Painting and Birding 'round the Long Island Sound

The blog has been sadly neglected, and I find myself having skipped over nearly a year.  What brings me back is another visit to Great Gull Island.  Like last year, I was accompanied by my son, Brendan, but unfortunately Steve and Claire Quinn could not be there.  Last year there had been plenty of down time to spend on art, but his time, I was invited back solely for the purpose of doing art.  Brendan was to assist in the usual tasks of trapping and tagging terns, but I was assigned by the director of the research station, Helen Hays, to spend every daylit hour observing, sketching and painting the wildlife and landscapes around me.  It was an astonishing week, and a productive one.

I'll keep the writing to a minimum and present the images fairly chronologically, as they were made.

The west end of Great Gull Island, in the morning, with the sun behind me and Plum Island glowing across the channel.  Oil on canvas, 8 x 12 inches.

The island is dotted with bird blinds, and the one just to the left of the point is the one I visited the first day, where Helen told me Roseate Terns were plentiful.

Here is my first page of Roseate tern studies.  Typically, a few quick gestural studies, some fragments, and some more developed.  The top sketch is a juvenile, begging for food, and the "portraits" are it's overworked parents.

The view from the bird blind, looking back towards headquarters.  The buildings are what is left of a former military fort, with lookout towers and gun emplacements.  The red brick buildings were our dormitories.

This was the view from the porch outside my room, looking north towards Connecticut.  Directly in front was the ruins of the old pier.

Here's a more developed sketch than usual- an accomodating young Roseate.

Here I've combined two seperate watercolor portraits- a young Roseate Tern at the top, and a young Common Tern below.

Some mortality is to be expected at a nesting colony, and this offered me an opportunity for some close-up study.  As described in the notes, the band on this bird indicated that this bird had hatched on July 6th- 32 days previously.  This stage has been dubbed an "Orville" on Great Gull, after the Wright Brother, who had learned to fly but not well. 

A Common tern sitting on eggs gave me an opportunity to study an adult at some interesting angles.

This was another view from my porch, of an old fortification known as "the bunker". Oil on canvas, 6 x 9 inches.

Two views from my favorite bird blind near the ruins of the old dock, done as midday turned into afternoon.

This is the interior of some of the old military rooms.  These are known as the "pink rooms" because of the terra-cotta colored bricks that have been flaking off a fine powder for ages.  This was a tough one to do, as I was immersed in the oddly colored light that bounced off every surface.  Oil on canvas, 9 x 6 inches.

Watercolor studies of a common tern on a nest.

Watercolor study of a young Common tern "orville" napping on some Irish Moss.

A peregrine Falcon had been raiding the island daily but I didn't witness this until the last day.  Perched atop its prey, it gave me distant but sustained views.  After it had flown, harassed by terns, I visited the site to retrieve the victims band for the record, but all that was left was the head and wings- apparently the falcon had eaten the legs!

I discovered these two chicks on the next to last day.  They are remarkably hard to spot until they move, and these had just gotten to the age where they were beginning to move about.

Here's the view of the west end again, but this time in the afternoon with the sinking sun casting a golden haze over all.  Oil on panel, 8 x 10 inches.

I end where it all begins...  a Common Tern egg.

For more about Great Gull Island, visit http://greatgullisland.blogspot.com/