Bluebells

This morning I started off the day compiling a replacement ID sign for the Aquarium. I had an email from Jonny yesterday to say that the Picasso Triggerfish had died, from old age, and that there were no plans to have another triggerfish brought in to replace him. So the ID for this species would need to be removed and replaced  with a revised one showing just the two other occupants of the tank a blue grouper and a porcupine pufferfish.The ID file for this tank was of the Quark format so I had to copy the info across onto an Illustrator file. Once printed, and trimmed to size, I went across to the Aquarium to meet Jonny to get it up on show.

The rest of the morning was filled with bits and pieces; Phil had been to the fortnightly OPs meeting (as usual) and on his return ran through the news and information from it. I also fiddled some more with the spider illustration - having now changed my mind a little on how I was going to do the background. More of that in another post, when I have got something to show.

Before lunch I needed to make a decision. Was I going to take a chance with the weather and get myself out to Hollywood Towers this afternoon. The bluebells are all out and looking lovely, apparently, so I would really like to get out there to get some photo's and do some more sketches. As explained in my other blog Phil allows Anna and I to have one morning/afternoon a fortnight to work on projects. For Anna it's photography  - she is doing a behind the scenes series of photos of the zoo, staff at work, animals, events etc. I use my half day for sketching whatever I want- not a choice I usually have with regards to my subject matter at the zoo. So it's really good to be able to choose what I'd like to sketch. I started off doing sketches of animals around the zoo, but for the last year I have concentrated my efforts on The Hollywood Towers Estate. This is owned by the zoo and is just outside of Bristol and there are plans to develop it into The National Wildlife Conservation Park.  

I have been going out there when I can, on my sketching morning/afternoons, to take photos and do a few sketches around the estate as a kind of archive of it before the development takes it over.

As the rain was holding off around lunch time I decided to take the chance and go. I had my cold and wet weather gear so I should be fine, it was whether the light would be good enough to photograph the bluebells well, that was concerning me.

The afternoon passed by pleasantly.. a bit of rain and a few moments of lovely glittery sunshine in the wet woodland. As I walked across the field towards the wood when I first arrived I spotted a male pheasant and then I startled three roe deer females that were browsing in the hedge fence line.

Needless to say they sprinted away as I approached, but I did managed to get some photos...

They still look quite scruffy, as they moult out their winter coats. I saw two other roe deer, both bucks (may have been the same one), their heads carrying the upright rounded prongs of their antlers in velvet. I didn't get any photo's of them as they were too quick and in the woodland they disappeared from view within a second or two.

My first sketch was at the bottom of one of the main tracks leading into the wood. The wood is a long thin ribbon covering, and following, a steep slope running around the edge of several fields on the higher level and down to more fields on the lower level. Since my last visit at the beginning of March it has changed qutie a bit in that everywhere is greening up with fresh bright colour. The ground is a carpet of green leaves of varying shapes and now intermingled with them are bluebells. One or two in places and patches in others.  The air is noticeably scented with ramsons (wild garlic) and the trees are starting to fill out their bare branches with newly sprouted leaves.

I sat on my lovely seat under a big black umbrella to sketch. I got very cold last time I was here, but my bubblewrap is my secret weapon... it's great for keeping in body heat, so with a sheet of bubblewrap over my lap and round my legs I kept warm and dry.

This is the scene I was looking at - the photo was taken in a brief moment when the sun broke through the clouds. I actually enjoyed sitting there in the rain, listening to the birds around me as I dabbled with m'paints.

And this was my one hour sketch. I used a waterproof ink pen first to draw the details and then added watercolour. I make notes around my sketches of what I can see, hear, smell as an added record of the time the sketch was done.

I moved on round the line of the wood towards the east side of the estate looking for the splendid bluebell swathes I had been told about. I found several patches which I stopped to photo and sketch but I think the main carpeting of them was futher on and I didn't have time to get round to them. I hope I can see them on my next visit, hopefully in a fortnight's time.

I found a potentially nice little sketch scene of some bluebells set against the dark form of a wet fallen tree. I decided this time to go straight in with the paint and not to do any drawing to start with. Rather be about form, I wanted to try and capture the colour.
This sketch was done in about half an hour.

