Jynx torquilla. I was immediately drawn to Donovan's rendering of this strange little bird, and before purchasing the print, I did some research on the species.

Wrynecks belong to a suborder of Piciformes called Jynginae. Piciformes include woodpeckers, and although wrynecks are not true woodpeckers, they share some of their physical traits (long tongue and arrangement of foot tendons) and foraging behavior. One of their most distinctive traits, however, is also their namesake. Wrynecks have the ability to turn their heads almost 180 degrees. When disturbed they can use this snake-like neck movement and hissing as a threat display. As a result, these poor fellows were often used in witchcraft as a way to put a 'jinx' on someone (and who knows what that entailed. Christine O'Donell? What?).

When I went in to the Field Museum last week, Dave Willard indulged my curiousity and pulled a few wryneck specimens from the collections for me to photograph. The first image is of my Donovan print. The second is of a few Field specimens of Jynx torquilla. You can see how well Donovan captured their bark-like plumage in his rendering. The second photo is of a Jynx ruficollis, a species of wryneck that dwells in African forests. You can view a little clip of a wryneck displaying its snaking neck antics HERE.

American Camp, San Juan Island

2010-10-20T17:28:00.006-05:00

I have been working on this watercolor since my trip to the San Juan Islands last month. On the southern end of San Juan Island there is an area called American Camp which is part of the San Juan Island National Historical Park. It's a beautiful part of the island with huge swaths of golden prairie over looking the massive Strait of Juan de Fuca. It's beaches are sandy and full of giant pieces of driftwood. It's a great spot to bird and whale watch, or just spend the day reading. In the mid 1800s war almost broke out over a dead pig between the United States and Great Britain. The Pig War as it became to be known, was settled without bloodshed. You can read about it by clicking on the link.

Both the American Camp and the British Camp to the north, still harbor some remnants of their former military inhabitants. A few structures remain, but there is also the flora and fauna that, for better or for worse, was introduced to the island: mainly rabbits. American Camp is overrun with bunnies. Sometimes when we have walked the praire at dusk, it is so spotted with rabbits, it feels like we're in the middle of Watership Down. The rabbits were brought by the U.S. military for food, but once the camp was abandoned the rabbits did what rabbits do best: multiply like crazy. Then sometime in the 1970s (I think?) red foxes were introduced to the island to control the feral rabbit population. The foxes, like their rabbit prey, have also multiplied. This last trip, within a half hour window, we spotted four red foxes. Their colors ranged from red, brown, silver, to black. Once we saw a silver one sitting in a field, surrounded by lots of strangely unwary bunnies. He sat looking sated and like he was about to fall asleep. It was as if he was bored and overwhelmed with such bounty.

*The watercolor is available in The Store.

BibliOdessy: Chinese Bird Prints

2010-10-18T11:38:00.004-05:00

Hello and Happy Monday at you. BibliOdessy is one of my favorite blogs to browse, find inspiration from, and generally just drool over. Recently they posted these beautiful Chinese qouaches of birds. I had to share. The entire collection of the gouaches can be viewed online at the Royal Digital Library of Belgium.The album also includes exquisite gouaches of butterflies. Enjoy!

Birding in Hyde Park, New Print Available in Shop

2010-10-06T12:17:00.010-05:00

A couple of weekends ago, I did a little fall bird watching with my friend Renate at Wooded Isle, down in Hyde Park. Renate and I had gone a handful of times in the spring, and so it was interesting to see what would be around in the fall. The first painting documents what we saw on a day in May. The second painting (the one with the noticeably fewer birds in it!) documents what we were able to spot in late September. One of the challenges that became quickly apparent about fall bird watching, is that most of the adult birds have molted out of their flashy breeding plumage and in to their more drab non-breeding attire. In addition, to make things even more confusing, there are a lot of first year birds that have not yet grown in to adult plumage. So, even for the more seasoned pairs of eyes amongst our bird watching group, there was a good amount of guesswork involved in terms of trying to identify specific species. If the sightings were slim that day, there was no disappointment from my end. A few birds sighted, walking in one of Chicago's more beautiful parks, good company, and a great meal afterwards was more than enough to satisfy all of my appetites.

