Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Bittern sketches


While watching the Beeston Bittern a couple of weeks back (see below), I indulged in a wee spot of sketching, between bouts of digiscoping...
One thing about sketching, I found, is how it makes me look at a bird more carefully and closely than I would otherwise. So, I noticed just where the feathering starts on the upper and lower parts of the bill, the position and shape of the nostril,the extent of the bare skin before the eye and the slight curve in the cutting edges of the bill.

ps I have to thank Katie 'Bogumper' Fuller for getting me this little sketchbook a few years a go (for a quid), and I'd also like to comment how she showed great restraint after visiting this same Bittern, not to blog a pic of herself at the scene labelled 'Bogbumper by Beeston Bump Bogbumper by Bogbumper'.

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