Every time I focus on a bird I thought was familiar, I learn the most amazing new things — like the fact that the peregrine falcon is the fastest creature on earth, reaching speeds of over 200 mph in its dives.
Southwest Willow Flycatcher
Southwest willow flycatcher. If you are fly fishing and it occurs to you that the mosquitoes are not as bad as you feared, these little guys may well be the cause.
Spotted Owl
Zion National Park was designated as critical habitat for the endangered Mexican Spotted Owl in 2004. Although they are usually found in forest habitat, they do well in the shadowed canyons where they blend into the rocks and have plenty of ledges and outcroppings to perch on as they watch for deer mice and voles and other rodents. This drawing was based on video taken by Zion Ranger Mark Ratchford in 2020.
A Wake-up Call
As I look at endangered and threatened birds in Utah, I realize I need to start with a bird that is now extinct, but once flew over Utah skies in unbelievable numbers, as it did across much of the States and around the world: the passenger pigeon. Estimates of their population in the early 19th century are as high as five billion, and dense flocks a mile wide and two miles long took hours to pass; in 1914, the last passenger pigeon in the world, Martha, died in the Cincinnati Zoo. Their sudden decline and ultimate extinction, witnessed in real time, was the start of a widespread concern with bird populations. This piece is based on a photograph of preserved specimens at the Field Museum of Natural HIstory in Chicago, photograph by Marc Schlossman. And the colors are inspired by Audobon’s portrait of the tragic birds.
Bendire’s Thrasher
As I enter my last couple weeks of “My Year of Birds,” I want to focus on endangered, threatened, and sensitive birds seen in Utah…. Tonight, a Bendire’s Thrasher, a secretive little desert bird who often hangs out on the ground, and whose survival is threatened by a changing climate and loss of habitat. This wee portrait inspired by a photograph by Amy Hunt, posted on Flickr.
Daily Cluck
Chickens are both so quotidian and so mysterious…
Blue Bird of Bewilderment
Laying in the Dark
The Chicken that Laid the Golden Eggs…
Cloissoné Chicken II
