Casey Girard

Cool caterpillar, probably a Banded Sphinx moth. Still learning my #moths

A page of drawings of Snowy Plovers. There are 7 birds visible on the page, two of the birds are squished together. There are basically three rows each with an adult bird and a juvenile bird. The first row has an adult first, standing head up in profile looking left then a juvenile in profile running to the left with the back leg up in a right angle. The words Anarhynchus rivosus are just above the first bird which is a juvenile running into the middle of the page in a three quarter view. Next to this bird is an adult in profile looking right with a juvenile shoving itself into the adults breast feathers, you can see the juveniles legs and some of its lower body. The final row has an adult foraging one leg down one leg up head down towards the ground going left to right. There is a juvenile on the right mirroring the adult except both legs are down. Both birds' front legs are angling further out towards the middle.

#PloverAppreciationDay late entry This group of Snowy Plovers seen near the UC Santa Barbara breeding zone beach. Even knowing what we were looking for these little birds, we still kept almost walking into them. They blended in perfectly until they would move. None were harmed. #Birds

A white hand holding a toad on top almost like a perched bird. there is a foot in the background and dog toys and bed

cute toad came by. Had to move it back to a safer spot. #Toad

ID A photo of 7 leaves grouped together. Each leaf has a painting of a bird on it. The background is black. There are basically two rows, the top row is a Black Cherry leaf with an Eastern Phoebe painted perched looking let. Next is a Serviceberry Leaf with an American Robin painted, perched looking right (SOLD). The middle leaf is a Maple leaf with a flying American Crow, going right to left. The final leaf in this row is a Maple leaf with a perched male Northern Cardinal body facing left while it looks right (SOLD). The lower row starting on the left is a Birch Leaf with a Downy Woodpecker holding to a trunk. The middle leaf is a Sycamore leaf with a Red-tailed Hawk soaring, mostly centered with its head looking left. The final leaf is a Tufted Titmouse perched looking left.

Tomorrow I will be at Art In Autumn in Weaverville, NC, 10-6pm. Come by and tell me a favorite bird story. I love connecting about birds. Last night at Burial it was great to chat about good birding spots, efforts to protect birds, and good clubs to connect with for birding.

#Birds #BirdsOnLeaves

Watching the beauty of each day, the rain, the fall, the birds migrating through.
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#Birds #LeafFlip #BirdsOnLeaves #Woodpecker

a sketchpage of Atlantic Puffins. There are 6 birds drawn in the space, three flying drawn smaller, two standing drawn much larger and one head only that is drawn the largest. The words Fratercula arctica is in the top left corner. Down the left side is a bird taking off with its wings open and its feet down angling towards the right. Below this is a bird that is flying, coming in for a landing, its feet and wings are out, towards the right also. In the bottom left corner is the bird head, it is looking forward with its cheeks puffed out and its bill closed, head angled slightly up. Then there are two birds standing in profile looking left. The lower is full profile with its bill slightly open. The bird behind this one and higher on the page has its body in profile to the left and it is looking in a 3/4 view to the left. The final bird is flying into the page from the right with its wings and feet out.

Drawings of Puffins because they are so darn cute and striking. I love that I got to see a #Puffin, puffing its cheeks, it was having a dispute with another bird. On a quick search I don’t see anything about this being a naming reason, if you know please share! #Birds

#Monarch on Late Boneset.

thank you 😄💚

It's hard to identify flycatcher season, especially as they are rarely calling now. Here is a local usual flycatcher for the Eastern US, and Eastern Phoebe.
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#Illustration #BirdPerson #TinyPainting #EasternPhoebe #LeafFlip #Bird

thank you 💚😄

a photo of numerous fall leaves each with a painted bird on it on a black background. There are six leaves two each per row, top row left is a Maple leaf with a perched American Crow(SOLD), leaf 2 is a Tulip leaf with a perched Indigo Bunting. Row 2 starts with an Eastern Screech Owl in a tree cavity on a Serviceberry leaf and leaf 2 is a Maple leaf with a perched Northern Cardinal male (SOLD). The last row starts with a Beech leaf with a swimming Common Loon (SOLD) and finally a Canada Warbler on a Birch leaf.

