2007 Sketches

I started sketching outdoors as a young kid, drawing cats, dogs, miscellaneous farm animals, wildflowers in our small woods—basically anything that didn’t move too fast. But I didn’t get serious about it until college. While I was studying wildlife biology, I was fortunate enough to take a field sketching class from another biologist/artist. I think I filled up 5 large sketchbooks in one semester. I started sketching my vacations, trips to museums, zoos and gardens; plants and flowers. I can’t remember a lot of the trees I was supposed to memorize in dendrology class but I do remember the beautiful drawings I made of each specimens’ leaves and seeds. I should probably have known something wasn’t quite right when I was having more fun drawing in the field than I was doing my research...

I always use a hardbound, spiral sketchbook, usually 9 x 12. The kind isn’t important so much as having a really stiff cover so it’s easy to work with in the field. And I always sketch with a ballpoint pen. Pens are great because they never need sharpened and they don’t smear like graphite. Best of all, you can’t erase them, so I don’t waste time trying to finesse a sketch. The only times I use a pencil are when it is really cold (because pens will freeze up, trust me) or raining (which occasionally happens in Oregon).

Here are some recent sketchbook pages. Enjoy.

December 30, 2007—Tundra swans, Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge

The last sketch of the year! Ridgefield in the winter time is one of my favorite places to sketch. My husband and I piled into the truck with all our gear and drove the autotour route, looking for subjects. Tundra and trumpeter swans are common at the refuge in winter. They are so lovely, especially on a cloudy day like this. Their white plumage glows against the dark waters and the golden grasses.

This was an interesting winter day for weather. It was mostly cloudy and frequently rained, but we had some periods of sun. There was a pretty strong breeze which pushed the water and the birds around. On our way home, it began a light snow, which later changed to sleet and hail. And then we saw the lightening! Thunderstorms are one of the things I miss most about the Midwest. It is always a treat to see it, especially when you don’t expect it.

December 11, 2007—Max rider sketches

When I can’t get out and sketch nature and wildlife, I sketch what’s around me. The Max is an fun place to sketch people, since we are basically a captive audience, or subject, as it were. This one man was one of the riders that night. I was interested in the way his hood shadowed his face and draped over his head.

November 25, 2007—skunks, Indiana

We went home for the holidays at Thanksgiving instead of Christmas this year. It was a great visit until I caught the stomach flu that my family was passing around. Great way to lose weight fast, though. While at my in-laws farm, I watched these skunks on a couple different, very late nights—after all, I was not sleeping anyway because of the flu! There were two of them roaming the backyard, raiding the bird seed and picking up fallen persimmons. They were actually difficult to draw, not only because of the dim lighting, but also because they mostly kept their noses down into the grass. Between the tucked noses and their long fur, they basically resembled moving mops. Although we think of skunks having a narrow stripe of white on a mostly black body, the coloration is pretty variable. Both these two looked mostly white.

I especially enjoyed watching the two of them interact. Most of the time they kept their distance from each other and ate in their separate areas. But then one skunk started galloping toward the other. Apparently this skunk did not feel like sharing, because it turned around and raised its tail toward the other skunk. That skunk immediately turned around and bolted off. Do skunks not like to get sprayed either? Or maybe it was a dominance game between the two.

November 2, 2007—Cannon Beach landscape

I was fortunate enough to take a colored pencil class at Cannon Beach in November—thank you, Jeff! What a treat to walk on the beach every morning, lunchtime and evening every day, while working on art in-between. Here Haystack Rock dominates the picture, while gulls dot the beach in the foreground. I also took photos of the most beautiful sunsets and am looking forward to producing art from these pictures.

October 27, 2007—mushrooms, St. Louis Ponds

After a long dry summer, the fall rains produced a bumper crop of mushrooms and fungi in October. These were growing on a bent tree trunk at the St. Louis Ponds dog training area. They were yellow with brown markings; the stems were a paler yellow with brown streaks and delicate hairs.

October 22, 2007—Mountain goat, Oregon Zoo

Another mountain goat sketch. Mountain goats are usually slow-moving and relatively easy to sketch. At this point, they do not have their winter coats yet and still look a bit shabby.

