Mar8
Tag Archives: naturalista
Feb8
In flight
Portugal was full of storks. They nested everywhere: on houses, trees, light poles. Everywhere. Very elegant when in flight…much less so when hopping around on the ground, in search of just about anything they could eat. The chicks were like baby Elvises, with their fluffs of hair standing on end and their large ugly beaks perpetually open for food.
I made this for my father. The clouds are what came out best.
Feb8
Falco naumanni
One day, we went to an abandoned house. More like a mini-castle. On a hill close to Cordoba, where we were based.
There was a family of Lesser Kestrels that flew out of it when we arrived, and soon we found out why: at least one couple (were they a family? Or just couples living together?) had a teeny tiny little chick resting in the eaves of the house. I managed to take lots and lots of photos – they were obviously very worried and we left without wasting time. I picked up a few feathers walking out … and only when I was home saw that they probably belonged to the female bird I had taken a photo of.
A painting was a must.
The two feathers are real
Feb8
Cyanistes caeruleus
During my time as a field assistant in Cordoba, Spain (the south. The hot, hot south), we worked with quite a few species of birds. One was the Blue Tit. Their song was also quite cute, and they spent a lot of time staring at us while we checked their nests!
Here’s the call (with a nice sheep background)
Feb8
Unnamed
I was unsure on how to call this composition. “Curiosity”? “Stares”? Not sure. What do you think?
Feb8
Testudo hermanni
Because tortoises are one of my favourite animals.
Jan22
Beatrix, the genius
This gallery contains 18 photos.
Until the summer of this year, I knew Beatrix Potter only as a children’s book author: when I was young, my mother read me nearly all the “tale” books, from “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” to “The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse” – I loved every last one. That’s why last August, at the age of […]
Oct16
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chelavier
This gallery contains 1 photo.
When I read this book, I didn’t even know of the existence of Mary Anning, which was pretty much the same thing that had happened when I read Chevalier’s previous novel, “Girl with a Pearl Earring“, before which I knew nothing about Vermeer. Here, the author showcases a remarkable duo, composed of the afore-mentioned Mary […]
Oct8
Mary Anning
This gallery contains 7 photos.
This month’s Naturalist is Mary Anning, a self-made palaeontologist born to a poor family in 1799 in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Her father sold fossils as an aside to his main activity, cabinet-making, and raised his children (two survived out of ten that were born), Joseph and Mary, on the shores of Lyme Regis, looking for […]
Sep2
Timothy; Or, Notes of an Abject Reptile
This gallery contains 3 photos.
In 1789 Gilbert White, a prominent yet largely forgotten British naturalist, wrote “The Natural History of Selborne”. He wrote notes about everything around him including his tortoise, Timothy, who was later discovered to be a female. About three centuries later, Verlyn Klinkenborg, a North American author and newspaper editor, snuck into Timothy’s psyche and produced […]
Earth, Wind and Daisies 