All too soon it was approaching 5pm (home time the staff on site at the estate) so I had to make my way quickly back to the car so that Mike, Horticulture Manager, could lock up and go home. I had parked in the compound by the greenhouses which needs to be locked, so I had to get back to move my car. Had I done what I have done previously and taken the gate key and driven round into the estate middle and parked up near the old walled garden of the manor house, I could have taken my time on leaving and dropped the keys into Mike's house (on the estate) before I left. On my hurried way back, as I crossed the fields, I saw a very handsome male pheasant with two light coloured females. It was lashing down with rain and they were too far away to get a photo of any worth. I cursed myself for parking where I did and must remember not to do that again... the best of the wildlife is usually seen as the light fails towards the end of the afternoon.... a time not to hurry! 

Pink toes

Eddie from Maintenance called round to the studio not long after 9am this morning - he had already moved the okapi posts and board across to its new position. All that was needed now was to fix the interpretation panel back in. I went down to the end of the okapi paddock with him to check on the position and height of the board and to help him put the interp panel in. The board was just a little too high, so I got him to cut a further 3" off the bottom of each post so that the board sat as close to the top of the railing as it would go.Then with a couple of screws the panel was fixed into place and job done. He departed for his next job down at the Lemur Walk Through and I returned to the studio. 

I laminated the sign I printed yesterday, to go in Twilight World, and  took it across, thinking I could just put it straight up. Unfortunately the 'dark' light was off over the sign's position and it was pitch black in that section of the underground area without it. There was no way I could see if, when I replaced the sign, it would be put up straight or not. So I went looking for a keeper around the back of the house. Simon, the Overseer in Twilight World, let me in and we went to have a look at the light situation. Seems the bulb had gone so with the aid of the torch he handily had with him I could remove the old sign and replace it easily. He said he would get the light sorted, so I left that for him to see to.

Back in the studio I started on the drawing of the Antilles pink toed spider. First I draw in the shape of the spider  - I find this fairly easy to do with spiders and some other invertebrates as their body structure is so nicely put together and 'blocky'. Almost like putting it gether with bricks and each brick falls easily into place by the last one.

  

Once I had it blocked in and was happy with the proportions, leg lengths etc I then started going back over it, carefully drawing in each leg segment shape length of hair. 

 

 

In between we had a mini 'brainstorm' session over the zoo's latest summer attraction - which will be animatronic dinosaurs. The Graphics Department - mainly Anna, is doing the signage and we had a little fun thinking up some silly versions of  various amenity signs like 'keep off the grass' and 'Emergency exit'.

In the afternoon I also started on the painting of the spider - as this is a spider which will go up trees I am putting the critter on a large branch... keeping the bark simple and light to show up the darker fine hairs on the legs and body. I have got as far as putting on a background colour (blue) and tracing my drawing into position and then carefully blacking in the shape, ensuring I leave little 'tell' lines for the segment divisions etc.

Back to the drawing board

Emails from the end of last week and the weekend included one from Joe, Maintenance Manager, and Kate, Overseer on the bird section.

The one from Kate relates to the ruff we have in the Flamingo Paddock. The breeding plumage is really showing now and, in the males, this is a flambouyant ruff of feathers around the neck which can be raised to form a frame around the head. I have been keeping an eye on the males progress on their plumage change for a few weeks now as I had noticed the different colouration of the ruff feathers starting to show. Kate's email was to tell me that one has changed significantly enough now to warrant a change of their ID sign. This is the only species in the zoo that we have two ID signs for to show plumage at different times of the year as it is the only bird we have, in which this change is significant enough for some visitors to think it is a different species.

The ruff breeding plumage ID file was in Quark software, so I needed to change it across to Illustrator software, and then once I had two copies printed and laminated, I took them up to the Flamingo Paddock to swap them over with the ruff non-breeding plumage ID.