Some of you had asked if I would be making a print edition of the first painting, back when I initially posted it to the blog in May. I decided to take you up on it! It is now available as an 8 x 10 inch, limited edition of 30, archival ink jet print. It is beautifully printed on Hahnemuhle archival (and sustainable!) bamboo paper by the fine folks at Iolabs in Rhode Island.

The print is available HERE

Black Oystercatcher - Haematopus bachmani

2010-10-04T09:00:00.008-05:00

While staying on the San Juan Islands, I saw quite a few Black Oystercatchers. They were easy to spot: they are about the size of ravens, and their bills and eyes are a striking tomato orange. They were also fun to watch as they foraged the many intertidal pools around the islands for mollusks. I often spotted them in pairs, and just recently found out that mating pairs bond for life. Black Oystercatchers belong to the Haematopodidae family which consists of all species of oystercatchers. The only two North American species are H. bachmani (named by J. Audubon for his friend Reverend John Bachman), and the American Oystercatcher - H. palliatus.

Marbled Murrelet - Brachyramphus marmoratus

2010-09-29T09:05:00.007-05:00

While spending my five days out on San Juan Island staring out at the Salish Sea, I spotted all sorts of creatures: harbor seals, Dall's porpoises, orcas, Bald Eagles, Black Oystercatchers, Rhinceros Auklets, and Marbled Murrelets. Jay and I would set up camp at a quiet spot near the old lighthouse at Lime Kiln Point, read our books (Jay read Steinbeck, I read a book about Ernest Shackleton), and wait. One day we were treated to a sighting of a baby harbor seal, and then later (amazingly) a pod of orcas. The islands are famous for their 'resident' pods of orcas that feed solely on salmon. The pod that we saw, however, was a family group of 'transients'. The transient orcas dwell out in the Pacific, and are genetically distinct from the resident populations. These orcas also have a much more varied diet by feeding on seals, sea lions, and other whales. Our pod came quite close to shore. We could see and hear the mist coming from their blowholes as they surfaced, and watched as they moved through tangled forests of bull kelp.

There were plenty of bird sightings as well, of course. It's always a treat to visit one of the coasts, as I always see species that I would never have the chance to see back home in the land locked Midwest. One of these is the Marbled Murrelet. Murrelets are sea dwelling, diving birds of the Alcid family. They are unique among Alcids, though, because they nest in old growth forests along the coasts. For years, ornithologists could not locate where these birds were nesting due to their secretive, solitary habits. A reward was even offered to the first person to locate a Marbled Murrelet nest. After about a century of searching the first nest was found in the 1960s. Even to this day, very little is known about the breeding habits and behavior of this bird. It is, however, apparent that numbers are declining due to logging and oil spills (surprise!). My sighting was of an adult in non-breeding plumage (as shown above) bobbing about in the Salish Sea. It seemed to happily ride the waves, and then would disappear quickly beneath the surface, rising a couple of minutes later with a tiny meal of fish.

2010-09-27T12:30:00.006-05:00

Hello! I returned from my travels to the beautiful Pacific Northwest sometime ago, and now have caught up enough with the other parts of my life to dive back in to the Tiny Aviary. I have a fresh little batch of watercolors to share, one of which will be going to the winner of the previous contest post: Congrats Amy (Please contact me via email with your shipping address)! I will be posting that image, along with some rambling about my trip to the San Juan Islands, later this week.

I am happy to report that I have been very busy. I'm in the middle of a couple a large book illustration jobs that will take me through the end of the year. The other reason for my absence and why I haven't been able to go in to the Field Museum as much recently, is that me and my sweet husband Jay are expecting our first child. We're super excited, as you can imagine. I am already fantasizing about the birdwatching hikes we'll take and her (yes, baby is of the girl type!) introduction to natural history museums. Poor baby has no idea what she is in for with a couple of nutty parents like us!