October 22, 2007—Mountain lion, Oregon Zoo

The young lions at the Oregon Zoo are really fun to watch. Being young, they are still startled and intrigued by life at the zoo. Today, this animal became fixated on something—none of us watching could figure out what. The animal was posed on top of large log and stared out the pen with feline intensity for maybe 10 minutes. Because of their young age, the two lions have very angular lines and limbs.

October 7, 2007—Greylag goose, Ft. Flagler

I don’t ordinarily sketch non-native species often, but I was interested by these greylag geese. They have large orange bills and a matching orange ring around their eyes. It makes for a cool effect when they are looking straight at you.

September 23, 2007—Llama, Flock and Fiber Festival

Llamas have become rather commonplace these days. But I don’t get to see them up close often, so I took the opportunity to sketch. This adult female was busy watching the crowd go by and chewing her cud. In the pen with her was her year-old offspring. I’ll admit that I don’t know the correct terms for llama young and sexes. I found their tails interesting. On the right top is a sketch of the young animal’s tail. It is curly and has a prominent arch. In contrast, the adult’s tail (right bottom) has the arch, but the hair is longer and flows straighter.

September 23, 2007—Young yak, Flock and Fiber Festival

The Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby is a great place for anyone interested in weaving and livestock. There are the rather ordinary sheep, goats, and rabbits. And then there is the unusual. I saw my first yaks at the Flock and Fiber Festival. This is a one-and-a-half year old bull yak. He was mostly black with white markings. They appeared similar to domestic cattle, but have a large hump on their shoulders and a very interesting tail. It was thick and bushy at the base and flared into a large brush. Yak hair is collected to make a kind of wool.

September 22, 2007—Great egret, Fernhill Reservoir

This great egret was busy preening himself. He was facing away from the strong breeze and his plumage kept blowing up in the winds.

September 22, 2007—Resting mallards, Fernhill Reservoir

On this windy day, all the mallards where tucked up and resting in the afternoon sun. It was a nice chance to sketch a few. The sleeping poses of birds are interesting.

September 22, 2007—Great blue heron, Fernhill Reservoir

I managed to make one sketch of this great blue striding through the waters before he spooked and flew away. The great blue and the great egret both are noticeable in flight for their prominent breastbones (called a keel) and their long legs, which trail behind them in flight.

August 28, 2007—Indiana forest still life

This piece is a throwback to earlier times for me. While growing up in Indiana, I would go foraging in the woods and drag home interesting branches, leaves, and forest nuts—anything that caught my eye—and set up still lifes in the living room to draw. Not that I knew back then that they were still lifes. I just thought they were intriguing combinations of stuff. So when my husband’s family and I went on a stroll through their woods, I started automatically collecting stuff.

Back at the house (out of the 90 degree heat), I set it all up and started sketching in pencil. Included here are wild eastern hazelnut nuts, still in their bracts, shagbark and shellbark hickory nuts, and buckeyes with and without their covers. At the top left, are a couple pawpaw fruits. Pawpaws are also called Indiana bananas. The fruit is a lot like a banana but round and green with a sweet smell. Wildlife and people fight to see who gets the fruit first. The severe drought and high temperatures this year made it a bad year for picking pawpaws.

There are also a few feathers scattered around the image. The dark center feather is a woodpecker. The fluffy, light-tipped feathers are from wild turkeys. Turkeys have made an dramatic comeback in Indiana, thanks to state reintroduction efforts. Now large flocks of birds can be seen wandering through the hills and fields.

August 25, 2007—Lunar eclipse

The lunar eclipse came while we were visiting back in Indiana. Since I was not sleeping well anyway, why not get up and enjoy the show? So I sat on the back steps and sketched the moon as it changed. Which went pretty well when the eclipse was small, but got harder as the moon became dimmer and dimmer. Jeff says I should have used my booklight to sketch by. Unfortunately, he slept through most of it and didn’t mention it at the time. He did thank me for waking him to see it, but I’m thinking there was some sarcasm there. Some people take their sleep too seriously.

August 19, 2007—Hills around Nehalem Bay

A late summer trip to Nehalem Bay. We were in good company: lots of people flocked to the coast to enjoy what we figured was some of the last nice weather for the summer. It was sunny and warm, perfect weather for wading in the surf and sprawling out on the sand.

