Category Archives: Uncategorized

The new set up for moths. Susan just received two LED-black lights to go with our florescent black light. The past two night there were a few midges and moths, nothing spectacular. We also had a green lacewing. None of the calling tree-crickets came to the lights. Not many days left for this before itContinue reading “A floral art challenge and more”

For the threatened art challenge I’ll be using some illustrations of animals threatened with extinction. Kirtland’s Warbler nests mainly in Michigan with the heart of the breeding range in the Grayling and Mio areas. What threatens the warbler is the reduction in nesting habitat, extensive jack pines about 5-20 years old (5-20 feet high). OverContinue reading “Threatened art challenge”

It was about 1995 in the winter that I decided to sketch people walking outside as they passed our house. I called the project “Who are the people in our neighborhood?” It was a lot of fun Many times I sketched neighbors out walking their dogs. But every sketch took less than a minute toContinue reading “The art challenge and the neighborhood”

The above photo of a gar is about as toothy as it can get. This will be one of the photos used for this “toothed” art challenge. With one exception these will all be zoo or aquarium photos. These two pine martins were found high in a spruce off Basnau Road, in Chippewa County, Michigan.Continue reading “Toothed art challenge”

So, I started taking photos in the mid-1950s with my Mickey Mouse Camera, which took 120 film. I put a roll of film through it in the early 1980s and it still worked fine. When I moved to Ann Arbor in the 1970s it was the first time in years that I didn’t have myContinue reading “The photography community in the 1970s”

This is a journal page where I was attempting to capture the essence of a soaring kettle of hawks. I used this effort to create the following watercolor painting. Painting clouds and the sky are a lot of fun for me. An illustration of a Swallow-tailed Kite that never went much further. A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher,Continue reading “Art in the sky”

It’s hard to believe that I spent 5 hours at the EMU Biology Department and at lunch without taking a single picture. It was great seeing Chiron, Anne, Skip and Marianne. Brought back memories of great times. It was also strange seeing my office was not a small conference room. I also spent some timeContinue reading “The art challenge, EMU and more”

The above photo is neither great nor definitive without a lot of experience. It is, however a photo of four Long-eared Owl that were migrating at Whitefish Point. It was in the 1970s when I first started going to Whitefish Point. That was before the formation of the Whitefish Point Bird Observatory (I was aContinue reading “A nocturnal art challenge”

Back around 2003 we were visiting Alexis in Minneapolis and went to a sculpture garden. There was a sculpture of a horse made of tree limbs. Every angle you looked at it was an entirely different perspective. So I decided to do quick sketches of each view with a different brush-pen. I thought that thisContinue reading “Art challenge – variation”

The art challenge for today is spotted. The above sketch was done at the Belle Isle Aquarium back in the early 1990s. The rest were part of a project illustrating all of the “interesting” animals of Mexico. Each of the big cats have different spotting patterns on their backs. The art challenge for tomorrow isContinue reading “Art challenge – spotted”