More Sketches from Yellowstone

American avocet:  this beautiful shorebird, along with about 50 others, spent one day on Floating Island Lake.  They often stop for a day or two on little ponds in Yellowstone when they are migrating to their breeding grounds.  I've only seen them nest on much larger, shallow lakes and at lower elevations.  

Way, way off a mountain goat looks down from the high cliffs of Baronette Mountain.  I sketched her through my spotting scope .... and still couldn't see her very clearly.

This is the second part of sketches from my recent trip to Yellowstone.  I try to sketch every day.  Sometimes I have time to take care, sometimes my sketches are just quick scribbles in my journal.  It was quite chilly for most of our time in the park, so most of my sketching was done from inside the car.  

This Townsend's solitaire is a member of the thrush family.  They are one of the early arrivals in Yellowstone and love to announce their presence from the tippy top of a tree.  

Mountain bluebirds are also members of the thrush family and early arrivals.  They nest in old cavities, often made by woodpeckers.  These two were busy inspecting this broken off snag, preparing to set up housekeeping.

Shrike Hawking

I'm back from many weeks of being gone ..... filling my sketchbook along the way, but taking a sabbitical from posting.

I sketched this loggerhead shrike in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Spring was slow in coming, but he (?) found a sunny slope that was alive with insects. We stayed the rest of the afternoon watching him catch one after another. I even saw him cough up a pellet, just as owls do. His was much smaller ... probably full of insect legs and other hard parts.

The shrike sat in the lone bush growning next to a small pond. Time and time again he flew out to catch an insect midair ... then he'd return to his perch. Occassionaly he'd move over to a large boulder to 'hawk' from. The next day he was gone, probably continuing on his way to his breeding grounds.