Buggy about Bugs: My First Post

I love to closely examine natural forms. Nature objects, picked up on walks, are scattered about my house. Sometimes I'm moved to draw them. I have followed and admired this blog for quite awhile, enjoying what other nature lover/artists focus on. I am excited to have the opportunity to share my apropos work here.  I post all my work, as it comes forth, here.

I found this bit of wasp nest on a trail that borders the Cedar River, not too far from my house, in Cedar Falls, Iowa, USA.  It prompted this drawing, done in a collaborative sketchbook for  moly_x_international. It's in Masha Kirikova's, theme book, Those Who Live. Masha (from Moscow) is also a contributor to this blog.

pencil and colored pencil in a Japanese-fold Moleskine

In my basement, I found an old collection of insects my daughter had put in a shadowbox for a junior high school science project. (She's now in her 20s!). It was fascinating to examine what specimens were still intact and to draw them.

watercolor and pencil in pocket-size watercolor Moleskine

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

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

Sketching birds

Hi everybody

Cathy Johnson has invited me to join this blog and I was delighted to accept. I live in Rome, Italy, and I always enjoyed drawing, especially nature and wildlife. I suppose anyone who loves drawing from nature enjoyes plein air sketching and drawing from life. When I work ringing birds I have the chance to see up close and hold these creatures for a few brief moments. I can touch their feathers, feel their weight, understand how they move, etc. These are all details that help me drawing and representing the animal later, maybe when working from a photo. In this case, after a brief sketch I kept a couple of feathers for later reference. European nightjars feed after sunset or during the night and catch insects on the wing. Their bills appear small when closed, but their gape is huge and opens wide to catch their flying prey.

I never go anywhere without a sketchbook. The quantity and diversity of wildlife existing in this large town, alongside so many people, never ceases to amaze me and I always seem to find something interesting to draw. And, when it's not wildlife, then architecture, or people make fantastic subjects. This morning while walking my dog by the river Tiber, I encountered this young Yellow-legged gull. For some reason, it could not fly. These gulls are scavengers and will eat anything, so it might have been slighthly intoxicated. I checked its wings and they were fine, no broken bones, it looked alert, so I hid it in the grass and sketched it. I applied the colour later, at home. Wild animals are sooo beautiful! I sat very close to him, and he was fine with that. Yellow-legged gulls don't get stressed much, they are used to people and quickly understand whether you represent a danger or not.

This year it's the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's On The Origin of Species and I am enjoying all events held in its commemoration! I recently visited an exhibiton here in Rome, featuring live and stuffed animals (like these fancy pigeons), wax models and video clips to illustrate his theory on evolution. I spent a few happy hours there too. I also enjoyed looking at Darwin's notebooks. I think keeping a nature journal is a great tool if you want to learn about natural history. I'd like to thank Cathy for creating this blog. It's so inspiring, a bit like a nature journal from all over the world.