autumn birds

Today I painted an illustration of one of my favourite autumn migrant species: a Fieldfare. It was really blustery and rainy today as we were in the middle of a Storm (rather than a storm) and although it had lost a lot of its energy by the time it reached the southeast corner of England where I am, it was still enough to lash the trees around a bit and remind us that in spite of the warm calm weather we’ve had this past week, autumn has definitely landed.

I often see Fieldfares and Redwings enjoying the berries on the uncut hedgerows near me – sadly many hedges are flailed at this time of year which is such a shame as it lops off not only all the fruit, but also many butterfly eggs. Female Brimstones and Hairstreaks lay their eggs on this year’s leaves and twigs so the caterpillars hatch near to food in spring, but these are precisely the ones that get cut when the hedge is trimmed. I don’t think it’s going to be a great year for hedgerow fruits as the cold and rainy spring will have affected the pollinators, but these thrushes love fallen apples so hopefully there will be gardens or wilding trees with some extra bounty for them.

I pencilled outlines for both a Fieldfare and a Redwing then managed to get black marks over both of them. Still, I have to clean them up in Photoshop so it doesn’t really matter. I don’t sell many originals these days as I don’t go to art fairs like I used to, so my paintings are primarily used in the birdwatching logbooks.

Tomorrow I can finish him off, scan him in and pop him into Town & Country Garden Birds. I’m aiming to redo a lot of my illustrations just to ring the changes in the logbooks and I’m gradually working my way through.

Have you seen any autumn migrant species yet?