Watarase Resevoir

I had a wonderful day at Watarase Resevoir even though it was drizzling all the time. Utaka Godo, a wildlife artist and I have been planing to make some opportunities to sketch birds, wildlife and nature landscape with other "sketchers." I am dreaming of having the Seabird Drawing Course in Japan! And this was the very first step. We sketched together!  



This resevoir in the middle of Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama and Gunma prefecture, was created to purify the water by precipitating the mineral poison from the Ashio Copper Mine, which caused a big pollution in the late 19th century. It now has huge reed beds and some eastern marsh harriers and hen harriers roost there. In fact we had fantastic close up sights of hen harriers, Mr. & Ms. Grey!
Last year, this place was listed on the The Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance. As I studied the Ramsar sites, I learned that almost all the nature reserves in the UK are on the list! Splendid!



Rain drops (not snow flakes as it was forecasted) fell on the left part of this painting because I was drawing it on the passenger seat and the window was open. It was that wet. But because of that, the trees in the mere were all in dark colour and looked characteristic.



And since it was a rainy weekday, nobody was there to watch birds. The path was turning into public baths! There were large number of rustic buntings, quite a lot of oriental greenfinches, black-faced buntings, azure-winged magpies, a long-tailed rosefinch came to take a bath! An oriental turtle dove and a Japanese pheasant were walking by.



猛禽類の形をとるのが苦手なんですよと話したら、ノスリを見つけるたびに、車を止めてスケッチさせてくださった。どんな鳥でも、何度も何度もスケッチしていくうちに、形や動きが頭に入ってきて、自然に形がとれるようになってくる。



Eastern Buzzard
一人でスケッチしに行くのも気楽でいいけれど、仲間がいると刺激が多い。スケッチの仕方、何を描くか、何で描くか、どう描くかは人によって本当に様々で、それを横で見ているだけでも勉強になる。次回はぜひ、ゆっくりスケッチブック見せあいっこ時間をとりたい！



ノスリ克服中！　



帰りの羽生サービスエリアでハクセキレイのねぐら入りを見た。どこからともなく湧いてきたハクセキレイは、まず上が平たく、背の高い大型トラックの屋根の上にとまり、辺りを見回してから一本だけある常緑の木に飛び込んでいく。4時40分頃だった。
そこに停車している大型トラックは毎日違うだろうに、あまり気にしていないようだ。