Keeping a Nature Journal

[Windrider]

I used to keep a field journal when I was a college student, studying botany and zoological illustration. I got to go on all kinds of awesome university-funded field research assignments as the illustrator. But now it is my job and I don't have time for fun journals.

I don't have scans of a full journal page, but these are some individual pics from my student journal.

 

[StinkyAcres]

I used to keep a field journal when I was a college student, studying botany and zoological illustration. I got to go on all kinds of awesome university0funded field research assignments as the illustrator. But now it is my job and I don't have time for fun journals.

I don't have scans of a full journal page, but these are some individual pics from my student journal.

View attachment 3222982

Beautiful work!

 

[Karasu]

I used to keep a field journal when I was a college student, studying botany and zoological illustration. I got to go on all kinds of awesome university-funded field research assignments as the illustrator. But now it is my job and I don't have time for fun journals.

I don't have scans of a full journal page, but these are some individual pics from my student journal.

View attachment 3222982

Amazing. Suddenly I feel like I picked the wrong career. Thank you for sharing.

 

[Karasu]

I believe I saw a red-necked grebe the other day. It was far off in the water, but the silhouette and the general colour was the same. Here is a page on it from my field guide. I may try to paint it sometime.

 

[Karasu]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0018506X16303841
I found this fascinating abstract on the impact of the microbiome on avian behavior. While I couldn't read the full text, it got me thinking about how perhaps there may be differences in captive and wild bird populations as a result of varying microbiome sources and population density. I would love to go watch (and paint) a colony of wild conures and compare them to my own birds. Paying attention to wild birds has made me think much more about the contrast between them and their captive siblings.

 

[Karasu]

A red-breasted merganser, Mergus serrator

 

[Karasu]

Some wild Egyptian geese spotted in Belgium.

 

[Karasu]

A fine German duck. Probably a male Mallard in eclipse plumage.

Coots in Belgium. I've never seen one with black and white plumage before.

 

[Aunt Angus]

A fine German duck. Probably a male Mallard in eclipse plumage.
View attachment 3225987
Coots in Belgium. I've never seen one with black and white plumage before.
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Coots are my fave. The white kind of looks like bleaching akin to what ducks are prone to as they age. Huh.

 

[Windrider]

The Audubon Society has an article on birds with white patches, like that coot:

https://www.audubon.org/news/why-bird-half-white