Hi my dear watchers and friends

As you probably noticed, the calendar said the spring had come, though the weather doesn't seem to understand that very well. Regardless of the temperature, snow etc., it's Easter and therefore time for lapwing research has come as well! It is the fifth year I participated in our "lapwinging" weekend, as we call it, when we search for nesting lapwings to do some research on. This year is a bit special, though. In the weekend we went to Eastern Bohemia to enjoy a freezing, unsuccessful, but funny Easter. It all started when five of us, together with a lot of baggage, googles and other stuff, tried to board a small car. We had to re-arrange all the stuff very carefully and apparently it was such a spectacle, that, when we finally put everything in and forcefully closed the door, a complete stranger came to us (laughing) to thank us for the great show, for he enjoyed it very much. He was betting we wouldn't pull it off
(Just to be precise, it was the very same car that lost a wheel last year, when the metal parts holding it were destroyed completely ... starting after I drove it in the fields for a bit. It was a university car, too (oops ).)

Back to the topic. The lapwings haven't started nesting, yet, so we spent the days driving from one field to another (and from one pub to another), searching for lapwings, observing, and trembling with cold. I also managed to slip and fall into the stickiest mud around. Not only had I to wipe the mud with the snow (freezing my bare hands) to be allowed into the car, but I almost missed the Snow Bunting flying nearby because of it!
I'm in the final year of my bachelor studies, so this spring I'm going to start gathering some data for my diploma thesis. That includes making audio and video records of the displaying male Lapwings (their song-flights) and observing the incubation, mating, etc. of individual birds in their territories. It'll take a lot of time and might be a bit difficult, so I'm going to spend most of the weekends of April and May in the fields of either Southern or Eastern Bohemia. Please keep your fingers crossed for me so everything goes well and the weather improves soon. The snow is starting to be a bit annoying, you know.

Then, in June, I'm going to spend almost the whole month in the bogs at Baikal Lake in Siberia. My professor received a grant for researching shorebirds there and I got the opportunity to be a member of the team, yay! I'm looking forward to it very much, although it might not be very easy (especially physically). I'll have to do my very best.

Unfortunately, because of all this, I won't have much time for drawing And I didn't mention I have to write my bachelor thesis till August, I think. Needless to say, I haven't even started yet... I'll try to draw as much as I can, especially now that I'm motivated by the book Color and Light by James Gurney, which finally arrived after four months of waiting. But don't expect too much :/



Oh, and I almost forgot! Thank you guys for all the faves and comments you give me! I was very surprised with how much attention the Curlew painting got! It's by far my most faved bird picture (they're much less popular than the dragon pics) and it's the picture that received the most comments of them all, excluding the one DD I got. It made me so happy! You can expect more shorebird paintings from me (and dragon ones, too, of course). I'm going to draw illustrations for my professor's articles, that will be probably published in a book one day. The next shall be the Red Knot

The paintings of Eskimo Curlew and Sandpipers also brought me more attention from people around me. For example I was asked to give an interview for Charles University's online magasine. It's available here, but only in Czech: [link]


Sorry for such a long journal I wanted to update you on my life, but got a bit talkative, as usual