July 2020 Newsletter
Author: Roger Francis (Chairman (SWC)
Dear all,
Next Meeting Sometime in the future?
Well here I am again waiting for some inspiration for this newsletter. Still in the throes of lockdown awaiting what seems the inevitable return of the pandemic and missing our fourth meeting in a row.
I was talking to John Roberts recently and he said that he gets most of his exercise from shaking his head (in disbelieve) at what he sees on television in the news programmes, I know how he feels. I have had to resort to buying a cheap digital watch with day, date, month and time so I know what day of the week it is!
I have spoken to a number of the group over the last few weeks and everyone seems to be going on ok, I know that a few of you have been keeping busy carving, and Jim has got around to finishing his Ringed Plover.
I was disappointed that only Mike O’Sullivan responded to my suggestion to have a “Virtual meeting” and since that newsletter the group has received an offer from the BDWCA to use their “Zoom” licence should we want to have more people chatting than are allowed on the free site.
In recent correspondence from Brian Weaving, I see he has been keeping himself busy, his latest book “Death in Store” has now been published and is available in paperback or Kindle from Amazon. Brian has also entered some work in the online King Lear Art competition, the competition had hoped to attract a 1000 entries but I gather they have been inundated with 16,000.
WWT: As I said in the last newsletter the Trust re-opened on the 10th June with booking required and restricted access around the grounds the Local Authority required the Hides to be shut down but with the regulation changes these will now re-open on the July 4th. There has been large number of waders moving through and there has been three mature male ruff, a blonde, a white and a black ruffed, along with over a 100 Avocet.
Websites: Those of you that are Facebook followers may have seen that Floyd Scholz is now doing a tutorial on carving a miniature Raven (I don’t think you will get the full tutorial unless you sign up and pay for the course $250) but the plan has been made available on FB but be warned looking at it, It will not work the dorsal view does not include sufficient material for the head as Scholz leaves the blank with a full width block as the head on his blanks.
Although I have included these in previous newsletters I thought I would reuse them as reference material
https://www.youtube.com/user/LoonLady38/videos?reload=9
https://www.featherbase.info/en/species/
https://www.wildfowl-carving.com/Demonstrations/Just-Like-1936-Carving-Demonstration
http://blascozumeta.com/ This is bird ringing site that I was looking at and felt that if you are lucky and they have the species you are looking for there are good photographs and reference material.
https://www.skullsite.com/ This site shows bird skulls of over 1500 species, it shows close up of the bill and gives numerous dimensions of the bare skull. If you use it don’t forget to allow a few millimetres to allow for tegument and feather covering.
Stay safe and well
Hope to see you all sometime soon.
Next Meeting Sometime in the future?
Well here I am again waiting for some inspiration for this newsletter. Still in the throes of lockdown awaiting what seems the inevitable return of the pandemic and missing our fourth meeting in a row.
I was talking to John Roberts recently and he said that he gets most of his exercise from shaking his head (in disbelieve) at what he sees on television in the news programmes, I know how he feels. I have had to resort to buying a cheap digital watch with day, date, month and time so I know what day of the week it is!
I have spoken to a number of the group over the last few weeks and everyone seems to be going on ok, I know that a few of you have been keeping busy carving, and Jim has got around to finishing his Ringed Plover.
I was disappointed that only Mike O’Sullivan responded to my suggestion to have a “Virtual meeting” and since that newsletter the group has received an offer from the BDWCA to use their “Zoom” licence should we want to have more people chatting than are allowed on the free site.
In recent correspondence from Brian Weaving, I see he has been keeping himself busy, his latest book “Death in Store” has now been published and is available in paperback or Kindle from Amazon. Brian has also entered some work in the online King Lear Art competition, the competition had hoped to attract a 1000 entries but I gather they have been inundated with 16,000.
WWT: As I said in the last newsletter the Trust re-opened on the 10th June with booking required and restricted access around the grounds the Local Authority required the Hides to be shut down but with the regulation changes these will now re-open on the July 4th. There has been large number of waders moving through and there has been three mature male ruff, a blonde, a white and a black ruffed, along with over a 100 Avocet.
Websites: Those of you that are Facebook followers may have seen that Floyd Scholz is now doing a tutorial on carving a miniature Raven (I don’t think you will get the full tutorial unless you sign up and pay for the course $250) but the plan has been made available on FB but be warned looking at it, It will not work the dorsal view does not include sufficient material for the head as Scholz leaves the blank with a full width block as the head on his blanks.
Although I have included these in previous newsletters I thought I would reuse them as reference material
https://www.youtube.com/user/LoonLady38/videos?reload=9
https://www.featherbase.info/en/species/
https://www.wildfowl-carving.com/Demonstrations/Just-Like-1936-Carving-Demonstration
http://blascozumeta.com/ This is bird ringing site that I was looking at and felt that if you are lucky and they have the species you are looking for there are good photographs and reference material.
https://www.skullsite.com/ This site shows bird skulls of over 1500 species, it shows close up of the bill and gives numerous dimensions of the bare skull. If you use it don’t forget to allow a few millimetres to allow for tegument and feather covering.
Stay safe and well
Hope to see you all sometime soon.