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. 

Little Egret

Little Egrets.
20 years ago these were an incredibly rare bird in Ireland.Since then they have expanded naturally from their European range into the UK and Ireland and are now a common breeding bird in many places, including my area. This was an exploratory sketch for the cover of "The Cork Bird Report" a couple of years ago.

Bar Tailed Godwit.

A common winter visitor to Ireland from its breeding grounds in northern europe, these brds nmally arrivearound September and stay until early spring.

Little egret, by Maria Elena Ferrari, Italy

I take this Little egret (Egretta garzetta) from a photo (my husband is the author). 19.01.2011 I have gone for a walk near Enza river (Parma, Italy) with my husband, among flights of Lapwings, Curlews and Snipes, to find the Stone-curlews (Burhinus oedicnemus) wintering, but was impossible for me to paint!! We are absorbed on the fog!! But the landscape and the atmosphere is fabulous!!