In 2011, I persuaded Dad to let me video him while he drew the garden birds coming to the bird feeder outside his dining room window. This bird feeder was a magnet for all the small birds in the area, and regularly attracted a wide variety of species. Sitting in comfort at the dining room table he made many, many sketches and drawings.
In Lines from Nature he wrote, “Watching rivalry and the way species relate to each other is entertaining. Only the long-tailed tits allow close feeding together, and as I write, there are ten clustered on the nut feeder, heads touching as they eat, and tails pointing at all angles. When they perch on the wires, they resemble crotchets and quavers on a musical stave… I never tire of drawing them.”