Red Shouldered Hawk in Caspar

As I drive along Highway One on the Mendocino Coast, going north from Caspar to Ft. Bragg I often see a small hawk sitting on a power line to the west of the road. I've been seeing this for probably over 10 years. It's either the same hawk or others just like it. It's almost always in exactly the same place. I have thought for years about stopping on the other side of the highway and trying to get a picture of it. Well, I just acquired a new toy, a small Canon camera with a 40X optical zoom. Like my old one but with 3 times the zoom power. It's pretty far out.
Yesterday as I was driving this route I saw it and I immediately pulled over to the side of the road, rolled down my window and took a number of shots at maximum zoom. This is the one I liked best. I looked it up on the internet to find out that it was a red shouldered hawk. It's somewhat smaller than the red tailed hawks we see here also. Feasts mostly on small mammals. I'm glad that I was able to get a good shot and identify it and be able to see the details of its feathers and body.

Irises in Ft.Bragg

In walking the streets of Ft. Bragg recently I've been seeing a visual treasure of flowers in bloom and smelling the wonderful fragrances wafting in the air on warm days. I've been especially enjoying the beautiful irises and taking pictures of them. Here are some of my favorites so far.

Birds, birds, birds

I've recently started drawing simple birds and adding them to the textured drawings that I have been doing for 60 plus years. I started doing the textured drawings on the edge of notebook paper in boring junior high classes in about 1957. Some of the bird images come from photographs I've taken some from images from books. I'm planning to continue this play and hope to start adding other creatures soon.

Raven at the Beach

Carlie and I were walking at Glass Beach a couple of days ago and a large raven was doing an odd and interesting thing, fluffing/puffing out the feathers on it's head and neck and opening it's mouth. I think it was making some soft sounds but the ocean was too loud for me to hear clearly. It did this for several minutes and let us get to within 6 feet of it while it was doing it. It seemed ritualistic somehow, although Carlie wondered if it had something stuck in it's throat perhaps. When it stopped doing it, it starting walking around and I made soft clucking sounds to it. It walked to within probably 4 feet from me but then some other people came along the trail and it flew off. BUT I was able to take a lot of pictures during the time that it was close and got one that I really like. I've taken a lot of pictures of ravens here over the years but never one that shows the subtle colors and shades of it's feathers like this one

Buck in the Yard

When we recently returned from being out of town I found this handsome fellow hanging out in the back yard. We live in a neighborhood of houses in Ft. Bragg and the house next to ours has a very large yard, the size of 3 or 4 normal sized yards and is filled with trees and nobody lives full time in the big old house that is on the property. Because of this, various critters sometimes hang out there. Raccoons, possums, a month or so ago a very loud barn owl was there at night sometimes and, of course deer, like this one and the occasional skunk. They come up from Pudding Creek which is north of us and is an avenue for a lot of diverse wildlife as the water flows from the east and into the ocean near where we live. Normally I chase deer back over the fence into the big yard but I liked looking at this young guy so let him stay until he decided it was time to depart.

Bee out Back

This little guy was back on my back deck today. I think he was on his last legs as he wouldn't move much even when I touched him gently. The situation let me take lots of pictures from lots of different angles though and I got this one which I really like. Trying to have more flowers for pollinators each year. This is a native here on the coast but I forgot its name.

Up in My Artio

I've converted most of the second floor of my house into an Artio where I have tables and shelves and easels set up where I do drawing, painting, collage work and play music. The intensity with which I pursue these activities varies through time but it feels as if the upcoming year will see a lot of work/play done there. The picture on the left is of the left half of a collage of images I have been working on for a few weeks. The finished collage will be 20 x 30 inches. One of my long term obsessions is harvesting images from magazines and books. I go through 5 to 10 magazines a day and a  couple of books and tear and cut out images. I have boxes and boxes full of images, some from as long as 20 years ago. Upcoming are collages in which I will integrate drawn elements, painting, words and perhaps handmade papers.

Ever since I started doodling and drawing on the edges of notebook paper in junior high school 60 years ago I've had a fascination with pattern and texture and line and still do. This drawing to the right is 17 x 20 inches.

Another collage done last year, magazine images, papers from Racine's, a little drawing.

Another drawing of pattern and texture. The colored background was created with stamping using a stamp that I made from a rubber eraser. I used a felt tipped calligraphy pen to add the color. It is 20 x 30 inches.

And finally a mixture of collage,  (the red lines and yellow sun) and drawing (the textured red dots). 10 x 14 inches.

Who knows what if anything this all means? I only know that I enjoy it, I'm peaceful and happy when I'm doing it and sometimes people enjoy seeing them.