Some more illustrations for the children's book on animal digestion:

Fresian cow with dung beetle (Geotrupes vernalis) (top), and eating grass, below

Here are some new illustrations for a children's book on animal digestion. Each species will have several images, including images of the food a paricular animal eats, illustrations showing it eating, and then the creature's poo. All very lovely for the 5-8 year old target market!


Tawny Owl & Wood mouse


Tawny owl with pellet

Male Great-spotted Woodpecker, 20 January 2010

I finally managed to grab a couple of shot of this bird yesterday, only the second time one has visited the garden in 7 years. Unlike the first bird that lingered about 30seconds, this individual has been around most days since late last week. Hopefully he'll continue to visit and I'll be able to take some better shots and make some sketches.

Yarrow Valley Park, Lancs, January 2010

A couple of shots following a morning spent sketching snow and river scenes at a local country park.
Hopefully I'll be able to work these sketches up to some finished paintings later in the year.

Fieldfare in the garden, 13/01/10






Yesterday saw some interesting visitors to the garden, inlcuing this obliging Fieldfare which spent a couple of hours feeding on the apples I have left out. It wasn't so cold during the day, temperateures about zero, but we also had a great spotted woodpecker (first! for the garden) feeding on a fallen suet ball, and also a brief pheasant.

Today (Thusrday), the fieldfare has returned, and at one point there was were 4 thrust species within view (mistle, song, blackbird and fieldfare). Fantastic! These photos aren't so clear as they were digiscoped through the study window, but even so, I'm pretty happy with them.