Much as I love my current range of birdwatching logbooks, it’s always exciting to have the opportunity to produce a new title, and the one I am in discussions about at the moment is really exciting as it is over in the US so a completely new range of birds.
This is slightly ironic as my whole reason for creating the logbooks was my longstanding interest in birdwatching here in the UK, and wanting to share the bank of knowledge I have built up over the years, and introduce the well-known characters I have been observing all my life. Of course I don’t have this knowledge of the species we are considering for this title, but I’m looking forward to familiarising myself with the ones we’re choosing so that I can feel confident about painting them and writing up the identifying features. I have a Birds of North America field guide that I picked up from a secondhand bookshop when I was in Chicago, and it’s great as it’s not too comprehensive, and is an illustrated rather than photographic guide, and all bar one of the species I need to get to know is listed in there.
The project is a hiking and biking trail that is being proposed to join up two national trails, and is basically crossing diagonally across Arizona from New Mexico to the Grand Canyon and covering a vast area of rewilding. We are still in the very early discussion stages but I need to get some visuals organised for the team so they can see what they’re dealing with, as although I have sent some copies of Birds of the South Downs and Birds of Greenwich Peninsula over for them to see, I have found that a logbook doesn’t really come alive until I’ve made a mock up of the cover and painted some birds.
I have new paper too, Fabriano Artistico but the heavier weight cold-pressed sheets which I’ve not used before. It seems to be behaving beautifully. I have also done some preliminary studies in my Leuchtturm sketchbook and I’m waiting for some images of the landscape so I can try some covers and double-page spreads for the centre ticklist. We have some fabulous habitats here in the UK but desert/arid scrub is not one of them, so I’m looking forward to learning about a new ecosystem.
Here are my studies:
And here are a Western Tanager and a Mexican Jay:
