Feed The Birds

NuthatchSadly it costs more than ‘tuppence’ a bag but is well worth it. Although I keep the feeders topped up all year round as recommended by the experts I always feel I am making an even more important contribution in winter.When trees and shrubs are devoid of leaves we get a really good view of our garden birds and as someone who always has an eye for a potential painting I have an extra incentive.  I am really fortunate with the variety of birds visiting the garden but I was really pleased to see a Nuthatch a couple of weeks ago. This pleasure we get in the unusual is understandable but I get just as much pleasure from ‘common or garden’ varieties. I have recently completed a painting of Goldfinches and the Blue Tits doing their circus act on the Honeysuckle outside the window are just demanding that I add them to my list of subject matter. It is human nature I think to dismiss the wildlife we see day to day and chase the ‘celebrities’ and this is very common in my fellow birdwatchers. Recently at a hide I visited; three of the locals arrived and set up their scopes, at this time I was entranced watching a Heron fishing right outside the hide. The three compadres had a brief look; bemoaned the fact there were no migrants and went off to another hide. Now I accept they probably see Herons all the time but surely watching a Heron fishing at close quarters is more rewarding than seeing a Little Stint at 500 metres through a scope! This leads inevitably to our Twitcher friends who career all over the country for a glimpse of a bird missing from their ‘list’. This quest for maximum species even if only a brief glimpse borders on sad, it might as well be football cards. Well that’s me alienated a vast percentage of fellow bird watchers, what do I know?

Northeast Pilgrimage

 

Farne Island Puffin

Leaving things to the last minute seems to be in my nature so it was hardly surprising I chose July to take a trip out to the Farne Islands just as the Puffins were thinking about disappearing back out to the open sea. Despite my poor sense of timing I did have a terrific time, it was a beautiful day; calm and sunny and apparently Puffins are as bad as I am for delaying; because they were still hanging around. The small armada of boats which transport visitors out to the islands are very slick and with a minimum of  fuss I was landed on Inner Farne with three hours wandering around the island surrounded by hundreds of noisy Terns and Puffins. The Farne Islands are a bird artists idea of paradise and three hours just flew (if you will pardon the pun). Now I must be honest, Puffins as a subject never seem to rise above cute and those of us who like to delude ourselves we are ‘serious ‘ artists tend to give them a miss, I cannot believe they are a product of evolution but suspect they were an inspired design by the Disney Corporation! However be that as it may I have learned to listen to my wife over the years and she convinced me to give it a go. I include a picture which is only a detail as I have not yet finished the painting. On my journey home from the Farne Islands I stopped at Hauxley NR run by the Northumberland Wildlife Trust and spent over four happy hours in one of their excellent hides. Most of the waders had gone  but I spent a couple of hours watching a juvenile Grey Heron fishing and felt privilaged to have such an intimate view. The photographs I captured there led to a painting which along with two others I have submitted for selection to the Open Exhibition of the Society of Wildlife Artists at the Mall Gallery in London in September. This exhibition always maintains a very high standard so competion for acceptance is very tough, anyway nothing ventured etc.

Puffins

Cute and deadly

Stoats

The Grouse moors and high meadows in North Yorkshire are alive with new life at this time of year with Red Grouse and the visiting seashore waders who have been with us since spring all busy trying to distract attention away from their young. The other evening I was enjoying the late afternoon sun and watching the antics of the parent birds. I had intended to visit a spot where I knew  golden plovers regularly nest; hoping to hear what must be the most heartbreaking of bird calls, they are surely happier than they sound. As I made my way along the road a family of red grouse exploded from the heather by the road and made for deeper cover, all except one youngster who apparently had learning difficulties, he proceeded to run in front of me for so long I was able to get a photograph. Sadly my golden plovers were missing but I enjoyed the walk. On the way back I had put my camera away because the light was fading when I saw; about fifty yards in front of me; two stoats tumbling around on the road, I nipped over (that doesn’t quite describe the level of difficulty) the wall and using that for cover was able to get level with them before peeking over the wall. These two were obviously having a great time playing tag and I was able to watch unobserved for some time and get some photographs. Despite being delighted to observe this playful interlude, it occured to me that these charming animals would take a heavy toll of the young birds I had seen that evening. I have often seen the traps the gamekeepers set to control the numbers of these efficient hunters and I must say I understand the need to manage predation but resent the tendency of some gamekeepers to adopt a scorched earth policy to anything remotely conflicting with ground nesting birds. I applaud the holistic approach of some enlightened estates who determine the number of  birds of prey an area can sustain and set about managing the BOP population. I am not a great fan of reintroducing every animal who ever lived in this part of the world (beaver, wild boar etc.) but I am all for protecting existing bio-diversity.

