Hermit Thrushes in Autumn

One of my favorite bird sightings of spring and fall is of spotted thrushes. There's something wonderfully poetic about these shy, reclusive birds that are well known for their beautiful songs but not often seen. This autumn I found a couple of Swainson's thrushes in late September and then spent lots of time observing hermit thrushes in October and early November. I've been working on some ideas for compositions with hermit thrushes for a number of months now and had been looking forward to seeing them this fall, so I was grateful for long views with some patient waiting and watching. Back in the studio I did some sketches in brown-gray hard pastel in an effort to work out natural poses and firm up my sense of proportions:

And now I'm on to some new work that incorporates hermit thrushes. I've got lots of photos of the thrushes I've been watching - here's one of my better shots of a hermit thrush in October.