Bird watching while sketching

Away caravanning on the downs north east of Salisbury. The sky is alive with the ariel stunts of swallows against a background of duck egg blue and cotton wool clouds. Stood for 10 minutes sketching and saw 3 wrens, a bullfinch, a longtailed tit and a couple of pied wagtails.
Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media

goose linoprint.jpg

And a test print of the goose.
Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media

wren linoprint.jpg

Test print of wren.
Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media

linoprint

An early test print of bird on a wire.
Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media

A cold 6 months

So winter has passed and I can venture out sketching birds again.  Over the winter I've been experimenting with linocuts and here are some original plates.

Bird on a wire.  Based on a quick sketch of a bird resting on a telephone line just after dusk

A wren, based on an old sketch

and a goose, trying to get a woodcut type of effect.

And another two

The treecreeper is a personal favourite.  I've only seen one twice but I think it might be one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen.  

The pigeon is unfinished and suffered worst of all from the poor colour settings on the scanner.

two more birds

 I was surprised to see a crested tit recently, not because they're particularly rare to my knowledge, but simply because I'd never seen one to the best of my knowledge.

The grey wagtail on the other hand is a frequent visitor to our front garden and a prominent local inhabitant.