Collared Pratincole (watercolour and gouache on paper)

I've just received the new issue of the 'Petit atlas' series published by Delachaux et Niestlé French publisher. This is the 3rd in the series with my illustrations:

Eurasian Thick-knee (watercolour on paper)

I've found a male Firecrest this morning close to my home. This is one of my favourite birds. It was extremely difficult to make sketches of it, as it didn't stop for a moment.
I'm pleased with the result, as I think that I could catch the character of the species.

I'll go back tomorrow to make more work, and also to add colours.

I attatch a short, shaking video of the bird to show how restless it was:

I've painted this male Three-toed Woodpecker for commission. This is painted with watercolours, and is done in a fieldsketch-style. Sadly I've seen this species only once in northern Slovakia many years ago.



I recommend to take a look at my friend's Gerard Gorman's blog: http://www.woodpeckersofeurope.blogspot.com/
You can learn more about Woodpeckers from it.

I've completed an insect plate yesterday (bat-food).

Inachis io, Noctua pronuba, Forficula auricularia, Culex pipiens, Phryganea grandis, Geotrupes stercorarius, Tipula paludosa, Palomena prasina

The temptation is too strong. I've spent again some hours in the morning looking for Waxwings. They were quite restless, and could make only this sketch of a bird perched high in a treetop. The wind was too strong, so this is all I did.

I've returned to the park to sketch Waxwings. As it was Sunday, the early morning hours were very quiet, so the birds could feed undisturbed. Thanked to this I could sketch this bird eating the berries of Hawthorn. I had an appointment so could complete the work at home (eg. adding branches).

Budapest is full with Waxwings, and luckily there's a flock also in my district. Today I've visited the main park where a flock was reported in the previous days. I've counted a record of 150 birds.
I made some sketches (here a sunlit bird in front of some dark grey clouds):


This photo was taken with 3x zoom:

A quite different illustration from anything I did before. This will illustrate the parts of a house Bats use for roosting.

I've painted some Bat species 2 years ago (http://kokayart.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html). Now I started to work on some additional illustrations, first 3 types of parasites:

Bat fly, bat mite and bat flea.