Barn owls - Maree

Ink sketch and W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

I've been so lucky this past summer in having the barn owls in our blue gum bush again and I've had plenty of sightings during the day and been thrilled by their screeching at night. I've mostly spotted this one particular pair and I was so hoping to see babies but I have no idea where the nest is.

Barn owls are most commonly monogamous, although several reports of polygamy exist. Pairs typically remain together as long as both individuals live.

Courtship begins with display flights by males which are accompanied by advertising calls and chasing the female. During the chase, both the male and the female screech. The male will also hover with feet dangling in front of the perched female for several seconds; these are known as moth flights.

Copulation occurs every few minutes during the nest site search. Both sexes crouch down in front of each other to solicit copulation. The male mounts the female, grasps her neck, and balances with spread wings. Copulation continues with decreasing frequency throughout incubation and chick rearing.

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Kite's foot detail - Maree

“The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak
And stared with his foot on the prey.”
- Lord Alfred Tennyson



Kites are raptors with long wings and weak legs which spend a great deal of time sitting on overhead wires and hovering when they have spotted prey. They have featherless feet, but they also developed a range of other impressive adaptations that help them hunt most anything in their environment. Each foot has four powerful toes with sharp talons. Tiny projections on the bottom of their feet called “spicules” help kites grasp their prey.

The Black-shouldered Kite occurs in India, South-East Asia, south-western Europe and across sub-Saharan Africa, from southern Mauritania to Eritrea south to southern Africa. Here it is very common across the region but especially in South Africa, north-eastern Zimbabwe and central Botswana, occurring in most habitats but generally preferring grassland, transformed fynbos and cultivated land. It is largely absent from closed woodland, forest and desert.

A Staedtler HB pencil sketch detail of the Black-shouldered Kite's foot in my Moleskine large sketch-book 8" x 5"

Peregrine Falcon

The Peregrine Falcon is not an easy bird to observe.  Most of the time in Tennessee we see them migrating through or, occasionally, wintering over on a building where they hunt for pigeons.

The watercolor, "Peregrine Falcon" (below), appears in my article "The Peregrine Falcon in Tennessee" in the July/August issue of the Tennessee Conservationist Magazine published by the TN Dept of Environment and Conservation.  The sketches above in my sketchbook gave me practice in getting my mind wrapped around the shape and expression of this incredible species.  

I had the good fortune to encounter a falconer giving an educational program with his Peregrine while I attended a Sandhill Crane Festival in Fairbanks, AK, last summer.  While my mind was on vacation, and the article forgotten, I found myself attracted to this bird and took photos while I observed his attitude and behavior.  These photos turned out to be great help in refreshing my memory while creating the painting!

The Peregrine Falcon was one of the first species to be added to the Endangered Species List in 1973 with only 324 breeding pairs confirmed in all of North America, a decline attributed to the widespread use of DDT after WWII.  After many years of restorative efforts, the Peregrine was removed from the List in 1999 and in 2012, USFWS reported that between 2000-3000 breeding pairs of Peregrine Falcons were confirmed in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Links and resources:
Peregrine Falcon article in TN Conservationist Magazine
More details on the progress of the painting
Cornell with more information on the Peregrine Falcon