Back soon with more. Thanks so much for hanging in there, and checking in. xo Diana

Field Museum Photos Contest!

2010-08-31T14:06:00.006-05:00

Hello! I am on vacation in the wonderful Pacific Northwest, the San Juan Islands specifically. I have limited internet access (ha -thankfully!), but here's a few photos from the public collections of the Field Museum that I took while I was there a couple of weeks ago. Here's the contest: The first person to post a comment to this blog with the correct names of each of the species in these 3 photos will win a 6 x 8 inch watercolor from me. I don't know what the watercolor will be of yet, but I am planning on something from my travels here. I'll be back 9/9 to post the painting and the winner. Go!

Blue Bird-of-Paradise; Paradisaea rudolphi

2010-08-25T09:53:00.006-05:00

Oh HI. It's been a while, no? I'm a bad blogger, but I swear I have a very good reason for my absence. I will post about it soon. I haven't been able to go in to the Field Museum (sadness!) either, but finally got my butt back in there last week. It was nice to see everybody. Most of the scientists had returned from their various summer field excursions. Dave Willard, bird collections manager, had just returned from a long visit to Peru.

So, last week I spent my time at the Field reacquainting myself with the collections, took a bunch of photos, and sat down to do a little painting. And here's the latest result: a male Blue Bird-of-Paradise. There was a specimen in the public collection that I worked from (photo). They're so spectacular, I couldn't resist! Male Blue birds-of-paradise will, as you can see, hang upside down to make their spectacular, feathery displays for discerning females. Some of you that have seen the wonderful Planet Earth series would have seen some footage of this behavior there.

Well, I hope not to be such a stranger these days to Tiny Aviary, and hope, dear reader you will extend your patience and forgiveness for my absence. I am traveling next week to Seattle and the beautiful Pacific Northwest, but will post again before then. After I return on Sept. 8th, I should be updating more often. I hope you all have had a wonderful summer. As for myself, I am ecstatic that autumn is on its way!

*The watercolor is available in the Store.

Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock; Rupicola rupicola

2010-06-08T09:08:00.006-05:00

I first saw a picture of Rupicola rupicola in an old encyclopedia belonging to my grandparents. I was immediately drawn to it's bright orange plumage, and the male's flamboyant half moon crest that obscures both face and beak. They're native to South America, and the males use leks to attract females. Leks are areas, or clearings (whether in forest or prairie) where many males of that particular species will congregate and display for spectating females. Prairie chickens and Sage Grouse are species here in North America that use this system as well.

I had to complete a painting recently for this show. I couldn't decide what to paint, and then when I was at the Field Museum, browsing the collections, I decided to look up some specimens of Guianan Cock-of-the- Rocks. The first image is of my surrealist two-headed rupicola painting on plywood, and the second is a detail photo of one of the specimens I used for reference.

Monster Loon

2010-06-03T13:09:00.003-05:00

Busy busy this week, but I found this while trolling through my Field Museum pictures. Dave Willard had been helping me to locate a specimen of an American Kestrel for a commissioned painting I had been working on. While I was waiting for him to pull the specimen from the collections cabinets, I looked over and found this thing sitting on a table! It was a large plaster sculpture of what Dave called an ancient relative of modern day loons. I think of loons as these peaceful water birds that grace postcards of Minnesota, with haunting calls filling northern spring evenings. This thing, however, looks like an avian torpedo that could remove a few limbs from unsuspecting humanoid swimmers. Cool!

I asked Dave if I could take it home.

He said no.