Joe's email related to the okapi interpretation panels that I began moving last week. Eddie, one of the maintenance guys, came over and I went with him to show what needed moving to where. There are two thick wood posts that need to be sawn off at ground level (they are concreted into the ground) and then the board and posts need to be taken to the end of the new okapi paddock where the posts need to be sawn to length and then cable-tied to the railings securely before I can rescrew the interp panel back in place over the board that sits between the two posts. He said he'd come back after 2pm to do the job.

Most of the rest of the day was taken up with the tailless whip scorpion. It had been decided that the ID sign for this species that is going in the underground section of our nocturnal house would have a picture, but rather than the full painted illustration it would have just my original drawing on it. This means stopping any further painting to the illustration I was doing for this species and just using my drawing. However to fit in with the present signage in this area I would need to convert my pencil drawing into a silhouette. So after carefully enhancing my drawing by going over the main lines to make them more solid and clear, I scanned the drawing and converted it to a greyscale then to a bitmap image. Basically converting to bitmap makes the lines either black or white, no tonal qualities so it then becomes a black line drawing on a white background. I then magnified the image so I could see individual pixels and made sure there were no gaps in the lines that each one was strong and continuous. Then using the bucket tool I filled the animal shape in with solid black colour. Once done I then reversed the image so that it became a white animal silhouette on a black background.

The signage in the underground area is backlit and up until now comprised solely of species common/scientific name and a small block of text. Each sign is a different 'freeflow' shape so that it fits into 'holes' on the 'rock' that the area is decorated to imitate. I opened up the previous ID file for the enclosure that the tailless whip scorpions were due to go in, duplicated the file and then changed the names and text to that of the whip scorpion. Then I added the silhouette that I had made and juggled things slightly to get it to fit into the limited shape and space that I had to play with.

Once done I printed a rough copy and went across to Twilight World to check the sign in position to make sure all the text and the silhouette could be seen. All was ok, so now I just wait until the animals are in and I can print a proper copy off to put in place when needed.

Whilst in the area I noticed that one of the other text signs was hard to read in the lighting levels... it's a nocturnal house so it is pretty dark in places. Back in the studio I printed off a copy of the sign but made it lager so that the text should be easier to read. I will laminate it tomorrow and I'll put it up then too.

I had gone across to the end of the okapi paddock at 2 pm and waited for Eddie from Maintenance to arrive to sort the last of the okapi boards out. I was stood there about 15 mins when Anna, my co-worker, came out to tell me that Eddie was on another job. Hopefully, we'll pick that up again tomorrow and get it done.

It was lovely to see both the male and female okapi out in their new paddocks today. As it is right by the building I work in, I'll get to see more of them as I pass by, going here and there. It was brought home to me earlier, just how lucky I was to see them, when I was talking to a visitor as I had waited for Eddie. She was older than me and had never seen an okapi before. It's easy when you work somewhere that has a rare animal to forget just how precious it is to see it. When visitors have never seen something before, like the okapi, and you hear them talk of it and notice their reaction in their voices and faces... it just brings it home how lucky I am to see such animals most days I work there. Both Rubani and Lodja looked calm and quite settled in their new surroundings and were both studiously stripping leaves off of trees and bushes through the fence. It won't be long before their long tongues have nabbed every leaf within reach.

Spanner in the works

It was back to the tailless whip scorpion today... tidying the outline where I had to repaint the background yesterday. Whilst that was drying I checked my emails. The text for the Asian glossy starling Aplonis panayensis was sent through by Rose, one of the Education Officers, so I was able to copy and drop it onto the ID file. Then I printed 3 copies and put them aside, safe, ready for when the birds are in the aviary and I can laminate, hole punch and put them on display.

There was a call from Ryan in Marketing and unusually he wanted to talk to me instead of Anna or Phil, who do a lot of work for the Marketing Department. He was after some photos of a Von Der Deckens hornbill and a kea, both species we have at the zoo, but which he could not find a suitable photo for what he wanted. So he was asking if I had any in my collection from when I take reference photos etc. I had none at work so I will check my photo library at home.

