Untamed Land

Untamed Land
Untamed Land

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Filippino Birds and Painting Progress

Gary's friend from the Philippines, Randy, sent a few more photos of the local birds like these, Wandering Whistling Ducks. They look very similar to the widespread, Fulvous Whistling Duck, which lives in Central and South America, although I saw them in Uganda..
Two wintering shorebirds. The bird on the right is a Wood Sandpiper, and the bird on the left is a stint, Temminck's Stint, I believe. Let me know if you think I got it wrong.
The bird on the far left is a real rarity for the Philippines, A Black-faced Spoonbill. The large white birds are Great Egrets, and the smaller egret is a Little Egret. The smallest birds are, Black-winged Stilts.
Great Egrets also occur in the Americas and virtually worldwide. Little Egrets are almost identical to the Snowy Egrets of the Americas, and Black-winged Stilts are very similar to the American, Black-necked Stilts.
A beautiful, Yellow Bittern. I got to see these in Thailand and Cambodia. The birds I saw were very shy and I could not get passable photos.
Philippines Ducks. These are considered to be rare, even in the Philippines.
Although I have already done a post about this painting, Cat Walk, 18x24". I have included it again because I got it professionally photographed. This photo is a little better than the photos that I took.
I also got this latest painting, Summer in the Pribilofs, 12x24" professionally photographed. This photo is far superior to the lousy photos that I shot. It shows what the painting actually looks like.
This is my current painting in progress. It is a Wilson's Snipe, 11x14". At this stage it does not look like much. I have spent a lot of time building up the layers of background vegetation and I have a lot more to add after I paint the snipe. Most of what I have already painted really does not show in the photo. I will probably add some flowers and it will have a dark foreground with  shadowy vegetation that partially covers the bird. At least that is the plan.

1 comment:

Marc Calvo said...

All of your pictures are beautiful John,the cougar have avivid thonalities,the puffin and the crested auclet are good ambiented,i fil that the wilson snipe are good started.