The Story of Brown Creeper S09-100

2010-05-27T21:38:00.009-05:00

About a month ago, when I was working in the bird division prep lab at the Field Museum, I worked on making a study skin of a particular Brown Creeper: number S09-100. If you have followed my blog for sometime, then you will probably know that creepers are amongst my favorite species of birds. S09-100 had a somewhat sad, but ultimately very interesting story. In 2008, it was found injured near a downtown building. It was taken to the Willowbrook Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. The track record for rehabilitating a song bird well enough to release back in to the wild isn't so hot. Song birds are extremely sensitive creatures, and I imagine trying to treat one while not stressing it out is a tricky balancing act. This fellow, however, fully recovered from his injuries and was set free.

Hold the applause, because here is the sad part.

Almost exactly one year after he had been found the first time, he was found again, and no more than a block away from the first location. Unfortunately, he didn't survive his collision with the building. So, yes, a sad ending, but isn't it amazing that he was found so close to the original location, and almost exactly one year later? Tracking a bird like this has yielded some unique insight in to their migration habits. This would also imply that birds aren't learning to avoid the buildings, making it all the more important to continue to find ways to decrease the impact urban environments have on migrating birds. Hopefully the fellow was able to father a bunch of little S09-100s during the time between his release and return.

*watercolor above is available in the store.

Birding in Jackson Park

2010-05-25T10:03:00.008-05:00

Last week I took an unintentional hiatus from Tiny Aviary. Excuse the absence of posts. I guess I was spending too much time outside birding and planting a native prairie patch in our backyard!

Actually, I am a terrible birder. I don't go on birding trips. I don't keep a formal life list. I have never done a Christmas Count. I am trying to change this. A couple of weekends ago, I met up with a friend of mine in Hyde Park. She lives across from a wonderful park located just south of the Museum of Science and Industry. It's historic Jackson Park. Created long ago for the World's Columbian Exposition, it is now one of Chicago's best birding hot spots. All that remains of the Columbian Exposition is the museum, and the Japanese Garden. The park has many different habitats: prairie, forest, wetlands. Due to its diversity of habitat, and being located along the lake, it supports a rich variety of bird species.

Renata and I meet up in the morning and stroll with another dedicated group of birders. We probably spend a good hour and a half walking the park grounds. I recently had someone interview me and they asked that since I live in an urban environment, how was it possible for me to be inspired by nature. I thought about this as I tallied up the number of bird species I had seen on this one outing. Once you develop an awareness for nature, you begin to look for it everywhere, and then you realize, even in an urban environment, there is a lot to see. You have to know to look for it, and then know where to look for it. On that note, here is the final tally for my Jackson Park excursion. Not bad for an urban environment, eh? Unfortunately, these were all birds I was familiar with from the prep lab at the Field Museum. These are almost all species that migrate through Chicago, and are prone to building collisions. It was lovely to see these individuals alive and well, flitting about the old oak trees and giant cottonwoods. We were even fortunate enough to see a Baltimore Oriole in its woven nest.

Cape May Warbler
Palm Warbler
Yellow Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Northern Parula
American Redstart (both male and female)
Eastern Kingbird
Least Flycatcher (or some other Epidonax species)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Baltimore Oriole (and nest)
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Wren (heard)
Catbird
Black-crowned Night Heron
Green Heron
White-crowned Sparrow
Pied-billed Grebe
Scarlet Tanager

Taiga - New Screenprint

2010-05-08T11:58:00.006-05:00

Well, it's been a really fun week working in Austin at the Decoder Ring Design Concern, and here is what we have to show for it. "Taiga" is a 20 color, limited edition screenprint on heavyweight, cotton rag paper. I am currently still curating the prints, but the edition size should end up being around 100, or just over. I'm a little sad that I have to go home tomorrow, especially since the weather has been so beautiful. The Decoder Ring studio is in a really sweet location too. It shares space with a landscaper, and so I've been surrounded by agave plants, stands of bamboo, and live oak all weekend. The print is currently available at The Decoder Ring.

Was Ist Das?

