A visit with a snake

One morning at the beginning of September Chloe and I were near the end of an entertaining early walk at Howarth Park. As we wound our way along the last trail before reaching pavement and the parking lot I saw something long and black stretched across the path. I stopped and bent closer to look and was delightfully surprised when the snake, for that's what it was, coiled it's tail and waved it about, revealing a brilliant orange red underside. Amazingly, the snake stayed right where it was and I sat down to spend some time in it's company. If I moved too close (and it had to be really close!) the tail would come up in a tight coil and wave about a few times then remain poised in the air until I retreated. There was a tannish band around the snake's neck, and the jet black upper part of it's body was shiny, as if wet, not what I would have expected from a snake. Chloe and I stayed about a half hour.

Ring-necked snakes (Diadophis punctatus) are found throughout the United States and in parts of Mexico and Canada. Nocturnal and secretive, they're seldom seen during the day. They're mildly venomous but, as I found, not aggressive. The venom may help incapacitate the salamanders, worms, slugs and insects that they like to eat.

Most of the resources I found call this snake  Pacific ring-necked snake (Diadophis punctatus amabilis). However, there seems to be some disagreement as to whether the different subspecies of D. punctatus are really different from one another.

Find out more about these shy snakes:
CaliforniaHerps.com
Wikipedia
wildherps.com
eNature.com

A life bird at the feeder. Whooee!

This morning I sat in our kitchen to try and decide where I was going to walk when the fog lifted. It was 8:30 and there was no sign of sun so I had plenty of time to decide. I looked up at the bird feeder and noticed what I thought was a very large pigeon on it. When I looked closer I saw that it wasn't a rock pigeon (Columba livia). It was bigger, had yellow feet and a yellow and black beak. There was a very faint white bar on the back of her neck with a few iridescent green feathers underneath, which I would have missed if I didn't know to look for them (after consulting David Sibley's Guide to Birds) I got out some paper and began sketching, thinking she would be leaving sooner than later. As I sketched, I noticed how unhealthy she looked and the way she moved her beak as she ate, as though something was caught in her throat. Not to mention the fact that she stayed at the feeder even though I was only 2 feet (61 cm) away from her. An hour later I stopped to walk to the bank with my dog. Still no sun. When I returned at 11 am the sun was finally beginning to show and several birds were lined up on the phone wire above the bird feeder looking down at the mystery bird, who had fallen asleep, preventing them from getting to their morning meal. I went inside and was pleased to see that she had perked up a bit and ate some more seed before flying off at 11:30. I'd already discovered that she was a Band-tailed Pigeon (Columba fasciata), a native to the western United States. Having never seen one before I wasn't surprised to find that these birds are normally found in coastal woodlands here in northern
California. I'll bet that there's a good story about how she ended up at a feeder in Santa Rosa, a good 35 miles from the coast and I hope that whatever ails her is temporary and that she'll be winging her way south for the winter.

As I wrote this post in the late afternoon my husband came to my studio to tell me that she's back at the feeder so maybe she'll stick around for a while.

More information about Band-tailed pigeons:

All About Birds
Wikepedia
Audubon
Whatbird

Mushroom for brunch

It was supposed to rain early this morning but I took my chances and headed for Howarth Park to see what I could see. Luckily, and not surprisingly, the weather forecasters were wrong and there was only a little bit of drizzle here and there, not even enough to make the paper wet. Toward the end of my walk I found this mushroom, Agrocybe praecox, one of the harbingers of spring in these parts. I used the compact mirror, that I carry for just this application, to examine the underside of the mushroom and confirm my tentative identification. When I saw the slug munching away I knew that I had to get a quick sketch. I drew the slug first and was glad I did as it left soon after I got there.

Norway Maple - Carolyn Pappas

It was snowing this morning and I stayed home and did quiet things inside all day. I sat in my kitchen and sipped on coffee and drew this Norway Maple in my back yard. I used a black ball point pen and my Tombow brush pens. For the past few weeks I have been looking at this tree quite a bit and making some rough sketches for a painting I want to make. The tree itself is very beautiful although you can't see very much of it in this drawing. I also drew the same tree here and you can see some more of it. When it gets a little warmer outside I want to sit far enough away from it so I can draw the whole thing.

Milkweed Sketch - Teri Casper

I needed a break the other day and took a walk down to the lake with sketchbook in hand. I have been watching these milkweed plants grow all summer and this was the day I needed to sketch them.
The pod is full but still light green.

Done with ball point pen in my 'Julie Journal' with the handmade paper.

Thistle Time - Teri Casper

Thistles are so interesting and so fun to sketch!

This is the last page in my Robert Bateman sketchbook and is done in ball-point pen.The pages are wonderful for ink, pencil and colored pencil but watercolor makes the page buckle unless it is VERY light.

We Went Fishing.....

DH and I went fishing off the pier again and he was nice enough to catch two fish for me to sketch and study.


The one above is a catfish which we always give to his friend cuz I don't like them. His friend is from St. Louis and thinks they are the greatest fish in the world. I think they are terrible tasting but that's just me.

It was a great fish to do a study on.

Right beneath the fish is the view as we see it going across the lake. It was partly cloudy and warm.

I did all these sketches with a ball point pen. Any mistakes remain where they are and it is very freeing to do a sketch this way





The next fish was a bass. This one goes from the bucket to the cleaning table and then to the frying pan. I do have my likes and dislikes.

A fun evening.



Please excuse any weird looking format here because this is more narrow than I am used to and when it publishes, it gets all out of format.