Common house geckos

The Common house gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus, originates in South Asia and North Africa, but has "colonized" most of the world, traveling aboard ships! In Rome, it is very common, with 50 or more individuals per building. I believe there are more, but then, of course, I keep a fresh reserve of earthworms for them on my balcony. However, here geckos never grow as large nor as numerous as I've seen them in places such as Thailand. During a summer vacation, years ago, I used to enjoy watching their territorial fights punctuated by their calls, which sound so much like their names repeated twice: gecko, gecko!

This little guy is a Mediterranean House Gecko, Hemidactylus turcicus, and like all geckos is excellent at camouflage. He had made himself look like the wall he was sitting upon so well it took me a while to actually see him.

Iberian Wolf

I sketched this funny looking guy at the Natural History Museum here in Rome. In reality he's fierce-looking, but he came out as a sort of cartoon. I used one of my favourite pencils, a soft black oil base Faber-Castell. So smooth and so rich in colour.

The Iberian wolf, Canis lupus signatus, is a subspecies of the Eurasian wolf, and gets its name from the dark marks - signatus - on his tail and front legs. Can you see them?

Once considered a pest and brought close to extinction through years of persecution, it's now recovering. The loberos, wolf hunters, don't enjoy as much respect as they used to and their traps are now illegal, although hunting is, sadly, still permitted in most of Spain.

Livestock market

The first Sunday of every month, a livestock fair is held in Osteria Nuova, a small town near Rome.

I don't like places where live animals are traded, but am drawn to them... It was packed with people, and quite cold, so I realized a few quick sketches to which I added a splash of colour later at home.

On the right are black pigs from Rieti, a town north of Rome. It's an ancient breed of pigs that used to be bred in the wild and almost became extinct around the 1950s. They have now recovered.

Here on the left, is another endangered breed, the Amiata donkey, from Tuscany. These gentle creatures are now the subject of many scientific studies aiming to gain enough knowledge to preserve and protect them.

My latest rescue

Here's my latest rescue, a white rock dove, Columba livia.

I understand that an age old tradition wants white rock pigeons to be released at weddings, as a symbol of peace and a long lasting relationship. Doves mate for life and raise their brood together. However, I thought that racing pigeons should be released at weddings, because they can fly back home. Something must be going wrong, as wildlife rescue centres get more and more distress calls, telling of white doves unable to take off after being released.

This one was picked up off the ground after the wedding was over. She does a lot of wing flapping, but barely lifts herself off the ground! Not much of a chance of her surviving in the wild. But, she makes a wonderful model and is a very elegant bird.

Feathers

I have finally started painting my small collection of feathers.

This first batch comes from a Red-legged partridge, Alectoris rufa. It is a gallinaceous bird found in Europe and in Asia.

I tried to identify them, hope I got them right: a flank feather, a plume from the breast, a primary, a secondary (these are wing feathers) and a tail feather.

A new ringing session

A few days ago I went ringing in the North of Italy. Weather forecast gave below zero temperatures and there were two feet of snow on the ground. My tutor and I went to the town of Cuneo, located at the feet of the Marine Alps. In town there's a small reserve, a little oasis for local and migratory birds.

We set up our mist nets in various "strategic" places, and I sketched one of them. The net is behind the green tree, next to the birdfeeder. The dark tree hid somewhat the net, which stood up too much against the white snow. Birds going to the feeder or flying away from it got caught in the net. Amongst the more numerous tits and finches, we caught an Eurasian Nuthatch. The first I ever put a ring on!

A female, as you can see by her buff flanks. The male has reddish rust buff flanks and belly.

Barbara Bacci

Madrid zoo - part II

It does come late, but this is the second series of sketches I realized at the zoo in Madrid.

Here I saw my first live lungfish, a creature that never ceases to surprise me. Propopterus, African lungfishes, live both in shallow waters, rivers and lakes. Lungfishes are obligate air breathers. If the river bed they inhabit dries up, they can spend months hidden in burrows.

Jumping to the opposite side of the evolutionary scale, a silverback.

