The Feeder is Back Up

11/28/17 chickadee

We put our bird feeder back up last week right after Thanksgiving. After enjoying watching and sketching the birds all last winter, we took it down in the spring so they wouldn’t get too fat and lazy. It’s fun having it back up again, especially on these days of seemingly relentless rain. (Lucky for me, birds don’t have a problem with wet-weather dining.)

I keep a pocket-size Stillman & Birn sketchbook and a few water-soluble colored pencils on the kitchen counter next to the window that looks out on the corner of our backyard where the feeder hangs. Whenever I pass through or get a hankering to sketch something live (and lively), the tiny birds are endlessly entertaining. Most of my sketches are small, unfinished and in varying poses. After viewing the birds repeatedly over the course of a few minutes, I add details a little at a time. Eventually some sketches start to look complete. Shown here are two of the most finished sketches from the past few days.

Though the smallest, the chestnut-backed chickadees are the most aggressive (and fastest!), chasing away any other birds that perch nearby. The dark-eyed juncos seem the most reticent, waiting on the nearby fence for the chickadees to move out before they go in. The juncos also like to drop down to the ground and peck the seeds that have spilled out. A newcomer we hadn’t noticed before is a pine siskin. The only reason I can identify any of these birds is because we bought a book on Seattle and Puget Sound birds from our local Audubon Society office.

 

11/28/17 junco

That’s also where we bought the feeder, which is a Brome Squirrel Buster. Recommended by my friend Alex, a birder and urban sketcher, the feeder is designed to keep squirrels and large birds out. We’ve enjoyed highly comical entertainment when a squirrel tried to maneuver his way onto the perches, but his weight caused the feeder to close access to the food. A Steller’s jay and a flicker each tried to feast from the feeder too, but both were too big to use it. I would have loved to have had the chance to sketch those larger birds, but I guess we’d have to get a separate feeder for them.

Even as it is, those tiny birds are going through quite a bit of feed each day – a small price to pay for our winter entertainment.

Backyard Birds with Bonus Squirrel

3/1/17 water-soluble colored pencils (chickadee)

About a month ago we got a bird feeder. I had been noticing lots of small birds hopping around in the lilac and mock orange trees outside our kitchen window, and I wanted to sketch them, but I couldn’t see them very well through the branches. If we put a feeder out there, I said to myself, they would be easier to see and might even stick around long enough to sketch! A minute later I had ordered a hanging feeder from Amazon, and two days later, Greg put it up.

The tiny birds – mostly chestnut-backed chickadees and dark-eyed juncos – are easier to see now as they cling to the side or bottom of the feeder to peck the seeds out, but sketching them requires an incremental process. First I simply try to capture the gestures – the acrobatic stances they take to hang from the feeder or perch on a branch. This takes many tries to get the shape and proportions right, and I have several poses going at the same time. Animals repeat the same poses and motions over and over, so as soon as one bird moves, another will probably take on the same pose, or the first one will return to the original pose in a few seconds. Once I get a contour that looks adequate, it takes many more sightings to get the coloring and details, which I add or correct one at a time. I know this sounds like a time-consuming process, but I probably spend no more than 10 minutes per sketch.

2/26/17 (dark-eyed junco)

Yesterday I got a bonus: A pair of squirrels is nesting under our neighbor’s roof. One of them seems to be injured or sick, because it spent a good five minutes hardly moving, giving me plenty of time to sketch it.

I keep a pocket-size Stillman & Birn sketchbook and a couple of brown and black water-soluble colored pencils on the kitchen counter next to the window. Every time I walk through the kitchen, I glance at the feeder, and it’s easy to take a minute or two to work on a sketch. This winter the feeder has become my daily-sketching-habit lifesaver: If I’ve been cooped up all day, feeling restless with nothing to sketch, I can always draw a chickadee or two. A few minutes of drawing from life has also been an ideal antidote to the frustration I’ve been feeling about working exclusively from photos in my colored pencil class.

3/4/17 (gray squirrel)

2/18/17 (chickadee)

Squirrely

3/31/19 interloping squirrel

Our bird feeder is designed to keep non-bird critters from feeding. Called a Squirrel Buster, it was recommended by our local Audubon Society office as an effective way to keep squirrels out, and it is. We’ve been having other issues with it lately, though, so we temporarily replaced it with an older feeder that doesn’t bust squirrels well.