John, the Senior Curator of Mammals, popped up to the studio this morning to let us know that they had moved both the okapis across successfully and uneventfully this morning. All had gone much better than planned it seems; a testament to all the preparation work over the last few weeks done by the animal keepers to prepare Lodja and Rubani (our two okapis) for the move. So the up shot of this was that I was clear to remove the interpretation panels both inside and out of the previous okapi enclosure and as the okapis were being kept in, to allow them to settle, I had clear access to the new paddock area to put up the panels on the fencing.

So Anna and I went across to remove the name signs and interp panels and then put them up in their new positions. It takes two as the panels are attached to the fence by screws going through an aluminium strip one side of the fence and into the wood attached to the panel on the other forming a brace. The job was hampered slightly first by a couple of stubborn screws refusing to budge taking the signs down and then by our cordless screwdriver running out of umph as we put them back up!

I nipped back to the studio to get a normal screwdriver and put the other battery on charge ready for taking down the last panel this afternoon.

After lunch the battery was charged enough for me to go and remove the last okapi panel. This one is on a stand by the outside paddock. It didn't come apart as I thought it would as the wood sides on the panel were not only screwed but glued into place. So after some revised investigation of how it was put together I worked out how to get the panel off. Finding two other screws that acted as restraining bolts that once taken out, the panel could be slipped out of the back of the stand. I had help from Emily, a senior keeper, who was walking by as I struggled with my dismantling operation.

She left me to remove the last name sign holder; which due to rusty bolts, proved a little awkward. To remove both the panel and holder I had to climb over the rope fence on the walkway, jump across a gap to a small ledge of wet rock that a wire fence was attached to by posts. Then I had to sidle along the ledge of varying rocks, being careful not to rely on the fence at it was far from capable of holding my weight and behind it was a drop of about 4 foot down into the okapi paddock. Needless to say something had to go down there and after managing to get both jobs done I dropped a small spanner... yup, into the paddock.

Too far to reach and having no radio to call a nearby keeper to let me into the paddock, I surveyed the fence. It was just about high enough for me to climb over but to do so I would need to hold onto the fence and let it take my weight at some point... I didn't fancy the chances of that being a totally successful venture. So looking along the fence line I saw that further down it was lower on some higher rock. So I carefully worked my way along and climbed over and then carefully sidled back along the rock ledge outcrop on the other side to where the spanner lay.

Luckily there were some convenient footholds for me to climb down and back up again once I had retrieved the naughty spanner. Then I retraced my steps along the dodgy rock ledge and back over the fence, along the rock ledge on the other side and then back over the gap and rope fence. Gathering all my things it was time to head back to the studio.

I got back to painting the tailless whip scorpion and tried again to put in the beastie's shadow. Usually I have no problem getting the shadow more or less right - both colour and strength wise, but again I was having problems - just wasn't happy with what I kept laying down. So after the second failed attempt I was glad when Mark, Assistant Curator of invertebrates, rang to ask if it was convenient for him to pop over. Last week I had asked him to pop over when he had a few spare mins to help me identify the snail photo's I had taken. I needed to know what were the edible periwinkles, flat periwinkles and grey topshells, so I could file them in separate folders allowing me to pick the best shot for each.

As we were going through all the rock pool species making sure I had them in the right folders, Mark dropped into the conversation that two invert species were going to go on show in Twilight World (the nocturnal house). This included the tailless whip scorpion and they were to go in the cave area of the house - a section which has only backlit text to go with each species, no illustrations. Mark obviously wants the ID's to be illustrated but this would be different than what is provided for the other species. This is something I have no say in; Phil will make the decision on whether any new species going in should or should not have illustrations. So the tailless whip scorpion illustration has to be put on hold until that decision is made. Considering the problems I've been having with the shadow, perhaps something was telling me not to do too much work on this beastie yet!

Finally my last job for the day was resizing and positioning the relevant dietary symbols next to each rock pool species that Mark had given me the info for when he was in the studio earlier.

All done for this week... time to go home.

Okapi panels

Before I started back with the tailless whip scorpion this morning I had to sort out some signs in the Flamingo Paddock.