August 11, 2007—Shorebirds, Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge

Along with the rare ruff, were a lot of other, much more common, shorebirds. And unlike the ruff, they were not constantly sticking their heads underwater, which doesn’t make for interesting sketching. Here are a couple killdeers and a phalarope (lower left). The phalarope is a fun bird because of the way it spins in circles while stirring up food. The killdeer is of course, common to shallow water edges and fields. They were all over the fields back in Indiana when I was growing up and I remain very fond of them because of it. Plus, if you look at a killdeer from directly behind, you can see both its large eyes sticking out on either side of its round head. It’s a bit unreal and fun.

August 11, 2007—Male ruff, Tualatin National Wildlife Refuge

A trip to Tualatin gave us a look at this male ruff. Ruffs are shorebirds from Eurasia. Rarely are they found along the west coast. In the breeding season, the males develop large collars of feathers around their necks, of black, brown and white. These are displayed to attract a mate. As with most birds, the female is more muted in color. At this time of year, the male had mostly molted out of his dramatic breeding plumage, but still showed some dark colors on his breast. He was busily feeding to stock up for migration, and was ignoring the crowds of his admirers.

August 8, 2007—Rembrandt painting sketches, Portland Art Museum

These are sketches made from Rembrandt’s Self Portrait as the Apostle Paul, on display now at the Portland Art Museum. First, let me say that the sketches don’t do it justice: it is one of the finest paintings in the world and nothing equals seeing it in person. Please go if you can! Actually I found this picture so stunning that it was difficult to even look at the rest of the Dutch exhibit. Nothing else came close to the presence and life of this painting.

The second reason I included these sketches is to dispell rumors that artists always know what they are doing. Although I don’t usually include my bad sketches on my website, I do make a lot of them in the process of creating the good ones. Some non-artists don’t seem to realize how much we really screw up. Actually, it is always a learning process, which is what makes it a challenge. You mess one up and then the next one is usually better. In this case, the first sketch I did was the complete head on the left. It didn’t go well; kinda looks like a hobbit to me. Then I sighed and jumped back in. This time I focused in on a smaller piece and worked hard on capturing his expression. This attempt was much better. Then I stopped while I was ahead.

August 5, 2007—Common garter snake, St. Louis Ponds

We saw this common garter snake curled up in the grass at the St. Louis Ponds dog-training area. Fortunately the dogs did not smell it, because they find snakes fascinating. There are actually three species of garter snakes in Oregon. There are eleven recognized subspecies of the common garter snake as well. This particular subspecies, the red-spotted, is very pretty with a orange brown head and spots on his side. He also has one large yellow stripe down his back but is otherwise black.

August 4, 2007—Horse Show Sketches, Lake Oswego

I had the chance to go to another horse show to deliver some artwork. I am still a bit rusty but I think I am getting a bit better. These sketches were made while the horses were working in the ring. I was even able to fit in a rider this time while they were competing in a class.

July 24, 2007—South Falls, Silver Falls State Park

Recently my parents came to visit from Indiana. They had been here before but not for several years, so we took them on the usual tour routes. This somehow became a sketch series of several of Oregon’s waterfalls, so brace yourself. Our final tour day was at Silver Falls State Park. This is the South Falls, which cascades down a basalt rockface. Standing at the viewpoint, I noticed how I could see the water actually tumbling down over the edge. I have seen all these falls before, but in drawing them, I actually began to notice their individuality. And I began to focus not just on the falling water, but the landscape that they were falling in and from. Because the waters move through the landscape, but cannot be separated from it. They both act and react upon each other.

July 24, 2007—North Falls, Silver Falls State Park

The (lower) North Falls is probably my favorite at Silver Falls. I enjoy following the stream from the upper North Falls; walking alongside the water as it rushes forward to leap off the cliff’s edge. And then following the path downward to sit in the cavern behind the falls and watch the world through the mist. I am intending to paint on site, because no photograph or sketch can really capture the experience.

July 24, 2007—Wildflowers, Silver Falls State Park

We now take a break from our regularly scheduled waterfall sketches, to bring you a few plants. Here I made a comparison sketch of two similar wildflowers. Above is false Solomon’s-seal; below is the similar fairybells. They have similar leaves and both grow in moist lowland forests. But the Solomon’s-seal flowers and berries are at the end of the plant stems. The fairybell has much larger flowers, which hang down below the plant stems. The fairybells also have branching stems, while the Solomon’s-seal stems do not.