Here are some recent leaves with birds painted on them. It is a delightful process not too unlike birding. Slowing down and being calm with each leaf and examining each bird that is painted. #Birds #🪶

Tuesday Leaf Flip. Fall times Crow Times. #Birds #🪶

oh that sounds amazing. Thank you 🙂

A page of drawings of Hawaiian Birds. Three birds still have populations and four birds are extinct. Listed by each bird is their Hawaiian name, status, number of birds left or when the bird was last seen. The top left bird is a perched Palila, a grosbeak like bird with a yellow head and upper breast and gray across its wing and tail with yellow highlights. The top right is an ‘ō’ō’ā’ā’, it is a black bird with yellow above the leg feathers, it has a longer thin slightly downturned bill, and a light eye. The bird is perched looking alert tail up in profile looking to the right. Below this bird is a Kiwikiu, it is clasping a branch hanging down from it with its tail up. The bird is overall yellow with a darker patches like stripes from the head top and eye, with a yellow stripe above the eye. Below this bird is a ‘Ula’-ai-hāwane, a red, black and grey bird, the grey is on the nap and as light ends of the feathers across the head, black in the flight feathers, upper breast and tail, then red in the belly and shoulders. It is perched in profile looking to the right. The lowest bird on the right side is hanging, belly towards the visitor, onto a stick that is up and down, as it looks off to the left. The bird has a yellow head and a greenish body that is lighter across its belly. The middle bird that is larger standing from the bottom with its head reaching to the almost top of the page, is a shorebird, the Hawaiian Stilt, that is black and white with long pink legs. Its body faces to the right as it looks back to the left. It has a straight dark bill and a the dark feathers run along the back, up the neck and down into the face leaving a white patch above the bill through the throat across the belly to undertail. The last bird, the Kākāwahie is in the lower left corner, it is perched, in profile looking to the right. It is a bright red bird with a short thin slightly hooked warm yellow bill.

The rest of the #HawaiianBirds of #AvianAugust. This group has a few of the birds that have been declared extinct. I hope the other birds pictured here don’t end up the same way. Thank you @cookiedoves.bsky.social for making this list for us.

Leaf flip! Had this Canada Warbler visit my yard today. They are beautiful birds.
#FallMigration #CanadaWarbler

ID A sketchpage of Hawaiian birds with their names next to them. The title Hawaiian Birds is in the top left corner. All the birds are drawn with a rich brown pencil line and limited colors, each bird with about three colors. The top left bird is the ‘Akiapōlā’au, it is a yellow honey creeper with a long thin hooked top bill. It is perched in profile looking right. The top right corner bird is the Ākohekohe, it is a large honey creeper with overall dark feathers with orangish sections at its nap, over wing, eye ring, and spot near where the tail starts. It also has white feather tips across its belly and a white feather tuft curling over its bill. The bill is straight. It is in profile perched looking left. Below this bird is the Hawai’i Elepaio, a small flycatcher with an upturned tail. It is overall warm brown with black and white feathers in its tail wing and face. It is perched looking left in profile. Across from this bird is the Aniānau, it is a small honeycreeper with a pinkish slightly hooked bill. The males are yellow, this is a male, it is drawn perched in profile looking right. In the middle to the bottom is a Nēnē, which is a goose. It is walking from the left corner towards the right, making its head in profile while the viewer sees across its back. It has a similar pattern to a Canada Goose but there are lighter edges to its body and wing feathers. Then, the light color that goes up the neck into a cheek patch is tan with an even warmer cheek. The dark head color is brown and goes all the way down the back of the neck with stripes through the light zone of the neck. Its bill is smaller and grey. The final bird is in the lower right corner. It is a Laysan Finch, which is a long legged finch for walking on the ground, and is overall yellow with a white under tail and dark edging on the inside of the feathers in its wing and tail feathers. Its bill is chonky and conicle shaped. #AvianAugust is written in the lower left corner.

More Hawaii Birds for #AvianAugust list collected by @cookiedoves.bsky.social

The other birds struggle due to pressures of island life that now deals with continent issues, cats, rats, mongoose, avian malaria and more. Islands need different rules in place to protect their biodiversity. #HawaiianBirds

Such as with the Akikiki here. They are functionally extinct due to avian malaria and habitat loss. There are less than 5 in the wild, with one female bird holding on and keeping the spirit of them going - based on, 2024 this species was given a letter of love about their status.

A sketch page of drawings of Hawaiian birds that are listed in #AvianAugust from @cookiedoves I wrote their Hawaiian names instead of scientific names next to each bird. The ‘Io is in the top left corner. It is perched looking right, this is a thicker buteo hawk with a brown head and wing with some brown feathers across a light breast. In the right corner down through the right side is the flying Ua’u, a petrel, it is white under wing and belly with warm grey over its head in its primaries, back of wing, and across its back and tail. Between the hawk and petrel are two forest birds, the Akikiki, a greyish creeper bird with a light belly and throat, in profile looking right. Below it is the Ōma’o, a thrush that is warm brown over its head, back, wings and tail with a cool grey belly. It is standing looking left in a very thrush stance. Along the bottom left corner is a Manu-o-kū, a white tern. To its name it is all white with a blue to black pointy bill, a large black shiny eye and blue webbed feet. It is drawn in profile looking left. The final bird is the Hawaiian Common Gallinule, it is walking to the right while looking back to the left. It is a black to brownish bird with long yellow legs and long toed feet, with some red towards the top of the left and a red shielded bill with a yellow tip.