Sure enough, we’ve been having visits from a determined interloper who must make a climb on a slippery, angled pole before getting to the feeder. Once there, he clings precariously to the feeder, circling it slowly as he gobbles up seeds that the birds have spilled in the tray. (Fortunately, he can’t pull fresh seeds from the holes as the small birds can.) It’s hilarious comedy watching him scramble up the pole and contort himself into awkward positions to eat!

We’re about to take down the feeder for the season, and next year we’ll return to using the Squirrel Buster, so these sketches may be my last chance to capture this squirrely guy.

3/31/19

Female Flicker

5/17 - 5/29/20 female flicker

Our feeders are still up. Usually we take them down in the spring when the birds get better (probably more nutritious) offers elsewhere, but the occasional visitors are still entertaining us during these stay-at-home days, so we’ve left them up. We had heard that nesting females in spring need more fat, and indeed, our suet feeder is more popular than the seed feeder lately.

Last year I caught a male flicker’s bright red chevron on the back of its neck as it struggled to eat from the seed feeder, which is intended for much smaller birds. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been watching a female flicker dining from the suet feeder, which is much larger and more accommodating. Luckily for me, she tends to hang from the same side each time, so I was able to work on this sketch over the course of three days, often weeks apart, refining the gesture and adding details each time.

A first for us was observing a family of Bewick’s wrens several times. Mom and her four chicks (I say “chicks,” but they are nearly as large as she is) stand on the fence near the feeders. Mom flies up to the suet, grabs a beakful, then stuffs the gaping mouths of the four youngsters. We didn’t know that wrens feed their young outside their nest, so we’ve been delighted to watch this scene. I’m not sure I’ll be able to catch them with my sketchbook; they are so tiny and quick. But I’m happy that our feeders are still up.

Better Than TV

4/27/20 Maple Leaf squirrel

Insufficiently distracted by Prime’s offerings, we recently succumbed to Netflix. Bingeing on “The Crown” has kept our evenings busy, but the best daytime entertainment is still our bird feeder. In a “normal” year, we would have taken it down by now, knowing that the birds have plenty of better food elsewhere. But this year, with fewer entertainment options, we’ve kept it up. The birds are already dining less often at our feeder, though, and we miss them.

They are, however, not our only visitors. On a recent afternoon, our yard’s resident squirrel gave us quite a show of comedic acrobatics as it tried to eat out of the tiny feeding holes. Swinging wildly from both the wind and its own weight, the squirrel kept falling off, but I have to give it credit for persistence. I wonder if it’s the same one that visited last year. . . we have a Squirrel Buster feeder that would keep it away, but I like this faulty feeder better for its entertainment value.

Though less full of pratfalls, the chickadees, juncos and finches are just as frantic as they compete for the pegs. I’ve sketched the bright yellow male American goldfinches before, but usually from the back where their striking chevron-marked wings are visible. This one stood facing the window long enough that I could capture him from the front this time.

4/23/20 male American goldfinch

And then there’s our daily neighborhood walks. In my recent post about the urban bunnies, I mentioned that they are relatively rare in these parts. Not so with raccoons; we spot them fairly often loping leisurely down the street or ducking under bushes. Once, while waiting at a bus stop, I had a lengthy stare-down with a mama and her adorable kits in tow. I know that they can be a nuisance (or worse), but they have never done me any damage or harm, so I like them. On a recent walk, I heard a sudden scramble as I approached a stand of trees, so I looked up, and two raccoons stared back at me.

If nature’s urban programming were more regular and reliable, we wouldn’t need Netflix at all.

4/28/20 raccoons of Maple Leaf

American Goldfinch

4/7/19 male American goldfinch (breeding colors)

Last winter we saw finches at our feeder only occasionally (juncos and chickadees were our primary visitors, and still are). This year, several varieties have been showing up daily, and in no small numbers. Our feeder is often covered with the tiny birds frantically vying for seeds.

In December I sketched a male American goldfinch with his “non-breeding” colors – some yellow on his head but with a brown back. Now that it’s spring, we’ve been seeing more males with their breeding colors on – brighter yellow all over.

