🌿 Field Notes #004
Birding in the snow and new watercolors
We have had just about all of the possible weather outcomes you could imagine over the past two weeks, and as I’m writing this in mid-March I think we have finally turned a corner towards spring. Now it’s almost hard to imagine the person trudging through the snow we got in addition to the blizzard, to think that piles and piles of it used to coat every car and tree on our street. I am feeling very excited for spring migration - I just finished reading Christian Cooper’s Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World, and he writes:
And since, unlike the fall, the spring features males in beautiful breeding plumage—I’m nothing, if not consistent—Central Park’s unparalleled spring songbird migration, the peak lasting about six weeks, had become my holy month of Ramadan. Work, the gym, nightclubbing, eating, sleeping, friends, romance, all become secondary.
I’m planning to get out birding as much as possible. Last spring, I was planning my wedding (which took place right in the heart of spring migration) and wasn’t able to devote too much time to getting outdoors to bird. This year I have already booked up as many Saturdays as possible; I also commute one day a week into the office, and am hoping to get to Central Park early in the morning on those days. I’d been thinking I’d be able to upgrade my camera lens in time for migration, but a series of unexpected expenses have made that less likely, so I’ll have to see what I can manage with my current 70-300mm lens setup. Either way, I’m planning to add plenty to my life list. One of my goals this year is to reach 200 species (I’m currently at 130ish), which I think is a pretty modest endeavor given the wealth of avian visitors to New York’s green spaces every spring.
I’ve also slightly upgraded my watercolors to the Paul Rubens 24 color set, and I’ve really been enjoying them so far. I didn’t realize quite how dried out my previous set had been but I noticed the difference in pigments immediately. The sketchbook I use is the Handbook Journal Co. Watercolor Journal, 300gsm version, but the 300gsm feels a bit overkill for what I use it for (mostly watercolor/markers/colored pencils). I still have a ways to go before I finish it, but if anyone has any recommendations for good mixed media sketchbooks with smooth paper I am definitely open to them.
I am still working out the format of these weekly observation posts, but it has been a nice practice to draw up a few things I saw over the past couple of weeks to share on here. If you’re not subscribed already, and visual journals are your thing, I would love if you followed along!