Hawaiian Birds. They are unique and incredible. I wished more of them were ok. It is heartbreaking to begin looking into them. #AvianAugust

A drawing of an I’iwi, a mostly red bird with black primary and tail feathers and a hooked orange bill. It is perched looking left atop a branch of māmane, a yellow hooded flower with bipinnately compound leaves. The background is a light blue.

If you haven’t seen it is #AvianAugust from @cookiedoves.bsky.social and the theme is Hawaiian Birds.
I drew the I’iwi with Māmane - Sophora chrysophylla, a native Hawaiian tree/shrub that is part of the pea family.

A sketchpage of Marbled Godwits. These are long legged, long billed shorebirds with a warm feather hue overall with barring throughout their wing and back feathers and some edging down into the breast. The bill shape is straight with a very slight upturn and it is pink from the top shifting to a dark grey near the tip. The breast is mostly clear with warm or light feathers. There are four birds drawn. The top left corner bird is in flight, wings downwards, going left to right. The next bird is standing facing forward angled towards the left. Its bill rests just over its breast. The next bird is mostly in profile looking left. It has one foot rising but still under water, and it is slightly opening its bill. The final bird is wading from left to right with the body and head in full profile. The name Limosa fedoa is on the left side between the two birds. There are also four dots along the left edge showing the spot colors.

A month of travel finished yesterday; I got to visit coastal California. It was nice to spend time with shorebirds. They were already plentiful. There are always some shorebirds along California coasts, but most do migrate to breeding locations. One of the species present was the Marbled Godwit.

Moving. #Tidepool #Nudibranch

Finally saw many Nudibranchs on the Mendocino Coast. Glad i was there Sunday instead of today. Here is one of the many Horned Nudibranchs. #TidePools #Nudibranch

A drawn designed image of a California Condor, a Turkey Vulture and a Black Vulture over a wooden carved sign that says family in small cursive letters above the bold capital letters of Cathartidae. The California Condor is at the top looking right standing with its wings and mouth open. The front wing angles back to the left leading down into the Turkey Vulture. This bird is standing with its wings open. The left wing is angling down to the left and the right is open to the right into the Black Vulture. The Black Vulture is stalking off to the right. With its wings fluffed and open as it walks with its foot outstretched in step. Around the top of the California Condor are two arches that resemble rib bones, but are designed to look like part of the wooden carved sign. The image is a limited color palette of black, warm brown, grey and rich brown pencil lines.

A final reveal for the Big Crafty a stylized new design for family #Cathartidae.
The North American #Vultures are such badasses. They are beautiful birds and an invaluable clean up crew for our world. These birds don’t have voice boxes! The sounds, if they do make them, are hisses or grunts.

Shorebirds are all around the Bay Area. Not a challenge to photo, walking openly on mud flats. So, I failed to take a lot of photos of them. I’m not a photographer. I’m an autistic artist using a tool that isn't stimulating unless the bird lives in a tree canopy and every photo I have to work for.

A page of drawings of Dunlin, a larger peep with a mid length, slightly downturned bill. The drawing has stylized the birds, four are larger birds on the ground and five are small birds in flight along the edges all flying in toward the middle. Each bird in flight is slightly different, the top left bird has wings down. To the right of this is one of the larger walking birds. It is walking right to left, it has breeding plumage which is rufous feathers across its wings and a black belly patch. Below it are the words Calidris alpina and a bird in flight, wings open, on the right. To the left of these is a larger walking bird, right to left, up right looking slightly back. It is in winter plumage which is a grey head, collar, back and wings with a white belly. There is a bird in flight to the left, wings open. Below this is another bird in breeding plumage walking left to right head down. On the right of this is a bird in winter plumage standing upright taking a look around in profile looking left. To the right of this is a bird in flight. There is also one last bird in flight in the lower left corner. The spot colors, black, grey, rufous and warm tan are in dots at the bottom.

Wishing for America to find her heart today.
If you can consider alternatives to fireworks it would be great. They stress out our pets and wild animals, they trigger veterans/survivors. They pollute.
I will be home with my noise cancelling headphones at the ready, holding my dog.

i found my first dung beetle! Yes there are dung beetles in North America. Phanaeus igneus. Also part of the Scarab Beetle family.

My Eastern Backyard Birds art is now a puzzle from Pomegranate Games. www.pomegranate.com/products/cas...
#BirdPuzzle #Puzzle

Pins with various birds and pronouns

Birds and pronoun pins at the Tri-Society Diversity table #Evol2025

These are Black Oystercatchers, some of my favorite birds to watch. Location specific, rocky oceans along the Pacific Coast. It's possible to climb pretty far out on coastal rocks you can be disturbing nests. If a bird is squawking at you, it is saying be careful and share this space with me better.