I may be a bit slower than others, but my main focus right now is to actually finish things. Which I did!
It took a while, and it came with a combination of chronic and temporary illness, but the last picture for CHIRPtember is finally here.
 
Alright, I chose the Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax Carbo), because it's one of the few seabirds I've seen in real life, in the Netherlands, that is not a gull. It can often be found in this typical pose in which it dries its wings. Their wings are not really waterproof, since this helps with diving and staying under water for a longer time.
I've mostly seen them in the safaripark Beekse Bergen, where it is a visiting species, actual wildlife.
 
Another seafaring bird I've seen in that park, in their birds of prey show, is the Bald eagle. I had some interesting photos I wanted to share. This specific eagle is named Lady Maya, and she's been in the news about 4 years ago, when she got lost after having an argument with some gulls. They found her again after about a week of searching, relatively close by. As I understood she's still flying shows today; she's about 30 years old!
Handlers usually hang around after the show with the last shown bird, so visitors have the chance to see them up close. I got to meet Lady Maya a couple of times that way, and managed to take a silly shot of a majestic looking bird.
 
About the stamp: I sketched it out about two weeks ago, transferred it to a rubber plate, and then... October hit and I'm completely preoccupied with Halloween. Happens every year, and why I generally don't participate in art challenges in October. I ended up carving it while waiting for my computer to install updates last weekend! 
 
Besides the unplanned hiccups that caused delays I really enjoyed this challenge. I hope it'll be organised again next year, because I would love to participate again.

I currently have no pets, nor did I have many growing up. And when we did, they were animals we kept outside, because of allergies. I do remember us always having an Eurasian jay (Garrulus Glandarius) in a small aviary near the backdoor when I was little, named Garrit. It could imitate so many sounds, like the Doppler Effect! Which mostly tells you that the cars in our street drove too fast..? Or my mom sneezing in the morning, it could imitate that as well. I remember once I chased a mouse through the backyard and it fled into the aviary, where Garrit would dive straight at it. It liked more than just acorns to bury.
We've had two, both by the same name; I know the first one turned at least 16, the second one escaped (after about 10 years?) and flew off. I would advise against keeping them, their eggs were taken from the forests by an acquaintance, but they should remain wild birds.
 
So, this is an unconventional choice for the prompt pet, but here it is!
I can also check this one off from my list of birds I've had in my own backyard (of their own free will)! Which is why I made a bigger stamp than the previous two. Actually where I live now the most I've seen at once is four! I hear them in the large trees behind my house all the time, and I've seen them visit my improvised birdbath. I love them so much. They're smart and friendly, and they're nature's alarm bells.
 
This may be my new favourite of the stamps I made of birds.
It took me a while to get this one done, not because it was a difficult one (though the tiny stripes for the blue feathers were) but because of real life happening and me needing way more rest than I anticipated. So I didn't carve this one the weekend I planned to, but in the one in which I should've finished the sea bird. CHIRPtember may be done for most, but for me everything just gets delayed by a week.

The Rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri)! Only tropical bird I could think of that roams around freely in the Netherlands. Starting out with a couple of lost or released pets here and there, but they flourished and are now recognised as a breeding bird here, fairly recently. They're mostly located in the Randstad, where I've spotted them in Den Haag and Rotterdam.
 
Also a smaller stamp for this bird, I sketched it the same day I drew the sketch for the Harris's hawk. Before I started carving, deliberated with myself for quite a while whether I would make this one solid like the previous bird, or do line-work. Would be fun to stamp this one with green ink, but there were some darker parts I wanted to include. So line-work it is.
I could make a stamp for just the colour later!
 
This print looks good on green paper too though, so that's what I chose to use this time. For the few extra colours and white bits I used Faber Castell brush pens.
 
I also tried out the time-lapse option on my phone's camera and looking for a good set-up, so you can see me carving parts of this stamp. At some point I started leaning forward too much and my hair started to confuse the autofocus of my camera, so I cut the video short. I might try a different set-up next time, as long as the camera doesn't interfere with me working.
Let me know if this is a thing you'd like to see at all! If not, I'm not going to bother myself with it.

For the prompt desert I chose my favourite birds from the birds of prey show at safaripark Beekse Bergen. They're called Harris's hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus), but I call them estafette-vogels (relay-birds), because that is their hunting style! They take turns chasing a prey, so they don't get as tired while the prey gets continually exhausted until they're an easy catch.
 
Since this bird diverts me from "birds I've seen in my backyard" I decided to make a smaller stamp. Though that doesn't necessarily mean it's easier and quicker, as I found out, because I still kept a lot of details in it. Even though I didn't do line-work, but kept the surface mostly solid! I may be sticking too much to realism, and simplify the shape of the next one to avoid this.

I came across this art challenge, and although prompt lists usually intimidate me, this one looked rather inviting, because it has only one prompt a week. Also, it's about making art of one of my favourite subjects: birds!
Alright, I'm in!
 
There's been a pause in my bird stamp making process, the usual... found more things to do and make and can't do everything at once. But I'm nowhere near done with that one, and this challenge adds to it, so a great moment to pick it up again.

Although... with the stamps I was making I wanted to recreate those species I've seen in my own backyard, and these prompts will divert me from that idea. Because 1) I don't live near a desert, 2) I'm not in a tropical country, 3) I don't own a pet, and 4) I don't live near the sea. Well, seen globally I do I guess, in a way everyone in the Netherlands lives near the sea, but not near enough to have seabirds in the area.

But I will make it work in a different way; I will pick birds that live somewhere in the Netherlands, or that I have seen in zoos and such. I know which ones I'll make for the first three prompts, not sure yet about the last, but that's okay since I have extra time to think about that one.
 
I'll share sketches and works in progress at my IG account @afke11 and tell you about my process and bird choices here. Might also post a photo or two that I've made myself of birds!
CHIRPtember it is!

CHIRPtember is hosted by:
@ashleyillustrates_ @chiffchaffsgarden @claudia.s_artbarn @nele.illustrates @sarahgeebee.art