![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/american-kestrel-1505-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"american-kestrel-1505-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nPlus free, downloadable high resolution Audubon prints. 435 of them!<\/p>\n
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This is a view I’ve always loved of both male and female American Kestrels but especially of the male. We can’t see his face or either eye but I’ll pay that price for this look at those spectacular plumage colors and patterns with wings and tail fully spread and even the alulae flared out.<\/p>\n
This guy was swooping down on a grasshopper when I took the photo.<\/p>\n
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But in many ways my version pales in comparison to John James Audubon’s wonderful painting of kestrels from almost 200 years ago from his famous and wildly popular Birds of America<\/em> series.<\/p>\n The National Audubon Society has generously provided a link that allows anyone free downloads of 435 Audubon prints from that series and they’re very high resolution. For example, my kestrel photo above is 900 x 643 pixels but the downloadable version of Audubon’s kestrels is 7705 x 6401 pixels. There’s incredible resolution and detail in those downloads. And of course Audubon’s paintings are… delicious.<\/p>\n I’ll provide the link to the downloadable prints at the conclusion of this post.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of the most spectacular raptors in the world is the white Gyrfalcon. This one was a falconry bird that had escaped from its “owner” several years ago here in Salt Lake City so of course I had to try to get some photos, even in the poor light.<\/p>\n At the time it was estimated that this bird was worth about $10,000 on the falconry market. Very soon after I took this photo my friend Mike Shaw from HawkWatch International trapped the falcon and returned it to its owner. It had falconry gear still attached to its legs (I’m told they aren’t really jesses) and that would have been an eventual death trap in the wild.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here’s Audubon’s version of white Gyrfalcons, also available for download. At the time Audubon did the painting white Gyrfalcons were called Iceland Falcons or Jer Falcons.<\/p>\n Each download includes Audubon’s original notes on the species. I believe this resource is an artistic, historical and scientific treasure so I hope some of my readers take advantage of such a special opportunity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It took Audubon over 14 years of doing field observations and drawings plus significantly more time invested in single-handed management and promotion to complete his Birds of America<\/em> project. The complicated process of printing from the high quality plates cost him over $2,000,000 in today’s money but his drawings\/paintings of over 700 North American bird species had such tremendous appeal his work became a huge success. In contrast to his contemporaries who painted birds in stiff, unnatural positions Audubon drew them in natural positions in their natural habitat, often as if they were in motion while feeding or hunting. All were drawn life size and his original prints were roughly three feet tall.<\/p>\n Audubon’s influence on ornithology and natural history was far-reaching. Charles Darwin even quoted him three times in his Origin of Species<\/em>. During his field research he discovered 25 new species and 12 new subspecies. Audubon’s Birds of America<\/em> is still considered one the finest examples of book art, ever! On December 6, 2010 a copy of Birds of America<\/em> was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $11.5 million, the second highest price for a single printed book.<\/p>\n Audubon’s legacy includes the following and much more (from Wikipedia):<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I’ll end with a sad, embarrassing and personal story related to Audubon. In 1972 (give or take a year) I was a wet behind the ears 25 year old biology teacher at South High School here in Salt Lake City who was desperate for audiovisual materials to enhance my teaching. The school library had an annual sale each spring of older library books that they no longer needed and they sold them at bargain basement prices. That year at the sale I bought a very<\/em> old copy of a book that included all (or most) of Audubon’s Birds of America<\/em> paintings. It was a high quality book, coffee table book size or even larger, with thick linen paper and it was still in good condition. The color plates it contained were simply stunning and there were hundreds of them. I believe I paid a dollar or two for it.<\/p>\n But in classroom use I discovered the book was heavy, cumbersome and not exactly what I wanted so I cut many of the pages out to use individually. I even cut some of the pages that included paintings of multiple species in half. Eventually what was left of the book fell apart and almost 50 years later I have no idea what became of the pages I cut out.<\/p>\n I could almost slit my throat for doing that. Who knows what that book might be worth today. Obviously it wasn’t an original copy of Birds of America<\/em> but it was old and I still think it may have had significant monetary value. But to be honest my greatest wish is that I had it in my collection of natural history books today. Oh the folly of the young and dumb!<\/p>\n I hope some of my readers will take advantage of the opportunity to see and even use some of Audubon’s high resolution prints. They are simply stunning.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/gyrfalcon-3364-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"gyrfalcon-3364-ron-dudley\\"")
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