#black ducks

[jdibe22686]

Green Lake outlet

[elysiumxflowers]

[uwmspeccoll]

Feathursday Magpies

Those pesky Magpies always ruining everyone’s day! This four-color offset lithograph of Magpies scavenging the nest of an American Black Duck is reproduced from a painting by American wildlife artist James Lockhart from his folio volume Portraits of Nature, published in New York by Crown Publishers in 1967. We are drawn to the drama of the scene and Lockhart’s expert rendering, but we’re wondering if maybe Lockhart is a bit confused in his depiction.

Portraits of Nature depicts only North American birds, but Lockhart identifies the Magpie as Pica pica, which is the Eurasian Magpie. There are two species of North American magpies (and both are known to raid nests), and it appears that Lockhart is depicting the Yellow-billed Magpie (Pica nutalli), which is only found in California's Central Valley. Even if he was trying to depict the more wide-ranging Black-billed Magpie  (Pica hudsonia), the American Black Duck (Anas rubripes) is mainly an eastern North American bird, and their ranges would only have a narrow overlap in eastern North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota. Perhaps that’s what we’re seeing here.

Anyway, it’s enough for us that it is a James Lockhart dramatic rendering. For more Lockhart drama, view other images from this volume.  

View more Feathursday posts. 

[providencepubliclibrary]

#3 and #4 are friends we saw on our way into work, on the Blackstone River. 

Illustration from: A popular handbook of the birds of the United States and Canada. Nuttall, Thomas, 1786-1859 ; Chamberlain, Montague, 1844-1924

[elysiumxflowers]

[yolandamargaritaperaza]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Duckloyal (@duckloyal)

[uwmspeccoll]

An Egg-robbing Feathursday

Naughty American Magpies (Pica hudsonia) raiding the nest of this horrified Black Duck (Anas rubripes) mom. Magpies are a pretty opportunistic bunch, so if there are eggs lying around, they’re going to eat them. Oh, the cruelties of nature!

This four-color offset lithographic reproduction of a painting by American wildlife artist James Lockhart is from Lockhart’s folio volume Portraits of Nature, published in New York by Crown Publishers in 1967. We presented Lockhart’s portrait of a Lynx and her offspring from this volume last Caturday.

View more Feathursday posts.

[sheenapr]