Day 11 - 2012

The photo below was taken by Roger Hayward at Pretty  Beach near Gosford in NSW, whose lovely property has  the channel-billed cuckoo in the trees around the house.  I found out today that most cuckoos place their eggs in  other birds nests for the host bird to raise the cuckoo chick. This channel-billed cuckoo is being fed by its host a Currawong which as the adopted parent spends all its time feeding the cuckoo..  Photo taken by Roger Hayward, Did you know? The Channel-billed Cuckoo is the largest parasitic cuckoo  in the world. The Channel-billed Cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of the Australian Magpie, Gymnorhina tibicen, the Pied Currawong, Strepera graculina and members of the crow family (Corvidae). Unlike many other cuckoos, the young birds do not evict the  host's young or eggs from the nest, but simply grow faster  and demand all the food, thus starving the others. Often the  adult female will damage the existing eggs in the nest when  she lays her own andshe may even lay more than one egg in  a single nest. Channel-billed Cuckoo. Image from: John Gould (1804-81)  The birds of Australia 1840-48. 7 vols. 600 plates  Artists: J. Gould and E. Gould; Lithographer: E. Gould.

Day 11 of 2012 The lovely setting of Roger Hayward's property at Pretty Beach near Gosford in New South Wales _______________________________________ A local artist in Murrurundi, Barry Bryant came to my art studio on Wednesaday evening for a class. He has been doing a self-portrait in oil pastels.  I gave him some technical advice on painting eyes in a portrait. He had never had any tuition in this area. Barry was amazed at the changes in the eyes in his portrait when I applied the techniques I use. He said he lean't in 10 minutes what he could never do himself in  a life time. Below is his self-portrait and a close up of the eyes ( click image)