With only a 1 to 2% difference between the gorilla's and the human's DNA, these animals are still kept in relatively small enclosures in zoos. So, I sketched him, while he looked at us listening to a talk on the social role of silverbacks...

I kept walking and sketching, delighted at the wonderful answers nature has for every environment and possibility.

Barbara Bacci,

Rome

Fur textures

I am practising rendering textures and in the impossibility to go out and look at the real thing, I have been using photo references. But only in preparation for a farm animal fair. I have also paid attention to the various breeds: A miniature Dutch hound bitch, a Mouton Vendéen sheep from Western France - males of this breed are dehorned, a female Contentin donkey from Normandy, France, and a Large White boar, from Yorkshire.

Barbara Bacci

Sketching at the Bergen History Museum

During a recent visit to Bergen, in Norway, I visited the Natural History Museum and had a wonderful time looking at their fascinating collection and sketching the animals. I spent some time with the marine birds, mysterious creatures capable of adapting to extreme weather conditions.

First, a male Eider duck. Eider ducks are well known for their down and its valuable insulation properties. Female ducks line their nest with this down and farmers collect the first lining; the duck will reline her nest before laying her eggs.

Then, I sketched a male long-tailed duck, which used to be called Oldsquaw in North America. Males are very vocal and produce a melodious repeated call.

Fulmars are seabirds who come ashore only for breeding. They are tube-nosed, and like all the other members of the order Procellariformes possess two tubular nostrils on top of the bill and an extraordinary sense of smell.

The Common Guillemots, or Common Murres, at the top of the page, are good flyers but far better divers. They catch their prey by pursuit diving, and use their wings underwater to propel themselves. They can reach depths of 600 feet (180 m) and remain underwater for up to two minutes.

Barbara Bacci,

Rome

An old nest

Recently, while setting up mist nets in a marsh, I found this old reed warbler's nest and took it home.

Reed warblers are small European migrants, who spend the winter in Africa, south of the Sahara, and return to Europe to breed in the spring.

Reed warblers are one of the species often parasitized by European cuckoos. Not all cuckoos do, but European cuckoos reproduce by way of brood parasitism, that is, they have a different species raising their young. Female cuckoos within the same population specialize in parasitizing different species, learning to mimic the eggs of the host species. Host species do watch out and if they spot a cuckoo near their nest, or the intruding egg, they will abandon the nest. Often, however, they incubate the cuckoo's egg.

As soon as it hatches, the young Cuckoo instinctively ejects any solid object it finds in the nest, using a small depression on its back.

From now on, it will receive all the care from its foster parents. And it's really necessary, as the cuckoo quickly grows bigger then its parents, who have to work extremely hard to raise it!

Barbara Bacci,

Rome

Tomatoes

These are san Marzano Italian tomatoes, and they come from our own Roman terrace, where they grow together with eggplants, peppers, salad and lemons... but we are planning to expand next year!

I was fascinated by the differenet shades of green, yellow, orange and red and tried my hand at an ACEO with coloured pencils.

Barbara Bacci,

Rome

A hundred roses

Traditions bind people together.

Every year my mother in law, Myriam, would throw a little party on her birthday, and invite her family. We would look forward to it, to spending time together, and catching up on each other's lives.

Myriam had three children, and one "adopted" Japanese son. He couldn't always make the trip over to Italy and join us, but he never failed to send her as many roses as the years she was celebrating.

Sadly, a few years ago Myriam passed away, so close to being a hundred years old, and much too soon. And so, this year her children organized a party to celebrate her and remember her. Who could make it was there. Mike came from Japan. And, there were a hundred gorgeous red roses, for a very special mother.

Happy birthday, Myriam.

Barbara Bacci,

Rome

Agaricus bisporus

This is a little exercise I did while and after cooking some cremini mushrooms. I started with an ink version, followed by a graphite and a watercolor rendering of the same mushroom, each from a different view.
Being curious, I immediately looked up Agaricus bisporus. This edible mushroom is sold in three stages of growth. So, we can buy young and mildly favoured "white mushrooms" or "button mushrooms". As it grows, its flesh darkens, and its flavour gets richer, it's called cremini, baby portobello, Roman, Italian. Finally, in maturity, when the cap starts to open slightly, it's known as portobello.

