Birding and Art with the Cranes at Whitewater Draw with Luke Safford & Russell Kahn

Friday, December 11th, 11am – 2pm
$130/participant
Instruction/Outing begins at 11am, ends at 2pm; Carpooling leaves Tucson at 9am and we will return about 4pm. Lunch from Beyond Bread provided.

Trip Difficulty: Easy. Less than one mile of easy walking on well packed, flat paths. Bathroom on-site. 

An oasis in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert grassland, Whitewater Draw is known for its amazing numbers of wintering Sandhill Cranes (10,000+). This Important Bird Area is the winter home for many species of waterfowl, including Snow Goose and Northern Pintail and raptors like Northern Harrier. We’ll spend a bit of time birding, but the majority of the time will be spent with our instructor, Russell Kahn, who will teach us how to create gesture drawings of the Cranes at the site. We will go through a demo in a variety of media on how to capture the essence of these majestic birds in flight while also receiving a brief Art History lesson. We will be working in black and white with watercolors. See below for supplies that you will need. (If you need support obtaining any of these materials please let us know.)

• Supplies:

  • Folding Chair

  • Drawing Board

  • masking tape

  • drawing paper or sketch book 9 x 12 or bigger

  • watercolors

  • brushes

  • 4B-6B pencils

  • Sharpies

  • kneaded eraser

Limited to 12 participants.

Leader: Luke Safford (lsafford@tucsonbirds.org) and Russell Kahn

Header Image: Hummingbird by Laura Milkins

Body Image: Cactus Wren by Laura Milkins