4/1/19 male American goldfinch

I recently heard Gage life-drawing model Randy say that he sometimes holds the same pose for a whole academic quarter – three hours a week for 10 weeks, with a break every 20 minutes. Students work on a single oil painting or sculpture, week after week, as Randy returns to the same pose. My approach toward sketching birds at our feeder is similar: Over the course of weeks or months, the same birds (or ones that look identical) return to the same positions on the feeder again and again. Instead of 20 minutes, I might get only a second or two, but each time, I refine a detail or gesture, and eventually I complete a whole sketch. After numerous attempts, I finally caught enough goldfinches that I could complete a couple of sketches showing their coloring and wing details.

Alas, I was never able to complete even one sketch of a Bewick’s wren. All winter, I waited patiently to catch this infrequent visitor, but it’s just too fast for me and doesn’t come often enough, even using the Randy method. I tried several times with my usual colored pencils, but pencils are too slow for wrens. Frustrated, I took a cue from my own life-drawing practice, where I use brush pens containing ink for the shortest poses. The best I could do on the wren was to grab a few gesture sketches using a brush pen (below).

3/31/19 Bewick's wren

The Flicker’s Chevron

1/19/19 flicker

I don’t consider myself a birder meticulously documenting each species, but I think simply viewing birds daily at our feeder and observing closely enough to draw them has made me a better nature observer overall.

Although juncos, chickadees and finches predominate, every now and then a few flickers appear at our feeder (last spring I showed the one I drew from a photo as well as my own earlier sketches). In all our bird identification books, flickers are always shown in profile. That’s also usually the way I see them, awkwardly trying to dine at our feeder (which is designed for much smaller birds). I sketched one from behind only once.

That’s why I was so excited when I saw a flicker hanging on the side of our feeder with its back to us: I discovered a beautiful red chevron on the back of its neck that I’d never seen before. I’d like to think that I would have made the same observation even if all I did was view birds. I believe, though, that it was the act of making the red pencil strokes in my sketch that made me realize I’d never sketched that chevron before.

Drawing is observing; drawing is remembering.

1/16/19 This is the type of profile view I usually see.

Not-So-Still Lives

1/1/18 junco

Recently an artist showed me a lovely photo she had taken of birds at her feeder. I immediately asked if she had been sketching the birds, and she said she was planning to sketch from her photos as “practice” for sketching them from life.

After spending 25 weeks studying colored pencil and graphite drawing from landscape photos last year, I’d be the first to tell you that there’s much to be gained from learning that way. Classwork, concentrated hours of weekly homework and regular instructor feedback expanded my understanding of values and form in ways that I don’t think I could have duplicated through other methods in the same length of time.

12/10/17 pine siskin

And yet I will also be the first to tell you that I don’t think drawing from photos is ever “practice” for drawing from life. A couple of years ago I did some drawings from magazine photos of vibrantly colored birds – a cardinal and some hummingbirds, for example – mainly because I wanted to use lots of color, and it’s hard to find things in the urban landscape in bright hues. I suppose I did learn a little about cardinal and hummingbird forms from those sketches, but if I ever saw such birds in real life close enough to sketch them, I don’t think that “practice” would help me one bit. Because in my experience, the only thing that gives me practice for drawing from life is drawing from life.

I’ve been having so much fun sketching the small birds that have been feeding at our feeder the past month. It’s very challenging – those tiny critters flit and fly off so quickly that sometimes it seems like they literally disappear – but it really is getting a bit easier over time.

12/1/17 nuthatch

It goes something like this: I spot a junco, nuthatch or pine siskin perched on the feeder, on the nearby fence, or in the shrubs, and I decide on a pose I want to capture. I look down at my sketchbook to make the first lines, and when I look back up again at the bird, more often than not, it is no longer there. So I have to rely on my memory from what I saw to finish the sketch (or not). Often if I wait a short time, another bird of the same species will take the same position, so I can reinforce my memory with that image.   

Greg has been taking lots of photos, and we have an informative book that helps us identify local birds, so if I wanted to, I could sketch from photos and illustrations, which might be useful in getting things like markings right. But to learn to capture life, I’m convinced that it’s essential that I practice drawing from life.

12/21/17 junco

12/30/17 junco

12/31/17 junco

Squirrel Saga

 

10/7/23 I imagine that the squirrel looked like this as it flew off our second-story deck.
(reference photo by Andrey Svistunov on Unsplash)

Squirrels have not always been my enemy. Up until this year, I had always been charmed by their agility, their fat, fluffy tails, and the adorable way they hold their food. I enjoy watching them dart around our backyard or scurry across power lines and up trees. I have sketched many squirrels, both from photos and from life (a few shown here).

