November 20, 2006
discovering San Francisco's lesser known treasures
Did you know there is a natural spring in the Presidio? I sure didn't! Apparently this was a spot frequented by native americans because it was a great source of fresh water. Where is it coming from? I have no idea, but it sure is neat.
I was talking to someone about bird watching in San Francisco, and she mentioned El Polin Spring as an amazing place to see birds. I found it on a map and drove over there. I soon learned that she wasn't talking about the kind of big waterbirds *I* generally prefer to look at -- apparently birding snobs are above bothering with such large, easy to distinguish birds as egrets and night herons. El Polin Spring is a haven for lots of little tiny brown songbird type birds, so fast and small and hard to tell apart (or even look at for more than 5 seconds), I guess it's truely challenging... or truely IMPOSSIBLE if you're trying to draw wildlife!
I did my best and dutifully got out my Sibley's and binoculars and tried to identify some of those tiny little bitches. I actually figured out what a few of them were, but I came out there to DRAW. I noticed a banana slug on the ground in front of me, and he wasn't moving very quickly, so I drew him instead!
Then I decided to practice some of the quick sketching techniques I've been working on with some of these light-speed birds hopping around me. I actually made a couple sketches of an Oregon Junco I'm pretty happy with:
As for bird identification, there was one type of bird I was seeing a lot of, and having a hell of a time figuring out what it was, until it flashed its unbelievably bright, iridescent red crest. There were a ton of these little guys flitting around, and they're really pretty cute. I got to see a few bathing in the spring, splashing more water around than a bird 4 times their size. Still, they aren't all big and huggable like pelicans.
Ruby-crowned kinglet from BirdSource