when coots arrive... - Elisabetta Mitrovic

when coots arrive, I'm so happy. I like these birds, with their black plumage...

Sketching birds in Cronovilla Oasis - Maria Elena Ferrrari (Italy)

Last Saturday with my children, my husband and a friend of mine I went to draw "en plein air" Cronovilla Oasis (Enza River) (Giampietro thanks for the valuable information!). This are some pages of my sketchbook (Fabriano) (colored at home), beautiful animals, beautiful place not too close but well observed with binoculars. Resting Little Egrets (Egretta garzetta), Little Grebes (Tachybaptus ruficollis) with chicks, the Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) chicks with beautiful striped, the adult was often involved in underwater or "snorkeling", many coots (Fulica atra), and also Night herons (Nycticorax nycticorax), Grey herons (Ardea cinerea), Mallards (Anas platyrhyncos), Bee-eaters (Merops apiaster), Swallows (Hirundo rustica). The Oasis is a series of lakes derived from gravel pits now renatured and protected.