#field guides

[nightpelt]

[garlic-and-cloves]

It is incredibly infuriating how under-researched less common plants are. And how much of the information that is known is not easily accessible

[rebeccathenaturalist]

I have a week left of my residency at the Sitka Center's Preserve. I achieved my initial goal of surveying native plants on this land, other than a few species (mostly mosses) that I need to try to confidently get down to species level. And I have a pretty good idea of the writing and art I'll continue to do after the residency is done. So for the remainder of my time on site I've been trying to absorb as much information as I can to take with me, and making the most of the sunny days before rain returns this weekend. Which means there'll be more time with these books and more in the days to come.

[shallowbreeze]

Mottlepaw

Mottlepaw is a small black-and-white tom with white patches and blue eyes.

[sky-scratchdesigns]

Clear Sky/Skystar - Founder and Leader of SkyClan

"It's not my fault Jagged Peak fell out of that tree. Every cat has to contribute, and weak cats just don't count. It's about survival!" - Clear Sky, Thunder Rising

[mothmans-warriors-designs]

MY MAN!!! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH <333 we find out a lot about him in Battles of the Clans and that's why I'm so attached lol

Born: Pre-TPB

First Appeared: Tigerclaw's Fury (technically appeared in Forest of Secrets, though unnamed)

Died: The Last Hope, during the Great Battle

Mother: Unknown

Father: Unknown

Littermates: Unknown

Mate: Quietstep

Kits: Crowfrost, Shrewfoot, Spikefur

Apprentice: Toadfoot

[uwmspeccoll]

A Milwaukee Duck Feathursday

There are field guides and then there are field guides, and the famed Wisconsin conservationist and UW-Madison professor of Wildlife Management Aldo Leopold believes that this field guide is a step above: The Ducks, Geese and Swans of North America by Canadian engineer, businessman, and conservationist Francis H. Kortright (1887–1972), illustrated by the Canadian ornithologist and artist Terence Michael Shortt (1911-1986), and published in Washington, D.C. by the American Wildlife Institute in 1943.

In the introduction to the book, Leopold laments that "the existing literature on the identification of waterfowl describes manly their spring plumages. This is of little avail to the sportsman who is afield mainly in the fall, and it hardly suffices for the ornithologist, who is afield at all seasons." But in this guide, Leopold writes, "Mr. Kortright has sensed the need for a year-round waterfowl book and has done a scholarly job of writing one. . . . I do find much useful and interesting subject matter which most ornithologists omit. . . ." That Kortright has no formal training as a zoologist does not phase Leopold: "While he disclaims being an ornithologist, I detect no lack of ornithological competence in what he has written."

Of the illustrations, he writes, "Mr. Shortt's paintings, portraying all of the more important plumages of a given species, in themselves justify the publication of this volume." That both author and illustrator are Canadians also seems a plus: "To my mind it is appropriate that this book should issue from the pen of a Canadian. Canada is the birthplace of most waterfowl; this book attests her growing activity in waterfowl research and conservation."

We represent this field guide with images of some ducks most commonly found in our Milwaukee area: the Mallard, Wood Duck, and Blue-winged Teal are present in summer, with the Mallard and Wood Duck as year-round residents, while the Mergansers, Bufflehead, and Goldeneye are most prevalent in winter. We end with a couple of plates of random goslings and ducklings. Why? Well, because they're just so darn adorable!

View other posts related to Aldo Leopold.

View more Feathursday posts.

[jayfrost-designs]

Well, I wasn't gonna change this guy's design, but then I saw his new designin the upcoming graphic novel and fell absolutely in love with his little mustache, so I just had to include it. I ended up shifting his eyes down and out to the sides a bit as they look off, and I played around with the face markings forever before I was finally happy with them, but here's the end result and I adore it. He has this perpetually sad, slightly mournful look to him, which fits with his backstory, but he just lights up whenever he's around Ravenpaw. <3

Yeah, couldn't help myself. ^^ Rileypool's lineart turned out so good, and looked so much like how I picture his uncle Barley, that I just had to make a quick new ref sheet for Barley. So here's our beloved farm boy.

You can find the reverse side of his design here.

For his physical description, Barley is described as a a short, long-furred, sturdy tom with a plump belly, big paws, broad shoulders, and a broad face. As mentioned, I just reused Rileypool's lineart for him. He had a really rough life with BloodClan before going loner, and fought some few but intense battles after that, so I scarred him up a lot. On his reverse side, you can see the scars from his broken leg in Secrets of the Clans. ^^

For his pattern, Barley is described as a black-and-white tom with blue eyes. I always based his pattern off of his depiction in the graphic novels, as that's how I always pictured him, but I've always struggled with marking the black stripe connecting his head patch to his nose look realistic, so here I just ditched it instead, so this is basically his graphic novel design minus that stripe and with slightly tweaked patches shape-wise. I played around with his head patch a lot to get it looking how I wanted, and I'm fairly pleased with the end result.

Overall, I'm really happy with how this turned out.