Tag Archives: saltmarsh

Summer waders on the salt marsh

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Updated September 2014

Last summer the greenshank was missing from my sketches of summer waders but this year I was lucky enough to spot this one in Chapel Pill . . .

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Also in the pill at the same time was one adult and one juvenile Grey Wagtail – this is the adult . .

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Updated 23 September 2013

Well summer is over and I can feel the cool breath of autumn so this is my last update on summer waders.  Over this period I have been able to sketch redshank, ringed plover, oystercatchers, curlew, whimbrel, common sandpipers, turnstones, dunlin and black-tailed godwits. There have been reports of other waders in the area such as greenshank, though I did not see them myself so my list of sketches remains incomplete.

COMMON SANDPIPER AND TURNSTONES

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I often see one or two pairs of common sandpipers bobbing rhythmically in the muddy pills at either end of the salt marsh as they look for food. Continue reading →

Salt marsh pheasant

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Updated 30 January 2014

I see pheasants on the salt marsh regularly . . .  an interesting backdrop for a pheasant!

A cock fight in December

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There was much parallel walking as these two cock pheasants strutted and postured on the salt marsh . . .

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. . . and then a flurry of feathers. In the background the cargo vessel Danica Sunrise edges her way into Portbury Docks on low water.

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This territorial dispute went on for ages and so engrossed were they that my presence remained unnoticed.

Colours in the cockfighting sketches : indian red, cadmium red, burnt sienna, alizarin crimson, raw umber and cobalt turquoise light plus the addition of raw sienna in the sketch above.

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On a previous visit . . .

IMG_3580 . . . a sudden flurry and that lovely staccato purr of wings of a cock pheasant bursting from the flooding marsh just ahead of me. It is such a pleasure to see and hear them on the marsh . . . and the navigation buoys, docks and Denny Island make for an unusual view.

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The buoy is the middle one of three marking the right hand (starboard) edge of the shipping channel into Royal Portbury dock. 

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Teal – jinxing and jiving

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Sketched between September and January
IMG_9396Although the wintering teal have now left for their summer breeding grounds I thought I would add some winter time sketches that I have just been leafing through.

I find these small, fast flying ducks that jinx and jive in flight fascinating. Their teal green wing bars shimmer in the winter sunlight, though even on a grey day they don’t disappoint.

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