P is for… Pochard, Peregrine chasing Red Grouse and Puffins on Fidra
A winter visitor, the pochard feeds on seeds, waterweed, snails and other aquatic invertebrates below the water’s surface, so quite appropriately seen here underwater.
The peregrine is very much a bird of the air. This one is an illustration in Lines from Nature (p 110), where John notes, “On this occasion the red grouse escaped the peregrine by landing and running into a narrow stream gully.”
Puffins could be said to be birds of the earth, for their habit of nesting in burrows. Here they are on Fidra, a small island in the Firth of Forth with the Bass Rock in the background.
see also Avocets to Egrets (A,B,C,D,E) Fairy Terns to Jackass Penguins (F,G,H,I,J) Kentish Plovers to Ospreys (K,L,M,N,O) and the tailenders (U,V,W,XYZ)
Q is for… Quarff Meadows, Shetland
Yes I found a Q! Sadly no quail or quelea, but an illustration from A Naturalist’s Shetland of the grasslands around Quarff on Mainland
R is for… Red kite, Redwing and a Rufus-chested Dotterel
All things carmine today with an acrobatic Red Kite, a winter visitor to our fields and hedgrows, the Redwing and an alert Rufus-chested Dotterel drawn during a trip to the Falkland Islands. This one is an illustration in Land Marks and Sea Wings (p.129).
S is for… a sunlit swallow, Shags and Razorbills and a Scops Owl
Three perching birds today. As we head for darker winter nights what a lovely reminder of summer, a swallow with a ‘halo’ of sunshine. The shag on the other hand looks like it was drawn on a damp November day while the Scops Owl appears to be perched in a dry, desert landscape. Perhaps the only time you might see these maddeningly elusive owls with their loud, insistent and not-quite-regular ‘hoot’ when you are trying to sleep.
T is for …Tigers, Tree sparrows and Ptarmigan (!)
Wonderful tigers, drawn on a trip to Northern India with the Artists for Nature Foundation. In Lines from Nature John wrote, “Bye and bye I found myself in an Indian jungle facing a tiger, but safe the the back of an elephant…Tigers are powerful. One is grateful the the size and strength of an elephant and accepts the limitations. With time limited to ten minutes, does one draw or just watch? Instinctively I react as an artist, I make marks.”
In early 1946, when he was 17, John won the RSPB’s Junior Bird Recorders’ Club annual drawing competition. He told me once it was with a picture of a sparrow dust-bathing. Then very common, both the tree- and house sparrow have been declining in numbers for decades.
The ptarmigan is also difficult to spot. Not only do you have to venture into the wilds of Scotland, but it is a master of camouflage; snow-white in winter and rock-grey in summer.
see also Avocets to Egrets (A,B,C,D,E) Fairy Terns to Jackass Penguins (F,G,H,I,J) Kentish Plovers to Ospreys (K,L,M,N,O) and the tailenders (U,V,W,XYZ)