From field sketch to watercolour

I went to Mølen this weekend. Quite a few waders were present on saturday, but for some stupid reason I decided to draw them the following day. Come sunday, the waders had all blown away, and I had to settle for a juvenile Great Black-backed Gull. The wind didn't allow for outdoor painting, so I've tried to paint something based on the sketch tonight. Strangely, I often find it easier to draw proportions accurately working outside with live birds than I do working from pictures or sketches indoors. Working fast with a motive that is moving around, I think I pay sharper attention to what I actually see than to what I imagine. The sketch show the posture of the bird better than the painting does. The White Wagtail sat briefly on a stone in the morning sun.

Back to Norway

I'm working again, and autumn is sneaking up on us. It's hard to see any kind of migration in Oslo, but many birds have already left us. Luckily, the autumn in Norway lasts for at least five months (if you're a birdwatcher), so I'll have more than a few opportunities to see some of them off. I'll definately go to the observatory at Mølen, where I saw the Lesser Withthroat in tonights watercolour this spring.

Inside the crater

Still La Palma! The Caldera de Taburiente is a huge vulcanic crater, and one of the oldest national parks in Spain. The crater is surrounded by high peaks on the north side, and it's covered by tall pine trees - in which many of the Canary endemics are quite common. We drove as far into the crater as possible, on roads that were so narrow and steep that even Norwegians were short of breath every now and then. On the way up, we passed several old, abandoned dwellings, such as the small cabin in the watercolour.

Garafía

Garafía is a small town on the northern side of La Palma. It's where my father in law was born, and my wife's granmother took us there during our stay on La Palma. As most towns on the island, it lies on a hillside, with the mighty Atlantic ocean constantly crushing against the cliffs below. Behind Garafía, the vulcano Caldera de Taburiente reaches almost 2500 meters. This makes for spectacular scenery.

Red-throated Diver

We stayed at a cabin in the Mountains near Hovden, and a pair of Red-throated Divers lived in a small lake near us. The nest was on a small island in the middle of the lake, and the bird didn't mind me sitting on the shore making sketches. I tried using colours to start with, but I was so unhappy with the result that I washed away most of the coulour with a sponge. Afterwards, I drew over the faded painting with a pencil, just for fun. The result was this drawing, with traces of coulour in the background. Nothing I'll hold on to, but I might as well post the failed projects as well...

Mystery solved

It turns out that other birders have seen the vulture on La Palma. I just received an e-mail from local birder Robert Burton. He writes this:

The Turkey Vulture has been sighted by local birders since early May, at various locations on the Santa Cruz side of the island. I gather it is an escape bird from Maro Parque, a small "zoo" near the capital, but the Spanish Rarities Committee will send you their verdict.

That's it, then. It was still a majestic sight!

Turkey Vulture, field sketch

So, this is what the vulture looked like, and the sketch was made without consulting literature. It's not very likely that a bird like this would cross the Atlantic on it's own, but a ship assist might be a possibility? Otherwise, a bird escaped from captivity somewhere in Europe seems more likely. Then again, if the bird was not held in captivity on the Canary Islands, there is still quite a lot of ocean to cross from the European mainland. I will leave these questions for the Spanish rarities committee.
Apart from the vulture, I really enjoyed seeing some of the Canary endemics, like the Laurel Pigeon, Chaffinch, Blue Tit and Goldcrest. Hundreds of Cory's Shearwaters from the Tenerife-La Palma boat was also a brilliant experience. I had a short glimps of a smaller, darker Shearwater that was probably a Little S, but it disappeared in the waves too fast.
I'll return to the Island, and probably spend more time looking at the ocean - interesting birds are bound to pass in the almost always strong winds.