Both plants have similar species in this area. The star-flowered Solomon’s-seal is a much shorter and dainty version of Solomon’s-seal. And there are two very similar species of fairybells, Hooker’s and Smith’s, which are told apart mostly because one species is hairy and the other is not. I didn’t look closely enough at this specimen to know which I drew.

July 24, 2007—False-lily-of-the-valley, Silver Falls State Park

The path to the upper North Falls is a great place to look at plants. And a lot of them were in the fruiting stage, like this false-lily-of-the-valley. This is a nice ground cover plant for shady gardens but it does spread easily. The fruit of this plant is really nice looking: a light yellow color with dark red spots and streaks in it. Apparently they will become completely red in time and are edible, but not tasty.

FYI, when botanical types hyphenate names like this, it means that the plant is not really what the name says. Confusing? So false-lily-of-the-valley is not related to the real lily of the valley that people have in their gardens. Similarly, douglas-fir is not a real fir species. In case you were wondering.

We now return you to our waterfall tour.

July 24, 2007—Upper North Falls, Silver Falls State Park

Silver Falls State Park is one of my favorites. There are several beautiful falls that you can hike to pretty easily, which is great for taking the tourists to see. The upper North Falls is a low but very broad falls at the end of a nice flat path.

July 23, 2007—Latourelle Falls, Columbia Gorge

On this day of the parent tour, I took them up to the Columbia Gorge. For reasons unknown, I decided that we would visit every falls on the old river highway. If I had known how many there were, I don’t that I would have decided on that...I also decided to make a color sketch of each one. I do take photographs, and did again today, but I don’t particularly remember things well when I just photograph them.

Latourelle is a little different because of large basalt rock face that the falls cascades down. Which didn’t come across as well as I would have liked in this sketch.

By the way, always return back from this falls by the path you walked in on. If you follow the path out around the falls, it leads to a nice picnic area and then you’re on a road leading nowhere for some time. It was good exercise but not something I would want to do again.

July 23, 2007—Below Bridal Veil Falls, Columbia Gorge

While the falls itself is very nice, the stream flowing below it is equally lovely. If you are lucky, you might see a dipper hopping around the rocks here. We weren’t that lucky because some guy decided to sit on the rocks and contemplate the meaning of life the whole time we were there. But the nice thing about drawing is that you only show what you want to put it. (which did not include you, guy in the yellow shirt!)

July 23, 2007—Bridal Veil Falls, Columbia Gorge

Bridal Veil is a pretty little spot. I had never noticed before that you can see the bridge overhead.

July 23, 2007—Wakeena Falls, Columbia Gorge

My father’s comment on Wakeena is that it would be easier to see it if someone would trim the trees out of the way. I told him he was missing the point. He isn’t from Oregon.

July 23, 2007—Multnomah Falls, Columbia Gorge

Of course, we can’t skip Multnomah Falls. The husband and I hiked up to the top and beyond once. It was hard going to get up there, but it is really nice once you do.

At this spot, it was really interesting to notice all the different languages you could hear at one time.

July 23, 2007—Horsetail Falls, Columbia Gorge

On our way back from Bonneville Dam, we start our falls tour with Horsetail Falls. Horsetail is interesting because the angles in the falls means that it looks different depending on where you stand.

July 23, 2007—White sturgeon, Bonneville Hatchery

On our tourist tour of the Gorge, I of course, found an excuse to drag my parents off to Bonneville to look at the sturgeon. They are one of my favorite fishes and I am accumulating sketches of them until I come up with the right painting to make. My parents pointed out that they are not particularly white. But then again, I supposed the green sturgeon is not really green, either. Actually they have a lot of lovely subtle colors in their skin, including a variety of blues, reds, rusts and grays.

July 22, 2007—Sea nettles, Oregon Coast Aquarium

Unusually enough, we went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium and I actually looked at the fish! Usually, I stick with the seabirds. But these sea nettles, another type of jellyfish, were really lovely.

July 17, 2007—Max riders

I had a dry spell where I wasn’t able to get out and sketch much, so I had to resort to drawing urban wildlife, so to speak. This sweet young couple was riding the Max one night. She was slouched down with her feet on the wall; he had his arm crooked around her.

July 8, 2007—Animal sketches, Lake Oswego Hunt Club

One of the best shows I have recently worked at was the Lake Oswego Hunt Club. Not so much because of the sales, but because of the scenery. Our booths were set up so we had excellent views of the jumping classes. I grew up sketching horses, but it has been a few years since I last drew them so I was a bit rusty. In addition to the equines, there were also a few canines attending the show. At the bottom is an elderly bichon named Velvet.

