Today I am going to the field museum in Chicago where I am going to draw lots. Hoping to get to shedd aquarium too. Yesterday went to cincinnati museum of natural history with grandma. We saw the big mural and the ice cave I remember seeing being painted at least 20 years ago. They were really neat to see the finished thing. Small museum but well done!

Tomorrow I drive north, maybe stop at a cave and Frank Lloyd Wright’s studio and house at Taliesin. Then Minnesota if I can make it! Cheese, anyone?

It is International Migratory Bird Day this weekend, so yesterday I took some time in the morning to go up to Swantown Road in North Stonington to look for the Cerulean Warblers and Hooded warblers.  The trees are not quite in full leaf so the birds are theoretically visible, however it was somewhat cold and moist and so there was not a lot of movement. This area has a lot of tall, old deciduous trees so it’s a good spot for Ceruleans, and the habitat gets swampier as you go down the hill where you can usually find waterthrushes.

One of my favorite things about Swantown Road are the many dogwood trees which are now in bloom in the forest.

I heard the Cerulean warblers around the Stonington Institute building, but I didn’t manage to see one until somewhat farther down the road.  Also, all along the first part of the road were Hooded warblers.  I saw so many of them, in fact, that they became somewhat of a trash bird for the day.  I also had Blue-grey gnatcatchers and a great look at a Northern Waterthrush. The morning chorus there is beautiful and loud and diverse.

List for the morning:

• Canada Goose
• Mallard
• Turkey
• Mourning Dove
• Chimney Swift
• Barn Swallow
• Red-bellied Woodpecker
• Hairy Woodpecker
• Eastern Phoebe
• Great-crested Flycatcher
• Red-eyed Vireo
• Yellow-throated Vireo
• Blue Jay
• American Crow
• Tufted Titmouse
• Black-capped Chickadee
• White-breasted Nuthatch
• Carolina Wren
• Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
• Eastern Bluebird
• American Robin
• Wood Thrush
• Gray Catbird
• Blue-winged Warbler
• Yellow Warbler
• Cerulean Warbler
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Worm-eating Warbler
• American Redstart
• Ovenbird
• Northern Waterthrush
• Common Yellowthroat
• Hooded Warbler
• Northern Cardinal
• Eastern Towhee
• Song Sparrow
• Chipping Sparrow
• Brown-headed Cowbird
• Red-winged Blackbird
• Common Grackle
• Baltimore Oriole
• American Goldfinch
• House Finch

When I first got there I knew it was going to be challenging because there were no parking spaces!  Inside at 11 am the place was rocking, with Jammin’ 107.7 outside, and lots and lots of kids everywhere.  I set up in a little corner with the spotted jellyfish and my white and red pencils. When I am lurking there, I love to hear what kids think, usually exclaimed loudly….oooh cool!  BABY JELLYFISH!  Do these sting you?  I drew a picture of a cnidocyte, to explain how jellyfish sting to a slightly older boy.  Seems like they could have a cnidocyte model kids could play with and shoot foam rubber nematocysts at their siblings.

Jellyfish quickly became too claustrophobic, so I moved on to the lionfish, then outside to penguins (the sea lions were being fed and there were too many people around to be able to set up comfortably),  the bat rays, and the Moray Eels and Barracuda.  At the very end of the day when most people were gone, I could finally sit on the floor in front of the spiny lobsters.

I like to draw in museums and zoos because it is a great ego boost to have kids tell you “wow are you a ARTIST?!”  in a half-question, half-statement kind of way.  I usually try to be encouraging to kids who like to draw and also the ones who say “I can never draw like that!” by telling them that everyone can draw with practice and drawing what they see.  But I do have to concentrate sometimes so I can’t talk to everyone.

The spot near the bat rays was super-challenging and  totally distracting. Close to the touch-tank, so constant schpiel from the touch-tank volunteer about keeping the animals in the water, and the feet on the star fish. Next to the employee break- room so constant coming and going.  The bat rays and skates are in one of the large side tanks of what used to be the marine theater trio of pools. There’s a big concrete ledge in front of the window for the small kids to climb onto in front of me. As a result of all this people activity, I could not get an hang on drawing the swimming rays, which is too bad because they are make for quite interesting picture as the move around in schools.

I finished off the day with a refreshingly sedate group of Barracuda and Moray Eels.  They don’t move much and the tank is sort of off in the corner, so they are sort of relaxing to work on.  Would love to do something more with the Eels… there are a ton of them in there!

Also, huge news, I got accepted into the Science Illustration Program in Monterey! So excited!  So panicked about moving!

I’m intrigued by his giant nasal bone structure, hence the name Rhinoceros Wombat.  The “horn” was actually internal however.  They were sexually dimorphic, so there were probably larger males with harems of smaller females.  Maybe they did some nose-butting with other males?  Did they have to rely on their sense of smell to find things?  Did they use their nose to dig in the ground ?