Back in February, I had written about the squirrel that had taken up residence inside our roof for several weeks. After trapping the (probable) perp as well as numerous innocent bypassers (including one poor Steller’s jay that we released ourselves) and having exclusion work done, we thought the ordeal was over. It turned out that it had barely begun.

Shortly thereafter, another squirrel took residence for months. Eventually that one left of its own accord, but not without first annoying us with daily noisy skittering, gnawing and damage (tiny holes are visible in our bedroom ceiling). Then over the summer, yet a third moved in.

We had long ago fired the ineffectual, incompetent Willard’s Pest Control when its business model became clear: Why install effective exclusion solutions when a much better income stream comes from trapping and removal ($200 each)?

Seeing squirrels use our lilac tree as a convenient bridge to the roof, we got that pruned (though obviously it was just a convenience – squirrels can scale siding, brick and gutters almost as easily as trees).

1/30/22 Squirrel on our suet feeder (sketched from life)

A new tactic

Rather than find another wildlife removal contractor, our next tactic was to hire a professional roofer. The shabby exclusion work installed by Willard’s had already been chewed through by the current squirrel, so we needed that repaired. To avoid trapping the squirrel inside, I had a plan:

Whenever we fed peanuts to the jays in the backyard, a squirrel usually interloped. Although it was impossible to know for certain, I suspected that it was the same one in residence because of how quickly it appeared with the birds. (What cushy accommodations we provide: Free room and board!)

When the roofer was ready to nail shut the last exclusionary piece, I went out to the backyard and put out peanuts. Sure enough, our probable perp showed up! While it was dining, the access hole was blocked, and no more squirrel in residence!

3/13/19 Squirrel on our bird feeder (sketched from life)

Of course, that would have been too easy. An hour later, we heard squirrely noises again. Somehow, it was back inside.

Three days later, I walked into the bedroom to see a squirrel diving under our bed. It was no longer confined to the roof – it had gained access to the living space. Flinging open the bedroom’s French doors, I wished I’d had my phone and the presence of mind to video the squirrel’s spectacular leap off the second-story deck.

Feeling fairly hostile by now, I half-dreaded, half-hoped that I’d find its little skull cracked open on the pavement below. Of course, it must have landed easily on its feet, because a few minutes later, the squirrely noises in the roof had commenced.

Time for the big guns

The next day, I came upstairs to find the squirrel darting around inside my studio. This time, however, the intrusion was informative: In response to my loud cussing, the squirrel had raced into an unfinished storage area, and then I immediately heard it skittering overhead. A-ha – so the storage area was the access from the roof! Now we gotcha, you little bugger. I slammed the door shut, confining the squirrel to the storage area, which fortunately contains no food.

4/27/20 Squirrel on our bird feeder (sketched from life)

It was time to pull out the big guns. After more research and frustration (three more pest removal contractors disappointed me even before they did any work), I finally found A Wildlife Pro. Extremely knowledgeable about pesky animal behavior, owner Sean also seemed compassionate and humane toward the wildlife that annoyed humans. In addition to inspecting our house and roof thoroughly for problem areas and proposing a plan to address them, he gave us a fascinating education in squirrel behavior (“know thy enemy” is the best strategy).

For example, only female squirrels chew their way into roofs – they are looking for safe, cozy nesting places. Assuming it was safe and cozy, they will also tend to return to the same location litter after litter – so it’s possible that we’ve had the same mama all year. As I know from every nature program I’ve ever watched, a mother mammal will do everything necessary to protect and raise her young, including defending her territory.

Pointing out fresh debris on the lawn on the side of the house where I had heard gnawing, Sean believed that the recent noises were coming from outside the roof, not inside. But then what about the squirrel I had seen in the bedroom and in my studio? It was probably not the same one doing the chewing. It was likely that we had a whole family in residence.

Setting live traps in the storage area, Sean said that if we happened to catch a nursing female, he would advise releasing her until the youngsters were weaned. Otherwise, a nest of young ones would die inside the roof. If it was obvious that the squirrel was not nursing, then he would take her away to be “euthanized.” (I asked why he can’t just drive her a half-mile to Green Lake and let her go? It’s illegal to “relocate” wildlife.)

Trapped in our storage area.

