See More Sketchbooks
Northeast Spain - Summer 2006
Martí Rodríguez , who is 18 years old, lives in Vic, in the northeast of Spain. I began doing sketchbooks in September 2000 and I’ve tried to go on drawing since then. Nevertheless, it is not always easy to stop and sketch when you go birdwatching with other people, so some times I can’t do it. When I’m at home I make some more elaborated paintings using my sketches, photographs and, sometimes, other paintings as reference, but in my opinion the best part of painting birds is the field sketch, because it’s when you are learning more about the bird. This summer I had no money to go on a birding trip, so… I had to stay at home and just going birding near Vic, the city where I live. Nevertheless, staying in Catalonia in summer it’s not a problem! I managed to visit some of the best birding sites here, including the most important wetlands: Ebro Delta and Aiguamolls de l’Empordà. There I spent some time sketching birds. The one I drew more frequently was Audouin’s Gull. When there was nothing else to be seen at Ebro Delta, you only had to sit and look through the scope to see some of them, so suddenly I realised I had ten pages of my notebook full of “audouini’s”! An Osprey perched on a post in the middle of a lagoon gave me a chance to draw it while cleaning its feathers. It’s always an impressive raptor! Maybe the most exciting time is when watching waders. In summer in Ebro Delta you can see almost any wader… Some of the more interesting, in my opinion, were some Temminck’s Stints, an adult Pectoral Sandpiper and a juvenile Red-necked Phalarope, but good numbers of almost all the other more common species were seen. Another good wader is Marsh Sandpiper. There were some of them in a flooded field. In late August a Pacific Golden Plover was found at Aiguamolls de l’Empordà. I went there with a friend and we were lucky to see it and we managed to get some pictures and sketching it. Black-winged Stilts and Whiskered Terns are not as rare as Pacific Golden Plover, but they are always beautiful and it’s worth spending some time drawing them!
