Many sea birds expose the inside of their mouth in their courtship displays. The Gannet’s mouth is surprisingly black, the Kittiwake’s carmine red, while the Shag’s is yellow, with intense yellow spots on their jaws contrasting with their black, iridescent and scaly green feathers. Add to this the odd tuft of feathers that they can raise or flatten at will and their bottle-green eyes and they may look either elegant or truly comical, but decidedly reptilian. I was inspired to draw these Shags after reading Adam Nicholson’s ‘The Seabird Cry, which I recommend, with beautiful and simple illustrations by Kate Boxer. I took many photos of shags in the Farne Islands a few years ago, some of an incubating individual, panting in the sun, very close to us. Pencil, watercolour and ink on my Wacom tablet.
I watched Goldeneyes displaying and courting a few days back at Far Ings, a Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust Nature Reserve. Goldeneyes males and females engage in eye catching displays even at their wintering quarters, and this is one of the most striking. The males throwing their heads back while keeping their heads quite stilted. They also call at the end of the display, which I have represented on the drawing. Watercolour and pencil on my Wacom tablet.
I was lucky enough recently to see some Little Owls in the Yorkshire Wolds. One of them sat on an old, gnarled oak, well camouflaged. The only give-away its rounded silhouette in the fading light. It stared to the camera, unsure, before flying off. Watercolour and Pencil on Wacom tablet.