Barbara Bacci,
Rome

Roccoli, bird-catching towers

I am training to become a bird ringer, or bird bander, as it is called in the States. One of my teachers lives in Piedmont, which lies at the feet of the Alps, and works at the only bird-catching tower existing outside Lombardy. Roccoli, or bird-hunting towers, originated in the XV century in Lombardy, and were used exclusively by hunters. Now, they are used for catching birds for scientific purposes. Here's a view of the Roccolo in November. Bird towers are an art, you have to know which trees and bushes to plant, and where. Someone is always watching from the little window you can see at the top of the three stories tower. When birds alight on the dead branches, he/she will throw a "paura" over the birds. The "paura" is simply a wicker bat, but the birds perceive it as a flying raptor and when they see it they dive down into the thicket, getting caught in the mist nets. That's when you go down and take them out, and all the fun starts.
Sketches have to be super-fast, so as not to stress the birds, so I concentrate on little details. And details are the key to recognizing species, and determining sex and age. I find ringing is a fascinating experience, that takes you deep into the heart of nature.

The mushroom is a Slippery jack, and it's very tasty breaded and fried!


Barbara Bacci, Rome

Chisellers and other marvels

I recently completed a vertebrate zoology lesson on rodents, lagomorphs, and insectivores, only this time I had no live models to sketch from. It was fun nevertheless. And, I learned a lot.
This on the right is a shrew. In 1607, the English naturalist Edward Topsell described this little creature thus: "It is a ravening beast, feigning itself gentle and tame, but being touched it biteth deep, and poisoneth deadly. It beareth a cruel mind, desiring to hurt anything, neither is there any creature it loveth". Hence, the words "shrews", "shrewish", and "shrew", which in the English language describe cunning, ill-tempered, or villanous people. He was wrong, shrews are fascinating. If my photographic references have helped me being faithful to nature, the shrew I portraid is the smallest extant terrestrial mammal, a pigmy white-toothed shrew, weighing only 2 grams (0.07 oz)!

Mice belong to one of the most succesful Orders, the rodents. 42 percent of all mammal species are rodents, and they can occur in almost any habitat, generally in close association to people. Rodents, as their name implies, are expert at gnawing. They have self-sharpening incisors. Their incisors have enamel only on the front and lateral surfaces, so that grinding worns away the softer dentine in the back, transforming the enamel layer in a cutting edge. The incisors of rodents have open roots and grow throughout life, to compensate for wear. I first sketched this field mouse with a biro and then added texture with wax colored pencils.

Hares belong to the Order Lagomorphs, together with rabbits and pikas. The snow-shoe hare moults its fur twice a year and dons a white coat in the winter, for camouflage. Hares are expert runners, and their strategy in avoiding predators is exactly that, outrunning them. Some of the longer legged hares can reach a speed of 72 km/h (45 mph), while shorter-limbed rabbits hide in dense cover or in underground burrows.

Have a nice day everyone!

Barbara Bacci, Rome

Madrid zoo - part I

In september I went to Madrid, and decided to visit the zoo for some sketching practice and to feast my eyes on the wonders of nature. The zoo offers a few shows, one of them featuring sea lions, who greet visitors by waving their flippers. While I have very mixed feelings about zoos, not quite liking them, I don't mind seeing animals interact and play with their trainers. They are taught tricks by means of positive reinforcement only and the trainers clearly like them. So, I learned that sea lions can walk on all four flippers and possess external ear-flaps.

Loving birds as much as I do, I could not miss the raptors flight. All sorts of impressive birds of prey soared above our heads, but I spent most of my time by the area where they kept and trained them. They have quite a few griffon vultures. These birds number in the ten of thousands in Spain, but have been decreasing everywhere else in Europe and are now being reintroduced in many countries. They are quite impressive, with a wing span of up to 2,69 cm and a weight of 10 kilos and more.
The white-tailed sea eagle is found in the North of Europe and northern Asia. It forms a species pair with the American bold eagle, which means the two are closely related and morphologically very similar.

