May

A lovely warm evening at Udkaeret, drawing a male pintail sleeping on the water. He was really far away, but I think that actually helps when you're drawing birds. His neck markings and the reflections made some really interesting shapes... Lots of interesting birds this month. A white stork dropped by, a little tern, and a clear view of a goshawk for several minutes. The cranes are breeding again and all is good on the island.

I love May. I really love May. Everything new and fresh, birds singing, flowers everywhere. I've managed to get out quite a bit and have filled a sketchbook in no time. My studio is finshed, so no excuses now, my mind is brimming over with ideas and plans. The other night I went to Bastemose (a local marshy area 30 min on the bike) to do some sketching. There were four falcons hawking dragonflys. Hobbies I thought, and three of them were, but one of them was actually a young male red-footed falcon. I watched all four of them for a couple of hours as they flew back and forth, seemingly catching their prey at will. Above were swallows and martens, and the frist swifts of the year, all keeping a wide birth. Water rail, cuckoo, crane, reed warbler all calling and singing. Marsh harriers flying about. Brilliant. Sat there with a beer in the evening sun. I made loads of sketches, but dissapointing. I will be back.

More random sketches... From nexoe beach...

April

Finally warm enough to actually be outside sketching, without my fingers freezing. April was really sunny, I don't think it rained at all. I've done lots of sketching down in Salthammer, sleeping gulls, shelduck - the usual, but good for getting back into it. Upstairs is almost finished now...

I've also been working on some illustrations for a Danish ornithological magazine. They wanted to have some of a goshawk chasing a pheasant. You can see one of them on my website. Otherwise here are some sketches. I've neither seen a hunting goshawk nor sketched a hunting goshawk - the closest I've come is some drawings of a feeding sparrowhawk - so I had to resort to Youtube and so on. There is a really amazing BBC clip showing a Goshawk hunting. At one point they put a camera on its head as it flew through tiny gaps in the forest at 30 mph. Mad.

March

OK, I'm writing this at the end of May, but March was an interesting month. We really had a hard winter here on Bornholm, and when the signs of spring finally started appearing they were very welcome and felt long overdue. One positive aspect of the hard winter, however, was the increased bird life in the garden around the feeders. The pheasant (Phreddy) came every morning between 8 and 9, and then later around lunchtime. Sometimes he would be accompanied by some of his ladies, who seemed shy and demure compared to him. I filled nearly a whole sketchbook wirh phreddy pictures, and I look forward to taking them somewhere.