2010-05-04T14:00:00.003-05:00

Well right now, it's a collection of vague, flat shapes. But by the end of this week, hopefully it will be a 15 to 20 color screenprint of Arctic wildlife. What you are looking at is four colors, and of course the the key line drawing will not be printed until the very end. I'm in Austin working on this print with the Decoder Ring folks. So far so good. At the very least, I can't complain about the weather. It's absolutely gorgeous here. I'll be back next week with a photo of the final print!

All My Eggs In One Basket

2010-04-30T14:56:00.008-05:00

Ok, not really; more like in several boxes. Alright, they're not even my eggs. I was at the Field Museum yesterday, and somebody had pulled out these boxes and trays of beautiful eggs. I couldn't resist a couple of shots with the iPhone. The subtleties and variation of color and pattern are lovely, no?

I'm off to Austin next week to be a guest artist at the Decoder Ring Design Concern making a print with them for their art screepnprint series. Speaking of new prints, I am still plugging away at the etching I have been doing with White Wings. I'll post more when I return, and get a Flickr page set up with images from the process.

In the meantime, a friend forwarded this interesting article about bird parasitism. There are some species of birds, such as cuckoos and cowbirds, that lay their eggs in the nests of other species. The article documents some of the more intricate dynamics of this relationship through photos. Here's the article, courtesy BBC Earth News.

Tiny Watercolors

2010-04-24T21:41:00.006-05:00

I'm currently in the process of having a new website designed (*yay*), and so I worked on some tiny spot illustrations for it this weekend. It's all of my favorite things: lichen, moss, corvids, and rhinoceros beetles!

Horned Grebe - Podiceps auritus

2010-04-21T21:54:00.005-05:00

Two weeks ago, I worked on preparing a Horned Grebe for the Field Museum collections. It had been found on the beach here in Chicago. No doubt it had been on its way north to breeding grounds in Canada, and up towards Alaska. It was in non-breeding plumage, meaning not what you see depicted here. It had a white breast and neck, and the rest of it was a dark, smokey brown. April through August, both male and female Horned Grebes acquire a much bolder, and warmer color palette. Grebes belong to the family Podicipedidae. They forage for food by diving, and build floating nests on marshy ponds. Their feet are lobed, and they have tiny, almost nonexistent tails.

*the grebe painting is now available in the Store.

Golden-crowned Kinglet - Regulus satrapa

2010-04-19T10:32:00.011-05:00

We've had a guest staying with us for the last week: artist Aaron Horkey. He and Jay are working on a collaborative print together, which is very exciting. Last Thursday, both Jay and Aaron came with me to the Field Museum. Aaron wanted to check out shrike specimens as research for another project of his, and then go view the Mammoth exhibit with Jay while I worked up in the prep lab. Dave (Willard) was kind enough to give Aaron access to the Loggerhead and Northern Shrike specimens, and Aaron spent a good portion of the day drawing from them. For my part, I worked on making study skins of two birds Dave had taken out of the freezer: Golden-crowned Kinglet, and a Brown Creeper. Both specimens were interesting and valuable for different reasons. Kinglets are tiny, insectivores that favor coniferous forests at northern latitudes. They are coming through the Chicago area right about now, and occasionally we have some window kills that make it in to the lab. The particular kinglet that I worked on last week was unique for its crown coloring. Golden-crowned kinglets have a bright slash of orange/yellow on the top of their heads. It usually tends towards the orange end of the color spectrum. This one that Dave gave me to work on had a crown that was almost a white-ish yellow. It's sad that the little fellow crossed my path in the lab, but having a color variation like that is a very important source of scientific data, and a valuable addition to the collections. I'll post about the Brown Creeper a bit later.

