Bird of prey

Last month I traveled to Ecuador, among other activities i visited a Bird of Prey rescue center, is a sad  but hopeful experience.

…and of course! my moleskine accompanied me all the time

Eagle Days

You can click on the image to enlarge it enough to read.

While we were at Smithville Lake on Saturday, we revisited a site I first wrote about close to 25 years ago, the reconstruction of a woodhenge near its original location.  That place was drowned when the dam was built in 1979, and although they had the original post molds to go by--for a square, cornerless henge constructed of cedar--the reconstruction was a cornered square made of fence posts that have nearly rotted away.  The site has been vandalized repeatedly.

My short article was in Science Digest magazine, and I wish I'd kept a copy of it; I was given access to photos of the original excavation as well as the marks in the earth that indicated where the posts stood, and their placement.

This is probably a Woodland site, if I remember correctly; there's precious little real information out there, at least on the web.

The bony bits in the circle were probably remains of an eagle's meal; I found the bleached bones in the center of the crumbling henge.  They appear to be fish bones, the eagle's favored food, though they also capture waterfowl and the occasional small mammal.  (They do NOT carry away children, as some believe.  An eagle weighs approximately 14 pounds at the outside; they try for prey lighter than that.)


Henges--like Stonehenge and like the wood henge at Cahokia, Illinois--are fascinating bits of our prehistory.  They appear to be observatories of a sort, oriented to the solstices, but no one knows quite how they worked, or what exactly they were used for.  They hoard their secrets, their mystery, and yes, a bit of their magic. On that cold and windy day, the air inside the henge felt almost balmy.  I sat on a log and sketched this in comfort while eagles and gulls wheeled overhead.

When we visited, there were signs saying it would be undergoing reconstruction; I'm anxious to see if will be closer to the original.

If you're at all interested in the original woodhenge near the reconstruction site, much more here...

http://www.examiner.com/historic-places-in-national/why-woodhenge-s-bridge-wont-burn
http://techrepublic.com.com/5208-11189-0.html?forumID=3&threadID=190356&messageID=1960555

Black Eagle - Maree Clarkson

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.

- Robert Lynd

"Black Eagle"

I am utterly fascinated by birds, raptors in particular. To me they are the kings of the skies and their survival plight, as cities grow and multiply, is of on-going concern to everyone, or should be, at least.

After making a sketch of this Eagle at the Botanical Gardens, I retired to my studio when I got home to do the colour bit from memory.

The resident pair of Black Eagles in the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens in Roodepoort, Gauteng, South Africa, is under threat from urban spread. Read more about the Black Eagles, Emoyeni and Thulani, at Hedgie's Nature Journal. Did you know that Black Eagles are born white?

Bald eagle and babies

I have become a virtual birdwatcher! My parents sent me an Internet link some time ago to a camera above a bald eagle nest in their town, Decorah, which is in northeast Iowa. The photos from it are posted daily on a site run by the Raptor Resource Project, and the director very kindly gave me permission to use their pictures as a drawing reference.

I’ve been watching the nest since sometime in March, and I try to go online at least once a day if possible. They used to have streaming video, but had to slow the camera down because it caused problems for their Internet service provider.

The early nest was little more than a pile of sticks. Gradually the male and female eagles added smaller twigs, mosses, grasses, and corn stalks to the nest. First one egg was laid, then two more. I would log on to find the female on her nest, vigilant; sometimes in the sun, sometimes wet from rain, and once covered in snowflakes.

The week before Easter the eggs hatched! As the eaglets continue to grow, the outer edge of the nest becomes littered more and more with leftovers – fish fins, bird wings, and other eagle goodies brought in to feed the young.

Some time ago I did a pencil sketch of the female in the nest, and recently I did the watercolor sketch of her feeding the eaglets. When I logged on today, I could see the first signs of spring…the bare branches of my watercolor now have tiny leaves, and there’s more green flushing the pastureland below.

My father tells me that when you walk nearby, the male eagle is not far way. When he’s not hunting and bringing back food for his family, he sits in the branches above the nest.

You can see the nest yourself here:
http://www.raptorresource.org/falcon_cams/index.html