Blog Post January 2023 by Wendy Dobing

Posted on January 08, 2023 at 04.58 PM

 It's all cheaps and quackers!

Partly inspired by the Big Garden Birdwatch that takes places every year, I decided to focus on bird illustrations this month. I'm obsessed with them anyway so it wasn't difficult! The little ones we normally see in the garden seem to be different to the ones I used to see when I was a child. Back then there seemed to be a lot more blackbirds, sparrows and bluetits (maybe not much else). Now it seems to be more the norm to see wood pigeons, robins, great tits, bright green parakeets (always an interesting one to watch for round here but they're difficult to capture. They're also SO noisey!), crows and magpies. I've been lucky enough to see a few goldfinches too but they seem to still be quite rare.

My favourites will always be blue tits, robins and goldfinches for their colours. They are nature's special (and cute) gifts to us. I'll never tire of seeing them play together as they fly from tree to tree, swooping fast doing their mini aerial play fights. Robins are odd ones, it's like they know you. Some people even think they're spirits of the dead. There's the saying "when robins appear, loved ones are near". In reality robins are very territorial, in addition to being opportunistic feeders. Basically they follow larger animals hoping to find food. Where there's a gardener there's always a robin nearby watching closely for the chance of a juicy worm. I think they're also just plain nosey!

Colours are my thing so I've looked at the mallard and the toucan too. There's so many birds out there I don't think I'll run out of subject matter any time soon!