Dippers
104 days ago
It’s always a good feeling to be out and about early. I may not feel like it – getting-up at times – especially if I’ve to get in a car, because that generally means a long journey and perhaps a business meeting at the end of it.
Not this morning though, it was easy. I woke early anyway and Rufus (always eager to be out-and-about) and I set-off to the beck for a visit at the other end of the day for a change. The reward was finding a pair of Dipper.
Earlier I’ve mentioned that the Dipper seems to have died out around here, so I was pleased to find them. Although, at first I thought it was the noisy Kingfishers – as the Dipper’s song is a tuneful warbling. Maybe this meeting was a couple at the edges of their respective, clearly defined boundaries and they were exchanging pleasantries, or maybe it was a family discussion. Either way, it’‘s good to know they’re still with us.
Wren and Mangle
190 days ago
Pencil drawing taken from reference in an old Laundry that was sadly almost derelict.
The building had somehow escaped listing and therefore was just falling to pieces and the vandals had got in and smashed the remaining steamers/sinks etc., apparently, Beamish Museum had been interested at one time.
Life Returns
301 days ago
It’s been a weary place, plodding along through the soaked grass – bent to the inclement wind, when walking the beck of late – so thought I’d amuse myself with a heron sketch or three.
But now there are signs of life, with the first pair of Oyster Catchers returning on the 5th to keep the lonely Heron company.
He’s normally stood hopefully out in the meadows looking juicy morsels, as the river’s been bursting with thick muddy water and Rufus takes great delight in stalking him.
(I make many references to the beck throughout this blog, but I’ll just one common GeoTag link – and I promise not to overuse it!)
Kingfishers
649 days ago
Saw the Kingfishers again yesterday, well to be more accurate they started to ‘chee’ me loudly when I got close to their stretch of the river.
As I haven’t seen them for a while, I’m guessing they do move further downstream or out towards the coast in winter, although it hasn’t been that hard this year. With the changing climate, they may well be a species that benefits from a warmer winter, especially on the Scottish rivers.
I see that Britain is still behind on it’s Kyoto targets, with the increase in coal electricity generation and in the Northern Hemisphere, January has been the warmest since records began more than 125 years ago. But are the two directly linked? – the great debate rages on. With the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report last month finding global climate change to be “very likely” or at least 90% certain that human emissions of greenhouse gases rather than natural variations are warming the planet’s surface, this latest bit of data does not point the finger directly at us humans, but at a moderate El Niño feeding the global trend.
There is still the occassional (and now regarded as controversial) theory about, that suggests our recent climate change has been caused by natural influences and not us, by comparing data from Mars missions. Could there be something in this? There are undeniable natural trends to our planets weather, but you get the feeling pumping out do many greenhouse gasses aint going to help the situation one bit.
Walking the beck
654 days ago
Well, the beck is nearly back up to strength on bird species variety, with a very good showing of Teal.
The Kingfishers haven’t appeared yet, but generally it is getting quite noisy with the Oyster Catchers, Sandpipers, Lapwing and Curlew, with Wagtails twittering around.
Sketched a Blackbird road casualty for a future painting of the birds that used to (and probably still do) feed on the vines in some old glasshouses I knew. They shot in whenever the doors where opened and attacked the grapes from below.
Snow and Cranes
700 days ago
The first snow flurries of the season have just arrived here, must say I’ve been looking forward to it and I hope we get a good covering for a while. The last few days have been superb and the night frosts have been welcome as well – helping kill the bugs and allowing farmers to spread slurry – but it’s driven away the wading type birds from the beck.
I saw this story about some Cranes being killed by storms in Florida, on the National Geographic site. The were being “escorted” – led by microlight – and is quite a blow to the endangered Whooping Crane population, with only 1 out of 18 surviving out of the dubbed “Class of 2006”.
This story reminded me of a French guy Christian Moullec who started a quest to save the lesser white-fronted goose by leading them from Lapland to Holland. What a fantastic idea, now for me, that would be something amazing to get involved with – flying and conservation!
The giraffe painting is progressing (and the new kitchen!) – just a rough sketch here of the ‘subliminal’ idea behind the painting…
Christmas Cards 2007
820 days ago
Yep, it’s that time of year again and I’m thinking about this year’s card as I’ve been getting the nudge from folks.
White and wild me thinks…
So, the Snowy Owl. Actually haven’t painted one yet, but have had some very good reference for a number of years now.
Roughed out here is a general layout and I shall now crack on with the painting.
I’m spending less and less time drawing out prior to getting into the canvas and then letting the painting itself develop. Yes, I have a good mental image of what I want it to look like in the end, but you know things change!
These birds used to be sighted on the Shetland and Orkney Islands, having been recorded as nesting on Fetlar in 1967, but since then they’ve been a very rare visitor, probably only then because of the spreading out of birds after the breeding season.
Besides their main diet of lemming, they feed on a variety of birds and hare (which gives rise to their Swedish name Harfang) and because daylight is continuous within the Arctic Circle during much of the summer nesting season, they have adapted to be diurnal. I’m going to portray a male bird, because he is mainly white and in country containing a mixture of habitats to reflect their varied food intake.
Kinloch Hourn
1204 days ago
A fine week was had and that was not only the weather, it was so good to get back to the west coast again – a view of the head of Loch Beag and the accommodation
and west to Loch Hourn over Loch Beag
Dining off the fruit of the land sea (OK, so I wasn’t having much luck with the fly – well my excuse is there were no woman present to tie them on – and I’m sticking to it). With convivial company (many thanks for your hospitality as always Martin) if only there wasn’t that confounded “Seagull” chirping-in at dinner parties… always wonder what the other guests went away thinking?
Martin pointed me towards a convenient Munro (Gleouraich) on the way out, a stretch of the legs before driving back to Yorkshire. Rufus (my Vizsla) doing a good job of finding the Red Deer Ptarmigan for me on the way up.
First pencil and oil studies of a male Ptarmigan, a brace of which I saw at about 800m up Gleouraich, will work it up to a finished paining, erm when I get around to it!
Back home, evidently the summer is still here as the Swallows still are – in fact a few had enough energy to mob a Sparrow Hawk this afternoon.
Here comes the rain
1232 days ago
Couldn’t find a Curlew or Sand Martin as the rain moved in, seemingly to draw an end to the summer. The Swallows – all ganged up – were feeding at zero level over the pasture, appearing almost to be perched on the grass in the breeze ahead of the rain.
The river seems very subdued now, sure the Heron screeches off at my approach, but the Wagtails are left to quietly bob about their business.
Back in Yorkshire
1250 days ago
As I’m now back in my native Yorkshire and have a bit more time to paint, I’m getting stuck into the mountains of reference I got from a fabulous RGS visit to Namibia – here’s a pencil sketch of a Desert Elephant in the Huab ephemeral river valley – just before they set off across the desert! As it was my first trip to Africa, I think I was very privileged to see these animals crossing such vast dry plains.
Lowther Show today..