Trapped

Less than an hour after the traps were set, we caught a squirrel. After calling Sean, I took my sketchbook into the storage area to sketch it, but it was thrashing around too much. I stayed with it a while. We had already “euthanized” many squirrels this year, and likely this one would be next. Moments earlier, its only motivation had been hunger, which drove it to the peanuts in the trap. As soon as it was trapped, however, it had left the peanuts uneaten; getting free took all of its attention. Seeing it gnaw frantically, trying to escape, I empathized completely. Trapped and hungry, I would certainly try to free myself before eating.

I’m sorry, little squirrel. I know you are only trying to live your life, just like the rest of us.

10/12/23 Sean installing hardware to keep squirrels out.

Sean carried the trap out to our backyard deck to observe the squirrel in better light. Nearly full grown and probably weaned, it was a male juvenile, he said, not mama, which helped us put the likely story together: When the roofer had completed the exclusion work several days prior, mama had been outside the roof (eating our peanuts in the backyard) and could no longer get back inside, where the kids still were. Ever since, she had been trying to gnaw a new opening into the roof to get back to her kids.

Meanwhile, youngster No. 1 had found its way to the storage area and eventually flew off our deck. Youngster No. 2 was now in the trap.

As we were talking, the trapped squirrel suddenly gave a loud, shrill cry that I had never before heard from a squirrel. A distress call, Sean said. Then another squirrel dashed into our yard: Mama had heard him!

Sean looked at me. I told him to let the squirrel go. He took the trap to the top of the fence between our yard and the neighbor’s and released the little bugger.

We haven’t heard squirrely noises in more than a week – the quietest it has been in months.

Squirrels aren’t going away, and neither are we. We must learn to coexist. More than $4,000 and nine months later, we are learning.

Bewick’s Wren

1/9/20 Bewick's wren

Last winter a Bewick’s wren visited our feeder only occasionally, and meals were extremely brief. Every time I spotted one, it would be gone by the time I picked up a pencil. The most I got were a couple of incomplete gestures last spring. Along with a nuthatch, which also visits rarely and briefly, a wren has been my sketching goal at the feeder this winter.

Hoping to attract more nuthatches, which like to hang upside-down to dine, we got a different feeder this year designed to accommodate birds that eat that way. It holds suet bricks instead of loose seeds. I guess wrens like suet, because one has been visiting more often, and last week I finally caught it! It’s still not much more than a gesture, but it’s the most complete sketch I’ve made so far.

Flickers

5/6/18 male flicker (photo reference)

I finally got around to finishing a project I’d been thinking about for months. Back in January a pair of feisty flickers began trying to use our feeder, which is designed for much smaller birds. Although they managed to get some seeds, it was not without odd contortions and acrobatics. They’re too large to stand on the perches, so they would cling to the side of the feeder instead and bend over to peck the seeds. They were comical and entertaining, and their persistence gave me a chance to sketch them several times.

Over the course of several days in January and February, each time I saw the same male flicker I continue adding more and more detail to the same sketch.

Meanwhile, Greg was shooting photos of most of our avian diners, including the flicker, which gave me an idea. I thought it would be fun to do as many sketches as possible from life first and then eventually do a more finished drawing from a photo. As you know from my frequent complaints while I was taking classes in colored and graphite pencil drawing last year, I’m not a fan of drawing from photos. I do, however, understand the value of learning by using this method, and I know I have benefitted from working this way. Since I had done several sketches from life first, I felt that drawing from a photo would teach me more about the bird without taking away the freshness of life drawing. So that’s what I did: I used one of Greg’s photos of the same flicker I’d sketched as my reference.

1/7 and 1/28/18 (in progress; from life)

1/29/18 (in progress; from life)

2/2/18 (from life)

Indeed, the experience was as I’d hoped. Of course, I enjoyed sketching from life much more; I’m so much more engaged when my model is endlessly moving and, well, alive. But drawing from the photo taught me more about the flicker’s proportions, form and details, and my understanding will probably inform my sketches the next time I see it.

3/15/18 (from life)

2/2/18 (from life)

The last few weeks as the temperatures have warmed, we’ve seen fewer and fewer birds at our feeders as the grub gets tastier and more available from natural sources. We’ve enjoyed endless entertainment all winter and spring, but it’s time to take the feeders down until autumn. I’ll look forward to giving the flickers a shot again – from life, of course. Heck, we might even buy a feeder that will accommodate them better!

