Preview of new original paintings 2015

I
had a family of weasels living in my back garden so I made nesting chambers and
feeding boxes which I  surrounded by
natural stones or roots and I installed ten surveillance cameras to track their
movements around the garden. This is one of the male kits emerging from its
nest.

I
saw this fox one winter coming out of a stack of straw

bales. I parked my car and followed it on foot
down a bank of a canal.  The fox stopped
and I watched it listening face down in the snow; it then pounced into the air
plunging head first into the snow after a vole or a mouse. It missed and went
on its way. I looked at where it had pounced and there in the deep snow was a
perfect face print of a fox!

I
spent several days in deep snow watching five short eared owls hunting for
voles in a valley on the Yorkshire Wolds. I was amazed how they could dive into 18” of snow to catch their prey. I was dressed in a white ski suit to disguise my
presence as they hunted.

I
was photographing hares on a snow-covered field hoping to capture them boxing
in the snow. The mist came down and I was surrounded by white. I heard a grey
partridge calling, it was getting louder each call it made – then a single partridge
came out of the mist towards me. A weak sun came through the mist and lit up
the bird as it called; it kept running and calling, looking for the rest of the
covey before it vanished into the mist.

I lifted this old elm stump into a tree near my house to make a natural nest box. Kestrels and tawny owls have used it in the past to nest in but 2015 was the first year in which a barn owl used it. The male barn owl overthrew a pair of kestrels which were going to nest there, it was an hour long battle but eventually the barn owl won. This is the female which arrived two hours after the male’s fight with the kestrel. It was very interesting watching the barn owls meeting for the first time.

I had a family of stoats living in the garden and this one found the branch where I feed my local kestrels. I love how mischievous they are; sometimes they would push the kestrels off the food and pinch it, they always won, even though the kestrels were reluctant to leave their food.

There are only approximately six hundred Galapagos greater flamingos left and they are never seen en masse. I was lucky enough to see two males having a power struggle for dominance, the one that gets their head highest wins!



For more of my original paintings or for more information please call 01759 368355 or click here to see my website.