Peregrine Falcon Paintings - June 2010

These are a few more sketches from the peregrine site I have been wardening at over the last few weeks. I'm hoping to build some of these studies up into more finished paintings soon - the colour sketch below shows one of the bird's favourite perches, so it may well form the basis of one such study.

My visit this week was the first time I'd visted the site since the 2 chicks hatched, and although the nest scrape is not visible due to it being in a slight hollow on a rocky ledge, the fluffy white heads of the chicks were visible on occasion as they were being fed by both parents.

With the chicks having hatched, the adult birds were easier to study, since they spend most of the time away from the nest scrape and were visible feeding, preening or dozing on the cliff face for most of the time. The female bird was especially vocal during my visit, and I tried (in the bottom page of sketches) to capture her open beak as she called repeatedly to the male.