Divers and Puffins

BoatI have spent a couple of weeks in the highlands of Scotland and have returned with some great material all fired up and ready to start painting. I always seem to find inspiration whenever I go there. This time I enjoyed some great weather and made the most of it. I had wanted to visit Loch Maree on the north west coast since watching a documentary on the wildlife of the region on television. I knew that you couldn’t just turn up and see the elusive birds the film makers spend a year filming but ever the optimist off I went. The terrain is wild and spectacular and en route to Loch Maree I drove along the edge of a smaller inland loch and spotted a Red Throated Diver. I parked the car and though I was tempted to get out and get closer I knew that one of the best hides is a car and if I got out it would probably scare it off. So there I was drinking tea from my flask and watching this lovely diver serenley swimming in front of me. I apologise for the quality of the photograph but it was early and the light was poor but it was a great experience.

After my trip to the west coast I returned to Banffshire on the Moray coast to visit Troup Head and it’s colonies of sea birds. I had the pleasure of viewing the birds aboard a cracking little boat named the Puffin. John, the skipper and June his wife do everything in their power to get you as close as possible to the birds and we were fortunate to see Dolphins and Seals as a bonus, although the real bonus was the tea and biscuits June served on the way back to Macduff.

Frozen Bird at Christmas

The title of the blog does not refer to Christmas Turkey but rather the wild birds who are struggling in this weather, I have spent the last few weeks (it was meant to be two weeks but we got stranded) at a cottage in the Scottish Highlands, and was struck by the harsh conditions our wildlife had to survive. I did my bit with feeders and water etc. but as I left I wondered how they would cope when the supplies I left ran out.

WoodcockOne of the consequences of this extreme weather is how visible even shy birds become. When walking round the cottage I flushed several Snipe and Woodcock which is not usual in this area. The sight of Partridge and Pheasant is something we see regularly but I have never experienced high numbers of Woodcock close to the village before. As they are largely nocturnal I was able to see them foraging close to the road every night and even started taking photographs as they clearly did not consider the car a threat. I have included a photo which while it is of poor quality; was taken at 11.00 at night from the car.

I have just completed a painting of Red Grouse and am currently painting Red Legged Partridge so a painting of a Woodcock will follow after that, I was certainly very taken with these little guys.

Joys of Winter

WoodpeckerIn fact the joys are somewhat offset by lower light levels and shorter days. This lack of natural light means painting in artificial light and personally, I have always found this difficult. That apart it is the contrast afforded by the seasons which makes this country such a wonderful place to live.

As autumn gives way to winter the birds visiting the feeders in my garden are more visible and bolder, we have always been fortunate with the variety of visitors. One of the most regular are Woodpeckers and although they muscle off the finches and tits; the peanuts are attacked so forcefully that the ‘shrapnel’ flies everywhere and the other birds wait below to pick up the scraps. As I watch them I wonder if the juvenile born last spring and who found his way into the kitchen, is among them. I came into the kitchen and found him flapping against one of the windows. I wrapped him in a towel and released him at the back door, he appeared to be unaffected by the experience. I have just completed a painting of a Brown Hare and it will feature on the web site fairly soon, it makes a pleasant change to paint an animal WITHOUT feathers and I have other mammals lined up for the future.