Female flicker

Male flicker (Photos by Greg Mullin)

Male flicker

Our Feeder is Busy Again

12/13/18 Dark-eyed junco

As we did last year, we put our feeder back up on Thanksgiving weekend. Almost immediately, it became a popular place with juncos, chickadees and goldfinches. When we first got the feeder, we were buying 10-pound bags of feed, one at a time, from our local Audubon Society office. This year we went ahead and bought a 20-pound bag at the beginning of the season; we have no doubt the tiny birds will go through it. While we were there, we joined the society so that we could take advantage of the member discount and also support its work.

To sketch the birds, I’m again using a pocket-size Stillman & Birn sketchbook (Epsilon this year instead of Beta). I have two goals this year: The first is to make larger sketches. Last year, I thought that if I drew smaller, I would be faster, so nearly all my sketches were only about one inch long, but I couldn’t capture many details that way. Now I’m trying for at least two to three inches.

12/15/18 Goldfinch

My second goal is to not only capture their gesture – make them look like individual, living birds and not generic stuffed ones – but also to be as accurately detailed as possible. The sketches of the juncos you see here were made over the course of a few days, a few details at a time, because they move so quickly and don’t stay long when they perch. If I can’t capture a detail fast enough in a sketch, I take notes, so each sketch becomes a reference for the next one. The goldfinch sketches were done in one sitting because once they perch, they tend to stay longer.

My pencil of choice for bird sketching is the Staedtler Karat Aquarell, which I mentioned in my post about how I use hard and soft water-soluble colored pencils together. Other than vintage pencils and novelty sets that are hardly useable, the Staedtlers are the hardest watercolor pencils I own. Artist grade and heavily pigmented, they can maintain a firm point for a long time while I try to capture the beautiful chevron pattern that the wings of the male goldfinch form on his back as he chows down at the buffet.

Female Flicker

 

12/6/20 female flicker at our suet feeder

Whenever I’ve studied life drawing of either human models or animals, the same question comes up in one form or another: Is the life of the being visible in the drawing? One life-drawing instructor put it this way: “Is there bone, muscle, fat and blood under that skin? Is the model breathing? Or are you drawing a mannequin?”

I’ve sketched flickers many times now during the four years that we’ve had a feeder. The sketch shown here that I made last Sunday is the first time I feel satisfied that I captured the gesture well – that the life of this bird is visible. I think some sketches may have captured the proportions or details adequately, but something was missing, and the result might have been a drawing of a taxidermy specimen (even this one, the only time I worked from a photo). Nature artist and instructor John Muir Laws could probably tell me, but I haven’t done it successfully or consistently enough to know what I did right this time – or how I can repeat it. Just more practice, I guess.

Portland, Part 4: Oregon Zoo

 

9/22/25 Asian elephants, Oregon Zoo

Despite the many times I’ve visited Portland, I had never been to the Oregon Zoo before. It’s truly a world-class zoo with a well-designed walking flow and beautiful exhibits that enable the animals to be seen while still giving them lots of space to roam.

I spent the most time observing the Asian elephants – three adults and an adorable baby! They can eat from timed feeders, which keep the animals moving from feeder to feeder. I had so much fun sketching an adult elephant up close while she fed. To observe more of the exhibit, I walked above the feeding area, and I could see the baby playing, mom nearby.

Masai and reticulated giraffes

The Masai and reticulated giraffes, too, had an excellent, large space where they could be observed no matter where they went.

The Oregon Zoo is now on my list of regular places to visit when I go to Portland.

Mountain goat, black bear, bald eagle

Merry Chickadee

12/6 - 12/17/19 chestnut-backed chickadee at our feeder

We are seeing a couple of new regularly visiting birds at our feeder lately: a nuthatch and a chestnut-backed chickadee. Black-capped chickadees have been among our most common visitors, but we’ve never noticed the chestnut-backed before this year.

The nuthatch is especially fast, furtive and unpredictable, so I have yet to complete a sketch of one. But the chestnut-backed chickadee has visited often enough that I’ve been able to sketch this much over the course of a couple of weeks, adding a detail or two each time I see one. I apologize that it’s a rather rough sketch to send you as my holiday greeting, but since chickadees are frequently shown on Christmas cards and such, it will have to do. Merry Christmas!

12/25/19