Harlequin Duck - Histrionicus histrionicus

2010-04-12T17:01:00.008-05:00

I am pretty sure there are few things more sublime than the breeding plumage of a male Harlequin Duck. I remember looking at them in my first Peterson guide, and my 10 year old brain thinking that the day I could see something as beautiful as the Harlequin, it would be a pretty good day. That day was last Thursday, when volunteering at the Field Museum. Dave Willard strolled in to the lab to say that a Harlequin Duck had been spotted out in Monroe Harbor, on the north side of the museum. Like any good bird nerd, I scrambled for my coat and followed Dave and the other 2 volunteers outside. It's spring here, but the weather was still brisk. Our little group stood at the edge of the harbor, while Dave scanned the water with his binoculars. He quickly spotted it, and easily picked it out of a large group of American Coots bobbing about in the choppy waves. Its bold, white patterning was unmistakable, even from a healthy distance. At first it was squatting happily on a concrete break wall, constantly being splashed and sprayed with cold Lake Michigan water. They have a preference for cold, turbulent waters, and are very agile swimmers. This was quickly demonstrated by it getting in to the water and diving repeatedly. Harlequin sightings in Chicago, I believe, are quite infrequent. There are wintering populations on both coasts in the northern regions, and then breeding grounds as far north as Alaska, and Newfoundland. I'm not sure where exactly this fellow was headed, or from whence he came. Perhaps he flew off course as he was heading north from east coast wintering grounds. Hopefully, as I write this, he has continued on his way north and will find a wind swept, wave pummeled, rocky ledge in Newfoundland, and a mate that will appreciate his impressive plumage.

*watecolor available in the store.

American Kestrel - Falco spaverius

2010-04-11T20:21:00.006-05:00

Over the weekend I finished this latest commissioned watercolor of an American Kestrel. It's 11 x 14 inches. When I lived in Northside Chicago, I'd see kestrels quite often. I usually would spot them hunting scrubby patches of grass that line the Metra tracks. There was a pair that was nesting in a gigantic cottonwood tree near the tracks at Berteau and Wolcott. I've done paintings of kestrels before, and every time that I do, I marvel at their beautiful coloring and pattern. Now that I live in Evanston, where there is arguably more green space, I almost never see them. I am far more likely to see the larger Cooper's Hawk. In fact I spotted a Cooper's as I walked Seth, my greyhound, this morning. I saw its sharp, long tailed silhouette bullet in to a large tree.

Plumage

2010-04-06T13:06:00.005-05:00

When I went to the Field Museum last week for my volunteer shift, I had Dave help me suss out some American Kestrel specimens. I have a commissioned watercolor I am working on of a Kestrel, and so wanted some reference photos of their plumage. I love taking closeup photos of bird feathers. The top two are from an American Kestrel specimen, and the bottom two are from a Horned Grebe that I worked on making in to a specimen later in the day.

Curious Cardigans Video

2010-03-29T20:44:00.005-05:00

I spent today getting mail orders together. If you have been waiting on a print, many thanks for your patience. Tomorrow and Wednesday I'll be in the intaglio studio again with Teresa James at White Wings press, working on my etching. In the meantime, I was lucky enough be interviewed by two very talented people: Nadine Nakanishi and Nick Butcher of Chicago's Sonnenzimmer Press. They have started a video project called the Curious Cardigans. It's a new artist series produced for the Show & Tell Show in Chicago. It serves to document some of Chicago's artists and their sometimes strange inspirations. Strange inspirations? Exhibit A, coming right up! So, for those of you who are curious about what I do at the Field Museum, here's a tiny glimpse:

Curious Cardigans Meet Diana Sudyka Video

Warning: Brief scene in which we visit the dermestid beetle room.

Inspired by Nature

2010-03-26T10:17:00.007-05:00

It's interesting to see how other artists are inspired by the natural world, especially when they work in mediums completely different from one's own. ELINtm from Bristol, UK makes objects inspired by lichens and mold. Yes, I said mold. ELINtm is Elin Thomas, an artist and jewelry maker. Thomas creates extraordinary objects that are decorated with tiny, exquisite crocheted lichens and molds. As someone that crochets, and as someone that has a lichen obsession, I am astounded by the beauty and detail in her work. Last year I was fortunate enough to snag a sale piece of hers. It currently hangs (grows out of) above the fireplace mantel (third photo). Visit Elin's shop on etsy here. Her blog is here. Have a great weekend. More etching updatery next week.

