October 2026

 

October began with the end of my trip to Taos. I posted about the trip last month. Here are a few paintings I did for my travel journal after I got back, based on photos I took during the trip.

It's Albuquerque in October, so I have to give a nod to the Balloon Fiesta. I had several encounters with balloons during my walking/birding peregrinations.

Mid-October, the RGNC bird survey group did a tour of the silvery minnow refugium down in Los Lunas. I had never heard of it until Cathy decided to set up a tour for us, but I have been curious to know what is happening with recovery efforts for this endangered fish. We learned that silvery minnow eggs are collected along the river in the Spring, then brought to protected channels like this one to hatch.

In the fall, refugium volunteers trawl the water for minnows, as you see in the photos below.

The minnows are then brought to these tubs to await the right time for their release into the Rio Grande. In a year like this, where the river was dry for an extended period, they will wait until water levels are expected to remain adequate through the winter and spring to do this release.

As far as birds go, I didn't get very many photos worth sharing this month. The montane irruption continues. Here are a few photos that seem worth sharing.

Townsend's Solitaire-Cienega Canyon

 

 Brown Creeper-UNM Campus

Greater Roadrunner-Los Poblanos Open Space

And at the Nature Center (in order), Peregrine Falcon, Chipping Sparrow, Evening Grosbeak, White-Crowned Sparrow, and Steller's Jay.

I'll close with some sketches and paintings from the month, mostly from sketching group excursions. I painted the pumpkins plein air at Big Jim farms, then did the pepper painting later at home from a photo I took at their farm stand. 

 

 

Our other October excursion was to Coronado Monument in Bernalillo, where I did this sketch. I think you can see the difference in my skill level when I'm painting on-the-spot like this vs. using a photo. I kind of like it though.

Finally, I thought I'd share some interesting observations about light and color. These two photos are of the exact same painting I did of some Colorado Four O'Clocks. One photo was taken in natural light, and the other in indoor light. As a photographer, I'm of course aware of how light tempurature affects color in a photo. This time, i did a little experiment. I looked at the original painting in the two places I'd photographed it with first indoor, then outdoor light. To my astonishment, my naked eye actually saw the color in the painting quite differently depending on the light. The flowers looked magenta to me in the indoor light, and more blue-violet in the outdoor light.

 See you next month!