THE RAMBLINGS OF A STRUGGLING ARTIST ON LIFE WITH TWO TERRIERS, A PONY WITH ISSUES AND OTHER WILDLIFE AND BIRDS THAT CROSS OUR PATH

9 November 2012

TWO FOR JOY AND AN OWL DRAWING


It's an absolute joy to be able to photograph birds now and this pair of magpies were sitting obligingly in a tree nearby. I find all the crow family incredibly shy so have never managed to get close before. This camera seems to be pretty good at ignoring the double glazing and focusing pretty well on the subjects. If we were to rule our lives by the old magpie rhyme, our fortunes would change by the minute we see so many of them. Here are a few more:





And a chaffinch


and some of our cheeky flock of sparrows feeding yesterday



I took these few pictures yesterday; it was windy but fine, unlike today!


Hound Tor and Haytor; two lumps on the horizon


Long shadows in the early-ish morning


Rock formation at Kestor

After lunch today, Snippet and I went down to the river and over to Scorhill stone circle to take some pictures for my stone circle post....a long time coming - sorry! I will get there eventually. I took these on the way over there:



The North Teign in winter mode as Origami boy would put it


Looking over towards Fernworthy Forest from Scorhill



Having had a kind of request for a drawing of an owl I managed to get one done last week. Ponies and sheep are much quicker to do than birds....all those feathers! This took about six hours but I'm pretty pleased with it. I asked Paul Riddle who writes a blog about owls if I could use some of his images and he very kindly said yes. His pictures are staggering and well worth a look. He might want to consider changing the name of the blog in the light of recent events though! Do have a look at them at http://owlsaboutthatthen.blogspot.co.uk/ . I'm really enjoying the bird drawing challenge and am going to crack on with some more next week I hope. I love the loose feather that was sticking out of this Little Owl's head, about to fall off I'm assuming.


The school bus is due any minute with a very hungry schoolboy on it so I'd better stop now. Until next time, have a great weekend and here's a Snippet on the lookout for rodents.



14 comments:

  1. I love your Little Owl drawing! I can see how it must have taken hours to draw all those feathers. You have his expression so well.

    The magpies photos are great too. I am itching to try a proper zoom lens.

    Now I`m off to look at that bird website.

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  2. The zoom has changed my life! it's 30X which is so much better than I expected for the price. I'm a big fan of the bridge camera too. Easy to carry but much better than a little point and shoot thing.

    Hope you enjoy the owls....

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  3. Hello Em,

    I have just stumbled across your lovely blog. Your photos are amazing, and really like the owl!

    What a fantastic place to live.

    Jessica

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  4. Hello Jessica,

    I recognise your lovely icon from Going Gently. I've just been to your site but can;t see a way of joining. Perhaps I'm just being stupid....I'll try again!

    Thank you for visiting.

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  5. Your Owl is fabulous! And I love all your bird photos, especially the Magpies. I have done some Magpies ACEO's in the past and was getting ready to do a couple more! So glad to see yours.

    And of course I love all the Moor and Tor photos~

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  6. I'm really hoping the Nuthatches come back to our nest box next spring so I can get a decent picture of them, unlike last year!

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  7. Hi Em, I love the owl drawing, much better that my original image. Looking forward to hopefully seeing some more, just let me know if you need some more owl photo's?

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  8. Hi Em, you did it! And so well too - consider it a sale.

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  9. What a brilliant owl drawing. Worth all the effort.

    As always, fabulous photos of the moor.

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  10. Rid - so glad you like it.....print will be on its way next week. Am having a few ink issues! Am going to tackle the one taking off next.

    Carla - Glad you like it too. I'll try and get it on Etsy on Monday. It's quite big so I'm not sure if it will fit well on an A5. I'll email you....

    BB - Thank you too!

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  11. a beautiful drawing Em, and as for the magpie photos..love them!! i adore magpies..look here...

    http://talesofsimpledays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/magpies_30.html

    Leanne x
    talesofsimpledays.blogspot.com

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  12. I've just been to that post of yours Leanne and I obviously missed it. I'll be doing a Magpie in your honour after the owl taking off that's planned....

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  13. Hi Em, I just so loved those magpie
    photos, they are such clever playful birds, wicked with it of course. When you do your Scorhill stone circle blog there is also the Fernworthy stone circle as well which I note you were not too far from ;)
    http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/post/56184/fernworthy.html

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  14. Thanks Thelma.

    The Fernworthy one is actually in the forest. We haven't been there for years but, on the strength of your suggestion we might just trek over there today. Not a great night's sleep thanks to eight year old boys whispering at 5.30 this morning so it's 50/50 I would think!

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Thank you so much for leaving a comment. It's great to read them and I will always try to reply.