A Harris Hawk named Blade

People are interested in how a painting develops so when I was commissioned to paint a juvenile Harris Hawk I photographed the painting as it evolved and hopefully this will shed some light on my own creative process. In this instance I was unable to see the hawk and worked entirely from the owners photographs, this is not how I normally work but as the photographs were of a good standard I felt OK about taking the job.

Harris Hawk early stages

The first stage involves a careful drawing which is transferred onto the prepared board.

The next image illustrates that I have worked the eyes and head to an advanced stage and largely ignored the rest of the bird. This is unusual as I normally rough in the bulk of the painting before attempting a finished look, but as I was using a photograph as my only reference, I wanted to establish the colour of the plumage at an early stage.

Harris Hawk final touches

Now that I am happy with the colouring of the plumage on the head of Blade, the painting is blocked in to etablish colour values and remove the distraction of white board.

Scottish Safari

I was commisioned to paint a Scottish Wildcat some time ago but until recently lacked the opportunity to photograph or sketch said elusive feline. I recently visited the Grampian region, my favourite area of Scotland and made the time to visit the Highland Wildlife Park at Kincraig. What a terrific place this is, not only did I get my material on wildcats but I saw the three new Amur tiger cubs recently born there. I had some difficulty in photographing the wildcats as the cages are in a wooded setting and consequently very dark, added to this the wildcats don’t exactly pose! Anyway I ramped up the ISO setting to 1600 on my camera and stuck it up against the cage to’ lose’ the wire mesh and over the course of two hours; did the best I could. The cats look quite a bit beefier than your standard Tabby, particularly the male (called Elvis would you believe). The finished painting will feature on my web site as soon as the customer sees it.

Squirrel Cat

After getting my wildcat mission sorted I visited the Huntly Peregrine Wildwatch Centre at Bin Forest on the A96 in Aberdeenshire. This place was even more enjoyable than the Wildlife Park, I visited it on four occasions and not only do they have a resident pair of Peregrines, the super hide gives a terrific view of all kinds of birds and wildlife including Red Squirrels, guess what my next painting will be of. The staff there are very good and are happy to provide all the background information you could wish for. Binoculars and telescopes are readily available and it is a wonderful place for families to visit.

Peregrines have been in this quarry for over twenty five years now, even during the period when it was an army firing range. Admission is free but quite frankly I would have been happy to pay for the enjoyable time I spent there. Check out their web site www.forestry.gov.uk/huntlyperegrines.

Another Falconry Fair!

Since the last posting on my blog I have doubled my experience of Falconry Fairs by showing at the International Falconry Fair in Reading. This fair was really quite spectacular and with participants coming from all corners of the world (literally) it was a terrific week-end. Many of the vistors were dressed in their respective national costumes and the colourful parades and demonstrations made for an enjoyable week-end. The event is largely sponsored by the Royal Family of the United Arab Emirates with their long history of falconry and their presence underpinned the whole event.

Falconry Fair

I felt we learned a lot from our first experience at Chetwyn Park and this time we relied on table easles to display the paintings, this certainly worked better and overall we fared better than last time. There were many fine artists at this event and we met several whose work I had often admired, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience in fact we were sorry when the event was over and we set off home.

Visit to the Falconry Fair

The Falconry Fair over the Bank Holiday was my first foray into the world of face to face retail and it was really great. We had lots of positive feedback and met some really nice people. Carl and Joanne Bass were in the next pitch and were really helpful and generous with their advice, Carl is a fine wildlife artist artist and I was grateful for his encouragement. I expected to learn a lot and I did!  We have already signed up for a pitch at the Falconry Festival in Reading in July and hope to be better prepared for that. Anyway now that my first fair is out of the way I can get back to the business of painting wildlife. We had a pair of Siskins visiting the garden a couple of weeks ago and they were so bold I was able to get some good photographs and will make this my next subject.