Perry Grin's IFJM Blog

Welcome to Perry Grin's IFJM (International Fake Journal Month) Blog

I found out about IFJM - the brainchild of Roz Stendahl - from the WetCanvas art journal forum and was intrigued by the idea so decided to give it a go.  Essentially, you create an art journal from the perspective of a character that you want to be for that month.  The time frame needs to be April of 2011, but the setting can be in an alternate reality (such as Hogwarts if you're into Harry Potter).  This journal is for Perry Grin, a Peregrine Falcon who with his mate Misty, nests each year on the cliffs overlooking Snoqualmie Falls near my house in Washington state.  There is actually a pair of Peregrine Falcons nesting on those cliffs, and I have been following them, and starting to sketch them as weather allows, so I thought it would be fun to try to do some sketches from the perspective of Perry.  We'll see how it goes.

Here's is the first page of Perry's journal. 

 

Perry's Home Base and Pigeons for Lunch

The cliffs at Snoqualmie Falls have been where Misty (my mate) and I have nested and raised our young for the last five years.  We've been successful there, so we always come back.  Plus, of course, it's nice to be celebrities of sorts.  A couple of photographers and birders come to watch us come and go, and they often show the tourists our nest through their spotting scopes.  We don't mind because we're plenty far away from the crowds.  Here is a sketch showing the falls (268 feet high) and the location of our scrape (nest) on the cliffs.

 

I catch most of the food for us while Misty spends most of the incubation time.  Pigeons are one of our favorite targets, because they are plentiful and although they are fast flyers, nobody can fly faster than us.  This sketch shows what it's like when I am closing in on a flock of pigeons.

 

A Youngster Practicing His Stoop (Dive) and Misty Chasing a Dunlin

Well, Perry has been lax in keeping up his journal, but he has good reason. This month has been very taxing on Misty and Perry weather-wise, in addition to all the incubation and hunting that needs to be done. April is already officially the coldest on record, and close to the wettest as well...both of which combine to make it hard to keep the eggs warm enough to remain viable. We had a hail storm last night with marble-size (or bigger) hail - very unusual up here. It has continued to go down to almost freezing at night, a good ten degrees colder than it should be at this point in the year.

Here are a couple of in-flight sketches that Perry is very proud of. The first is one of last year's young practicing his stoops (dives). Perry and Misty still feed the kids for some time after they fledge, but the young also instinctively know that they need to practice their hunting skills if they expect to survive their first winter, which many are not able to do.

The second image is of Misty flying level in pursuit of a Dunlin - a type of shorebird that winters over in huge numbers on the Samish Flats, a delta north of Seattle that attracts tons of wintering raptors - Peregrine Falcons, Prairie Falcons, Short-eared Owls, Bald Eagles, American Kestrels, Merlins and Red-tailed Hawks plus the occasional Gyrfalcon and even some years a Snowy Owl!

 

 

Hunting Dunlin

From the fall through the spring, there are huge flocks of Dunlin (a type of shorebird) on the Samish Flats north of where Misty and I have our normal territory.  On occasion we will go up there to hunt, as we can always count on Dunlin to be around that time of year.  They fly and move as a whole flock to try to confuse us - there are so many birds it's actually hard to pick out one target and you tend to miss.  So we fly in fast and low over a feeding flock to flush them into the air.  Then we make passes at the flock and try to separate one or two birds out of the large group and concentrate on that bird.  Once we can do that, we're usually successful with the hunt.  This is a picture of Misty just about ready to grab a Dunlin while a few of the others with the main flock hurry away.