In the elephants' pen there are only females, and all Asian. The Asian, or Indian elephant, is somewhat smaller and has smaller ears compared to its African relatives. The back is more arched and he only possesses one semi-prehensile fingerlike projection at the tip of its trunk, while African species have two. Another difference is that Asian females lack tusks.
This cow came over and calmy looked at us for a long time. I figured she must be used to being fed by visitors. It certainly gave me the chance to study her up close. Sweet.




Barbara Bacci
Italy

A moth - Barbara Bacci

This morning I found this beautiful moth trapped behind the glass of my window. I could not resist its charm, so I put it in a box and sketched it. Of course, I let it go as soon as I was done. After a little searching, I discovered it's a Lasiocampa quercus, or Oak Eggar. It feeds on a variety of bushes, but not on oaks, and its name derives from the acorn shape of its cocoon. It'a a large moth, with a wingspan of 45-75 mm. This individual is a female, the male being a darker red-brown colour. Males fly during the day, but females only fly at night, so it must have been attracted to the light and then got trapped in the room.


Barbara Bacci, Italy

Giglio Island - Barbara Bacci

I love islands and the Mediterranean sea is full of little gems to discover. A few days ago I had the opportunity to visit some friends over at Giglio Island, just off the Tuscan Archipelago. I took the ferry in Santo Stefano and spent the hour trip studying the map of the island.
The campsite is arranged in terraces, in the shade of numerous trees, and has access to the beaches made of rocky boulders. The most common bird at the camp turned out to be the Eurasian collared dove, an interesting species which has colonized both America and Eurasia.
In the morning, we went diving and encountered a beautiful nudibranch, a Hypselodoris valenciennesi, plenty of moray eels, a very nervous conger eel, spirographs, colourful sponges, and much more.
To sketch the beautiful XVI century tower in the small village of Campese I sat in the shade, under the rocks, and listened to the scratchy song of the Sardinian warbler. In all, a magical three days vacation!

Barbara Bacci,
Italy

Winged mammals

This year I raised baby bats, and so had the opportunity to observe more closely these curious micromammals. They are so micro, I had to take pictures in order to sketch them!
Feeding them milk with a micropipette, while looking at how they move and respond, was a fascinating experience.

This little guy is a pup of Kuhl's bat. As adults, they can be identified by a white line on the edge of their wing membrane.

Bats belong to the Order Chiroptera, from the Greek cheiro, hand, and ptera, wing. They have a thin, transparent membrane, called the patagium, which extends from the neck and across the fingers and, in most species, includes the tail as well. Like us, they possess 5 fingers, but their bones are lighter than those of other mammals. The clawed thumb is free, and it is used for climbing around the roost.

Bats have good vision, but depend on echolocation to navigate and hunt down their prey. When the bat emits a sound wave, he than listens for the returning echo, which conveys important information. If the echo reaches the right ear before the left, the insect is to the right, while the intensity of the echo carries information on the size of the insect. When the insect is moving away from the bat, the returning echo has a lower pitch.
The many folds present in the bat's ears help the animal determine the insect vertical position.

With a body length of 3 and half inches and a wing length of 2 and half inches at the most, the European Free-tailed Bat, on the left, is one of the largest bat species to be found in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Castel di Guido Natural Reserve

Castel di Guido is a natural reserve near Rome. 2000 hectares, within local farmland, it's a little sanctuary for our wildlfe. I go there to ring birds.
The green woodpecker in the picture is a common inhabitant of the reserve, and its call can be heard constantly.
One of the birds we caught during our last ringing session, just a few days ago, is a Short-toed Treecreeper. His plumage is a mixture spots and streaks of different shades of browns and greys, and it provides excellent camouflage against tree bark. His tail feathers are stiffened, very much like those of woodpeckers, and he uses them to prop himself against tree trunks. And to clim trees efficiently, he possesses long sharp claws. He feeds on insects, and small spiders which he plucks out of the crevices in the bark with his long decurved bill.
When foraging, the Short-toed Treecreeper flies down to the base of a tree, then spirals up the trunk, using its stiff tail feathers for support.