Gee, Guess What -- YET MORE BIRDS

It must be Spring.

The weather is fine, the birds on the their migrations, I keep going outside, and gee, there are birds about.  Yay!

Though first, a non-bird walk:   the Hounds and I found a new trail along the Yakima River, quite by happenstance.  I was driving over a bridge and noticed a dog walker coming up a trail from below which I'd not noticed before.  Upon further investigation, I found the start of the trail and a parking lot.  We had a nice long walk there, although Truman wasn't happy because the stroller could not be used on the narrow path.

It was a quiet, out-of-the-way spot.

We saw just two other dog walkers there.  We did see waterfowl on the river, but nothing out of the ordinary.

This was out of the ordinary, at least for me -- even though this is desert country, I almost never see cactus anywhere.

Pippin had a good time!

Okay, on to the birds -- all one kind of bird this week.  Sandhill Cranes!

Every year, Sandhill Cranes migrate north in the Spring to their breeding grounds, and every year they stop for a little R & R at the same place in West Richland -- a cattle ranch.

They like the fields there.  

And so every Spring, I (and lots of other birders) drive out on the public road that traverses the ranch to look for the cranes, and find them pretty easily.

It's fun to watch them coming in for landings with those ungainly legs.  Unfortunately, this year there chose a different part of the ranch from last year, when they were in a field much closer to the roadway.  My photos from last year were better, but oh, well.  I'll take what I can get!

That was it for good bird sightings last week.  

Here is a Truman sighting:  he went to the groomers for his regular wash and trim, and the groomer always snaps a pic afterwards.  And he always looks the same:  sort of woebegone, as if he's saying, "Why did you do this to me?"  

He looks and smells fabulous -- even if he doesn't think so.

Lastly, the art for the week.  I didn't like one of our two Zoom session pieces, so am sharing just one of those -- this lovely lantern, rendered with ink, watercolor, and gouache on toned paper:

This is a new thing I've been trying out lately -- using toned (tan) paper, and gouache paint is also something I've not tried much before, and I am loving the results.  I did do another such drawing last week, separate from our 90-minute Zoom sessions, and was thus able to spend a good deal more time on it.  This is Crowley (Good Omens) in Aziraphale's bookshop, refilling his wine glass:

I really liked how this worked out.  Leaving some of it "unfinished", more or less, was in my plan from the start.  My sense was that the focal point would be lost if everything was painted in, and I'm quite pleased with that choice.

That's all for this post.  Next week, our Zoom art group starts meeting THREE times a week instead of two.  Aieee!  While we normally select a photo to all work from and then share whatever we've done after 90 minutes or so, for our third session we're going to each work on individual projects that can take as long as we like over as many weeks as we wish.  I've no idea what to work on but will have to come up with something soon, as the first session starts later today.  

AIEEEE!!

Have a lovely week out there, everyone!