New Etching

2010-03-24T19:10:00.012-05:00

Oh happiness! I started a new etching at White Wings Press today. White Wings Press is run by master printer, Teresa James. Teresa and I used to work together at Tony Fitzpatrick's studio, Big Cat Press, a long time ago. It's really nice to have the opportunity to work with her again, and in her own shop. Today we began by discussing my idea, and then I started drawing on the first of what will probably be a five plate etching. We began with what is called a soft ground. A soft, waxy resist is rolled over the copper plate. Teresa and her assistant Will can be seen tending to this step in the second photo. After the resist cools a bit, a piece of vellum drawing paper is placed on top of the plate. By drawing on the vellum with a bit of pressure and a hard graphite pencil, line work is transfered in to the waxy resist. Once line work is complete, the copper plate is put in a bath of ferric chloride. The ferric etches the line work in to the plate. Right now things are looking real landscape-y. I'll try to post updates, and more photos as we progress.

Back from Austin, New Prints

2010-03-23T15:11:00.005-05:00

I was in Austin, TX last week for SXSW, specifically the Flatstock Poster Convention part of it. Thanks to all that took the time to swing by my booth! This week I won't be able to post much either, as tomorrow I will be working as a guest artist at White Wings Press, here in Chicago. I will finally get to begin work on my new etching! I'll be sure to post photos as things progress. In the meantime, I am very excited to announce that I have new batch of prints in the store. There are four new giclees: Yeti Drinks Tea, Two Rooks, Adélies, and Bear Mountain. There is also a new screenprint: Darwin's Finches. It is based on the last Darwin's Finches print that I made, but is a new drawing, colors, and size.

Northern Saw-whet Owl - Aegolius acadicus

2010-03-12T10:41:00.007-06:00

After meeting Noel the Saw-whet owl at the Univeristy of Illinois Wildlife Medical Clinic, I had to do a little painting. Saw-whets are one of the smallest North American owls, and can be found in highly coniferous, woodland habitats. They are nocturnal, of course, and prey upon small mammals such as mice.

Spring is here, and birds are migrating. Next week I am off to Austin, TX for SXSW. In the meantime here is a little poem I was made aware of last week. It's Avian Time by Reginald Gibbons, and wonderfully illuminates the work of the Field Museum Bird Collections Manager, and other bird collision monitors.

Members' Night, Mammoths and Spiders Oh My

2010-03-11T15:42:00.013-06:00

I went in to the Field Museum bird division this morning for my usual shift of working on study skins. I completed three today: two Connecticut Warblers (Geothylpis agilis), and one Magnolia Warbler (Dendroica magnolia). All were window kills from last fall.

The lab was the cleanest I have ever seen it. That was because tonight and tomorrow night are Members' Night at the Field. Scientists were busy scurrying about to get everything neat and tidy, and their displays set up. I stopped by a room with two entomologists setting up gorgeous specimen displays of various insects and arachnids (see above photos). I met one of the resident Mexican Redknee Tarantulas. It was a young (7 months) male; er, most likely male, anyway. Redknees can live up to 30 years. I am not a arachnophobe, per se, but usually like to keep a respectful distance from our eight legged friends. I was not afforded the luxury of distance when one of the entomologists, without asking, cheerily plopped Mr. Brachypelma smithi into my hand with a "Here ya' go!". The tarantula relaxed in to my palm, as I looked at its 2, no 4, wait...nevermind...eyes. I was calm, so it was calm. He was soft and docile, and I was little bummed when he had to return to his aquarium. I have a feeling Mr. Brachypelma will be working the crowds tonight.

After my close arachnid encounter, I wandered down to visit the new Mammoths and Mastodons exhibit, featuring the amazing, preserved baby woolly mammoth: Lyuba.