L.A. Fuertes

Since I am on a bird art theme here recently, I would like to point out a new exhibit on Louis Agassiz Fuertes at the Field Museum in Chicago. The Painted Bird: Louis Agassiz Fuertes will run from September 12, 2008 to January 4, 2009. This exhibit displays a number of paintings produced by Fuertes during the 1926 Abyssinian Expedition. More from the Field Museum here.

I found out about this exhibition from Benjamin Clock at Natural History Artworks, a recent addition to my blog list containing lot of great posts on wildlife art from a talented wildlife artist.

James Fenwick Lansdowne 1937-2008

I just found out the James Fenwick Lansdowne passed away on July 26, 2008.
Mr. Lansdowne was one of my favorite bird artists when I was growing up and I have most of his books in my collection (often received as Christmas or birthday gifts from my family). His books often had illustrations of the field sketches he used to render his final paintings and I found those sketches more interesting than the final paintings; something that continues for me still.
Louis Fuertes was probably the first bird artist I developed an appreciation for after seeing his illustrations in Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States in my grade school library. Lansdowne was the next artist I developed an appreciation for, probably about the same time.
Here is a link to a few of his paintings and another link to the CBC news story reporting his death.

Pigment Challenged Penguins

Bill Schmoker at Brdpics recently posted a couple photos from the front and back cover of the current issue of The Polar Times. The photos show two pigment challenged penguins. The front photo is a melanistic Chinstrap from Deception Island and on the back cover is an amelanistic captive African Penguin. Bill also provides a link to the Australian Antarctic Division that has a nice collection of penguins with abnormal plumage pigment.
For some photos and comments on unusual penguins I have observed in my travels and some more links to other sites with photos of different looking penguins go here and here.

Mommas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowbirds

The other day I found this fledgling cowbird sitting in a dead tree at the edge of a wetland. He was quite cooperative and I didn't really think much more about him as I was trying to get photos of a Black Tern that was foraging around the edges of the cattails.




But then I noticed that this youngster was still being fed by it's host parent, a male Common Yellowthroat.



He was busy keeping Baby Huey fed.



This mouth-full had a couple of insects destined for the apparently insatiable youngster.



In goes one.



And out it comes again. Apparently the cowbird was so intent on getting the second insect in the yellowthroat's mouth that it forgot to swallow the first insect (click on the photo to get a bigger version and you can just see the insect emerging from the cowbird's mouth).



Click on this picture and you can see the first insect crawling out of the cowbird's mouth.
The yellowthroat later grabbed the insect back and fed it again along with the second one in it's mouth.



The yellowthroat came back once more with a damselfly before the young cowbird switched to another perch across a narrow channel in the wetland.

Litho #3

Band-rumped Storm Petrel (Oceanodroma castro)

By J.G. Keulemans from A History of the Birds of Europe, including all the Species inhabiting the Western Palæarctic Region. By R. B. Sharpe, F.L.S., &c., and H. E. Dresser, F.Z.S., &c. Part I. (London: published by the Authors.)

More about these images to come soon.

Internet Down

My internet connection at home is down with no estimate on when it will be fixed. Posting may be slow for a while.

Litho #2

Labrador Duck (Camptorhynchus labradorius)

By J.G. Keulemans from - Rowley, G. D. ed. Ornithological Miscellany. 3 Vols. London: Trubner & Co., Bernard Quaritch and R.H. Porter. 1876-78.