This year, the arrival of spring weather seems perfectly synchronized with the calendar. I’ve got lots of projects to do, but with the sun is shining and that mourning dove calling to its mate from the maple tree, I get birds on the brain. One nice thing about these small bird bowls is that most of the work can be done outside with a couple knives, like spoon carving. You could even think of these as spoons with beaks.

Starting with a crook gives a natural lift to the head and tail. This piece was a little different sort of crook. This young birch curved up from the ground before straightening out and had some interesting burl figure at the base. I split it in half, then cleaned up the bark side.

After sketching some lines on the upper side, I roughly hewed away the majority of the excess from the exterior. After removing some bulk from the hollow with a gouge and mallet, I went outside with the birds for the knife work. I put some shots together in a slideshow below (the slideshow probably won’t show up in your email browser).

As you can see from the photos, I use the same knife grasps that I use for spoon carving. If you’ve already got the tools for spoon carving, little bird bowls like this can be fun to explore.

I’ve set this one aside to dry. I’ll return to it another day to see what I have to work with for round two.