December 2011

Last weekend I painted some new pictures, my favourite one of them is this one:

It shows a Black-headed Trogon, the model was a foto I made in 2010 in a place called Laguna de Sontecomapan in Southern Veracruz/Mexico.

Besides, I'm also preparing paintings for the cover of the new Elanus, the yearbook of the Club 300 Austria. Of course, it is still a secret how it will look like, but I can post now the pictures of the cover of the Elanus published this year (for anyone interested, the link to the Elanus website is: http://www.club300.at/elanus)

 Yellow-billed Diver

Sabine's Gull

Wildtiere in Not 24.09.2011

Yesterday I visited again the animal shelter for wild animals in Graz (Wildtiere in Not). I am always amazed by this place. This time I drew a Sparrowhawk (unfortunately one of its wings seems to be damaged) and a sleeping juvenile polecat:

Zoo Zagreb

The last two weeks I have spent in a summer school in Zagreb/Croatia. I did not really go bird watching there, but one morning I spent in the city's zoo where I made the following sketches:

 Couple of Mandarin Ducks, the male is grooming its feathers

 Cattle Egret

 Black Stork

Griffon Vulture, grooming its feathers

End of August

The last days of August I had some freetime to pratice a bit painting and drawing, here are the results:

 Common Crossbill

 Whiskered Tern feeding a juvenile with a fish (inspired by a foto recently made by an austrian birdwatcher at lake Darscho/Seewinkel)

 Honey Buzzard (About a week ago I visited the 5th Carinthian Raptor Migration Camp in Arnoldstein. Just at the two days I was there the people in the camp could count 728 migrating individuals of this buzzard species. All in all we could observe nine different species of raptors)

 Juvenile Masked Shrike

water buffalo

Seewinkel, once again

The last two days finally I could visit the Seewinkel again, without doubt my favourite place for bird watching in Austria. A friend once told me, when he was going there as a child, every time when he had to leave he was crying. Another friend once said: "Its like paradise". I can really agree with that. Although, I also have to say that I'm quite critical of the behavior of some of the inhabitants of the area, many still haven't understood that nature tourism is a boon for their region's economy and are busy destroying and disturbing what is left of this unique environment. The following picture for example shows a so-called "star-fighter", a small plane which should dispel starlings from the farmer's vineyards. Unfortunately, they do not respect the boundaries of the national park, here one was flying over the lake "Oberstinker":

 Anyway, I still could make some nice observations and also paint, the following pictures show a Pygmy Cormorant, a Caspian Tern and a juvenile Whiskered Tern:

 I also visited the exhibition in the national park's information center with my caricatures (see http://christoph-neger.blogspot.com/2011/06/exhibition-abgetaucht.html) which seems to be quite successful:

 And finally, once again a picture of the beautiful landscape of the Seewinkel, here a view from Geiselsteller in Illmitz to the Schneeberg:

Antalya and Istanbul, July 2011

In July I've been in Turkey for about three weeks. It was mainly a university trip, so I didn't go to any specific birdwatching area. However, I could make some nice observations, and watch birds like Rufous Bush-Robin, Masked Shrike, White-Spectacled Bulbul and other species in the park around the University of Antalya, one immature Gannet quite close to the beach in Antalya, Rollers in Belek as well as several Scopoli's Shearwater (and even dolphins) at the Bosporus in Istanbul etc.

The following pictures are showing juvenile Masked Shrikes and a Laughing Dove in Antalya:

Of course, I didn't forget to bring my painting and drawing materials too. These are the pictures created during my journey:

At the beach in Antalya

 Drawing in the university park during lunch break

 Mosque in front of a bridge over the Bosporus

 Istanbul (View from Ortaköy to Kiz Kulesi)

 Sultan Ahmet Mosque

Barn-swallow

Yesterday, after finishing all my exams for this semester, I finally had time to practice painting again. I made this picture of a barn-swallow:

Exhibition "Abgetaucht"

Last week the exhibition "Abgetaucht", in Hungarian "Merüles", opened in the centers of the Neusiedler See-Seewinkel National Park in Illmitz and of the Fertö-Hansag National Park in Fertöujlak. It deals with the animals of the park, especially those living under water, which visitors usually are not able to see. I made about 40 caricatures for the exhibition which are shown along more scientific descriptions and fotos. Here are some of my pictures:

 

In the Austrian part, the exhibition's mascot is a crustacean called Daphnia which only can be seen with a microscope. Its main food are algae.

One of Daphnia's close relatives is Arctodiaptomus, the toughest among the small water animals.

 

The mascot of the Hungarian part is the fire-bellied toad, whose eyes have the shape of little hearts.

Unfortunately, many of the lakes "die" due to drainage.

Another part of the exhibition deals with the reed area of lake Neusiedl which is less endagered than the environment of the salt lakes. Here water animals like beetles, pollywogs and larvae still have a good time.

There are also fish, one of them in German is called "Hundsfisch" (dog-fish).

In the past the lake also almost dryed out a few times, so fish had to "wander" back into the lack.

Today the lake is also famous for bathing.

But I would not recommend to drink the water.

Some new sketches with charcoal and pencil

Last weekend I decided to practise painting living birds again, which I hadn't done since the end of my internship in April. Firstly, I just got out of my house to draw the sparrows on my roof, this one for example was made with charcoal:

The next day I accompanied a friend who is helping voluntarily at a place called "Kleine Wildtiere in großer Not" (small wild animals in big troubles). There they look after injured wild animals or young animals which got lost until they can be released back into nature. Here you can find more information about this organization: http://wildtiere-in-not.at/ I was allowed to make some sketches of the animals there:

 Fawn

 Juvenile Black Redstart

 Juvenile Goosander

 Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

One year since my first watercolor painting

I just realised that its is just about one year ago that I started to do bird pictures again, after a long break (due to my studies) and also started to try out new techniques like watercolors and acrylics. My first picture last year was a juvenile Whiskered Tern I painted at the 13th of May, it can be seen on my other blog. My newest picture is the on below, showing a Dotterel. It was made for the 30th birthday of a friend who is a birdwatcher himself and especially likes this species.

End of April in Seewinkel/Burgenland

The last days of this month I was working on most days and in my freetime i met with friends and relatives living in the area, so I didn't spend so much time bird watching. Still I could make a very good observation: On my birthday, the 24th of April I just went for a short walk to Geiselsteller/Illmitz with my parents and my sister who had visited me. As we were passing two German bird watchers one of them was whispering to me: there are two male Citrine Wagtails. We could watch them very good, about 15m away from us. Unfortunately, I had neither my foto nor my painting equipment with me so I hoped that the birds would be there the next morning. When I was going there two other Austrian birders already were on their way to the place too and together we searched about half an hour, without finding them. Thus, the other two gave up and went on to visit other bird watching places. I was strolling a bit behind them, looking for some other birds to paint. Then I stopped to talk to one of the Germans birders from yesterday who had just arrived. While I was talking I suddenly noticed a little bird just next too us in the low vegetation: It was one of the two Citrine Wagtails again. Luckily, the two others were still not too far away so we could call them back. The bird came closer and closer, finally it was maybe just 5m away. Taking pictures was difficult as it was mostly partly hidden by plants so after a while I started to paint the bird:

 Other pictures from the last days of April that are worth posting here are a painting of a White Stork in Apetlon, and fotos from shorebirds at Geiselsteller/Illmitz: