Sketching at the Beach

click to enlarge

I recently won a Stillman & Birn hardbound Beta Series journal with 180# paper and have decided to dedicate it to water related images.

The paper is sized and I'm enjoying how watercolors lay on the surface - almost like hot press paper. There is a little bit of tooth to the surface but the Micron 01 pen still glides along.

I'm one happy camper :)

More Pelicans

In this post, I mentioned my friend Phil Jeffries and his wonderful photos...I asked permission and he said I was welcome to share whatever he sent me--so here are some of his amazing pelican photos from Cooley Lake!

Looking at them, I realized that the ones I saw halfway across the lake must have had the breeding keel or "centerboard" on their huge beaks, but they were too far away to see, even with the binoculars.  Each bird has a slightly different shaped keel, and both sexes shed them once the eggs are laid.  Quite impressive, aren't they!

I hadn't realized pelicans were THAT big...the white ones can get 62" tall...my height!  (Bald eagles are more like 48"...with an 8' wingspam, to pelicans' 8 1/2-9 feet.  Really big birds!

Unlike the brown pelicans, these guys don't dive from the sky after prey (and as shallow as Cooley Lake is, it's a good thing!)  Instead, they may fish in concert, forming a long line and herding small prey into the shallows. 

I'll miss them when they head North...Phil says he's already seen large groups of them heading that direction.

Pelicans

I finally got out of the house to sketch, the other day...Cooley Lake is a magnet in migration seasons. 

It's an old oxbow of the Missouri River, abandoned years ago when the river changed course, and because of tine and eutrophication, it's very shallow.  I once watched a pair of dogs run all the way across it, barely getting wet to the nose.  It's got more water in it than it has in a long time! There were rafts of ducks, a few Canada geese, and my friend Phil Jeffries, a retired Missouri Department of Conservation photographer and biologist who shares his magnificent bird photos with me, saw some eagles there a few days earlier, though I wasn't as fortunate when I was there, this time.

The last few times I've been out there, I've seen white pelicans, fascinating birds that look more prehistoric than most!  They're usually silent away from their nesting colonies, but here's what they sound like there. Just click on the audio.

It was a very windy day, so very few birds were actually on the wing.  Most kept to the safety of the water or the land.  Here, a flock of pelicans with a few cormorants floated away from me as I tried to photograph them.  Glad I carry binoculars in the Jeep!

Pelicans - Teri Casper

Pelicans
Originally uploaded by Teri DC

Spending a day on the lake with my daughter and SIL gave me lots of inspiration and these pelicans were one. I thought they were only around the oceans.
Good opportunity to try seascapes.