June 17, 2007—Napping cougar, Oregon Zoo

Just this year, the zoo added two young cougars to the Great Northwest display. This is the first good look I have personally had of either of them. This youngster was sacked out on a ledge directly beside a viewing window. This allowed me an excellent view of his relaxed, sprawling body. Occasionally he lifted his head or flicked an ear, but he mostly cat-napped, as it were.

June 17, 2007—White-faced ibis, Oregon Zoo

After sketching ibis several times, but always at a distance, on our recent trip to Utah, it was fun to draw this very cooperative white-faced ibis at the Oregon Zoo. I have sketched this bird multiple times but it is not common for him to be this close up. He was standing less than ten feet away from me and was very preoccupied with eating on this morning. Ibis have these amazing long, curved bills which are tricky to draw well, especially at top speed.

May 25, 2007—Black Birch Canyon, Bryce National Park

May 13, 2007—pigeon guillemots at Yaquina Head

May 10, 2007—black-headed grosbeak

April 29, 2007—balsamroot

April 29, 2007—clustered ladyslipper

April 29, 2007—cut-leaf violet

April 14, 2007—magnolia bloom

April 14, 2007—magnolia bloom sequence

March 25, 2007—tree swallows, Fernhill Reservoir

March 10, 2007—bitterroot, Catherine Creek

The bitterroot plant is hands down my favorite Gorge wildflower. Here it is shown in the early spring form. It has green succulent leaves which remind me of anenomes. It is surrounded by bright green mosses. As the ground dries up, the moss dies back. The bitterroot leaves dry up, having soaked up all the nutrients the plant needs to survive and reproduce. Only then does the bitterroot hit it’s full glory: large, white glorious blooms which appear to spring out of nowhere.

Return to the Bitterroot Blossoms page.

March 10, 2007—Douglas blue-eyed grass, Catherine Creek

March 4, 2007—beaver work, St. Louis Ponds

February 28, 2007—daffodils
Stuck in the office working again. So here are some of the daffodils in my front yard. On the left are the large yellows. On the right are small nodding teacup daffodils. The bulbs aren’t as impressive as they could be because the sun isn’t cooperating much today. But they still add a vivid splash of color to our yard.

February 21, 2007—scrub jay
Serious rains have been limiting our hiking opportunities. So I am sketching what I see from the house. This is one of our resident scrub jays invading the yard again. While scrub jays look pretty much alike, I can recognize at least one of them by his (or her) behavior. He has a serious fondness for raw peanuts. All the jays, both scrub and Steller, come in to pick them up. But this bird always tries to make off with two of them at a time. The other birds apparently haven’t got the hang of this yet. Needless to say, he always gets away with the lion’s share of them. The jays like to cache them for later snacking or emergency food. Finding just the right burying spot is serious business for them and something they spend a lot of time at.

February 17, 2007—Canada geese, Baskett Slough National Wildlife Refuge
In the winter flooded wetlands of Baskett Slough, Canada geese waded in the shallows and rested in the grasses. Baskett Slough is a good place to see wildlife all year around. In the winter, the wetlands attract geese, ducks and shorebirds. In the summer, rare prairie plants and insects inhabit the grasslands. The hills of Baskett Butte are a good place to spot large numbers of mule deer grazing in the evening hours.

February 10, 2007—Ross’ geese, Skagit Wildlife Area
During the Great Swan Chase (see below), we were distracted by the sight of thousands of Ross’ geese. We stopped, along with crowds of people, at the Skagit Wildlife Area to watch 2000 to 3000 geese grazing in fields like so many cows. The Ross’ goose is a very handsome bird, mostly white with black wing tips. Younger birds have mottled gray plumage.

February 10, 2007—tundra swans
We were gallivanting around northern Washington, searching for the elusive whooping swan. There was one whooper spotted recently among the flocks of tundra and trumpeter swans blanketing the northern Washington wetlands and my husband was determined to see it. Whooping swans are actually from Eurasia, with small numbers wintering in Alaska. It’s unusual for one to appear so far south. The challenge is that the flocks keep moving around and the only obvious difference between the whooper and our swans is its yellow bill. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t with us this day. But I was able to make some quick tundra swan sketches during the hunt.

