Bird sketches

A few sketches done in a WWF natural reserve near Rome, in May, through my telescope, and coloured at home. Curlew sandpipers, wood sadpipers,  and black-winged stilts. Ah- and a (female) marsh harrier.

When I originally sketched these, I only used graphite pencils. It's hard enough to squint through a telescope and hold a sketchbook, maybe trying to identify a bird on the book, while splashes of rain make you run for shelter from time to time!
So the colours remained in my backpack and the sketches stayed colourless in my book for a while. But I itched to give them some body and setting. So I found time and will after a couple of weeks from the actual observation. If you wish to compare, I've posted both versions ( and latin names of birds) to my blog Conci's colours.
For me it's like a little miracle every time I can bring back to life something that I've observed, and colour helps so much, though you can do excellent work without.
Pencil scans very poorly- at least on my scanner- so the effect on the web is altered by contrasting it and making it look blacker that graphite actually is- it loses its grey warmth that's so pleasant.