#towhees

Abert's Towhee Melozone aberti

Virginia Wildlife; vol. 31, no. 2. February, 1970. Cover illustration by Duane Raver Jr.

Another Gale Mueller Feathursday

Here are more relief prints of birds by Spokane, Washington printer and printmaker W. Gale Mueller (1927-2018) from his Forty Years of Birds ‘n Blocks, printed from the original blocks at his Millstone Press in 2009 in an edition of 53 copies. From 1969 to 2009, Mueller and his wife Bonnie sent holiday cards with Gale’s original bird prints using several relief print processes. Today we show some linocuts and an early wood engraving from 1982-1993. For those who want to know more about these birds, here you go:

Varied Thrush (Ixoreus naevius)

Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus)

Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)

Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus)

House Finch (Haemorhous mexicanus)

Our copy of this book is a gift from our friend Tony Drehfal.

View more posts from this book.

Photo: Becky Matsubara

"A widespread towhee of the West, sometimes abundant in chaparral and on brushy mountain slopes. For many years it was considered to belong to the same species as the unspotted Eastern Towhees found east of the Great Plains, under the name of Rufous-sided Towhee. The Spotted Towhee differs in the heavy white spotting on its upperparts, and its songs and callnotes are more variable and much harsher in tone. It often is first noticed because of the sound of its industrious scratching in the leaf-litter under dense thickets."

California Towhee Fullerton Arboretum Fullerton, California, USA November, 2019

everyone was glad to be out in the warmth and sunshine