February 3, 2007—American coots, Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge
It was a rainy day, but the coots were out in force on the gravel roadways, busily foraging. I’m generally not fond of coots: they aren’t attractive birds and they have some nasty habits. But at this moment, they were irresistible subjects. Bobbing their heads and poking around like semi-aquatic chickens, they tromped around on their lobed toes. It is much more common to see them walking and wading around marsh vegetation or swimming and diving to eat. They are pretty social birds and can often be found in very large flocks outside of the breeding season.

January 20, 2007—Plant buds opening, Tryon Creek State Park
Between cold spells, it is nice to notice the signs of spring, approaching perhaps a bit early. These are examples of shrub and tree buds that I found unfolding at the park. But don’t ask me what species they are, please. It’s hard to tell these things in winter without lots of practice.

January 20, 2007—Bark Sketches, Tryon Creek State Park
Examples of bark sketches from trees at Tryon State Park. From left to right, big-leaf maple, western red-cedar and douglas-fir (older tree.) Tree bark is distinct for each species and a good way to identify them in the winter. Bark characteristics often change as the tree ages. Often bark becomes more ridged and furrowed with age.

January 15, 2007—Bushtits on suet feeder
One of the reasons I put out a suet feeder is to watch Townsend’s warblers, another winter visitor. The other reason is to watch the hordes of bushtits descend and demolish. Bushtits are incredibly sociable, especially in the winter. They run around in packs of 20-40 birds. This hungry mob arrives in ones and twos, then the next thing you know, there’s twenty birds trying to hang off the suet feeder together. I’ve been trying to sketch them but it’s difficult because they keep moving. And quite frankly I get caught up in the spectacle and forget to draw. This group of birds visiting us this winter often includes ruby-crowned kinglets and Townsend’s warblers with them. Seeing birds in these large groups is especially impressive just after I’ve watched the juncos and sparrows arguing. I’d like to think this group harmony works because bushtits are just nice birds, but in reality, I know that it’s all about safety in numbers.

January 14, 2007—Oak Bottoms sketch
We went walking around Oak Bottoms in Sellwood on one of those really, really cold days. And so did half of Portland, I think. I had to bring out my special space age, write-in-any-conditions pen to make this sketch. Any other pen would have frozen up but this one can write in temperatures ranging from -130 to 400+ degrees. Seriously. Not that I have been able to test this...In addition to oaks, Oak Bottoms is populated by with lots of big cottonwood trees and western red cedars. There’s also a nice marsh area, which was occuppied by 30-40 great blue herons. No kidding. It was a major infestation. The best part was watching them take off and land on ice, which they managed so gracefully. One confused bird kept striking a hunting pose, but couldn’t figure out how to get to the fish under the ice.

January 5, 2007—Egyptian cat statue
This statue is part of the Splendours of Egypt Exhibit at the Portland Art Museum. This is a bronze statue created between 664 and 332 B.C. No, it’s not wildlife, but I included it here for two reasons. 1) Museums are a great place to sketch, especially statuary. Sketching any 3-d objects forces artists to work on perspective. That’s especially helpful to wildlife artists, who usually rely heavily on photographs. 2) This cat looks so much like my Pipsqueak, I had to include her. Pip was put to sleep a couple years ago because of bone cancer but is dearly missed.

January 4, 2007—Varied thrush
The varied thrush is a woodland mountain species, that comes down to the Willamette Valley for the winter. He’s a lovely blue-gray on his back, head and wings and a beautiful tawny orangy on his chest. He’s related to the American robin, and has a similar body shape and bill. The female is similar looking, but paler. We have had at least three birds gracing our yard this winter. They are more shy and wary than most of our winter diners. I’ll be sorry to see them go.

January 4, 2007—Anna’s hummingbird
This is one of my hummingbirds. We have two species coming to our feeder during the summer, Anna’s and rufous. And thanks to global warming, we had at least three birds spend this winter with us. This is one of our males. He’s a feisty little guy, of course. And he’s currently in the market for a girlfriend. On January 20th, we watched while he flew straight up high in the air and then dive bombed down at a female perched in their tree. Apparently, female Anna’s find this irresistible. Twenty years ago, both hummingbird species migrated south for the winter, but because of our warmer winters, this species is able to make it through the winter, even without the assistance of feeders.