I had an email from one of the keepers saying that there was a 'blank' missing and could I replace it. In this covered paddock, which consists of a pool with an island and surrounding banks, lives 9 species of birds. The ID signs for birds have a salmon coloured background and the IDs are presented in metal ID holders. The Flamingo Paddock has 2 sets of three double holders, each holder accommodating 4 single bird IDs. As there are 9 species this means one holder has only one ID, so the other spaces are filled with 'blanks' (salmon coloured paper cut and laminated to the same size as the IDs) to be more aesthetically pleasing than just bare metal.

After making up some new blanks I popped across to the Flamingo Paddock to find that rather than a blank being missing, one ID had at some point come off and been put back over one of the blanks already there. So it was just a question of putting the ID back in its slot.

After sorting that I made my way to look at the okapi interpretation panels. On the way I stopped for a few minutes to watch the red pandas wandering their enclosure in the lovely sunshine. It looks as though the female could be in oestrus as the male was following hot on her heels and when she let him get close, trying his luck. Who knows, if they mate successfully, we could have baby red panda cubs sometime soon. Wouldn't that be grand.

I had to check the okapi panels to see if I could easily remove them. The okapis are moving to another enclosure as at present they share a building with the gorillas and this is being revamped to make more room for our growing gorilla group. So the okapis are moving to the paddock where the cassowaries were and it has been refurbished ready for them. The move happens tomorrow all being well, so the interp panels need to be moved to the new paddock area.

Because the okapis are animals easily spooked, great care is taken regarding when it will be ok for me to go in and remove the panels. So to minimise any negative impact my activity could have I have been in touch with John, the Senior Curator of Mammals, to arrange with him when it will be ok for me to do the job. I have also been in contact with Joe, Maintenance Manager, as I will need his guys to remove two posts on which one of the 4 interpretation panels sits. This will be moved to the new paddock area, so may need the posts shortening.

Having looked at all the panels I think I should have no problem removing them (although help will be needed on the 2 indoors, as they are attached to the 'stable's' fencing and needs one person each side to remove the panels.)

I returned to the studio and got on with the illustration whilst the battery for the cordless screwdriver was charging. I finished blocking in the shape of the beastie, leaving the finer shaping to be done as I paint in the details.


Then I started working on the abdomen and putting in the shadow. Sadly I messed up the shadow and as I was painting it out I noticed that unfortunately I had managed to dunk my nicely absorbent fleece sleeve in some wet paint... not just a small patch of wet paint but a big well full of the dark colour. It was the huge imprint from my arm on the lower half of the background and also on the drawing desk surface that gave it away! Argh!

After washing my sleeve out and cleaning off my desk, I then had to repaint the background going around my beastie carefully apart from where I went over two bits of the thin leg sections. Once that was dry I could get back to the abdomen work; so I used that time to nip out and take down the okapi interp panel that was at the back of the paddock, well away from the sight of the okapis and as they were both indoors was not going to spook or stress them.

The panel was mounted on the side of a wooden building; when I got the screws out, I slid it gently down to the floor as I knew there was bound to be a host of bugs behind it. All of which I can deal with but spider... not so much! And there were three lovely big spiders. Thankfully I had removed the panel gently enough not to send them scampering in all directions and give me the heebee-geebees in the process. I've been at the zoo doing my job for over 16 years now and have learned about removing sign holders and panels from walls and what lurks behind!

Once I was sure there were no hitch-hikers on the panel I carried it back to the studio, leaving it in the yard outside our building.

Back to the tailless whip scorpion and its abdomen...... finally finished the day having got the abdomen pretty much finished, apart from the inevitable finishing touches and tweeks.

As much fun as watching paint dry

Picking up from where I left off on Wednesday last week, I spent most of the day mixing colours, painting blocks on paper, watching them dry, scanning them into the computer and printing out to check the result. I have to get this background colour and tone right if this animal was to show up both its dark and light markings and at the same time not look garish but look vaguely natural looking. So I had numerous attempts.

The following 3 images are examples of the testers that I was doing. I painted a basic shape using colours that were similar to the ones on the animal on each block. This is to check the lights and darks against the background to make sure that the lights didn't disappear. This is particularly important with this animal because of the two light coloured joints on one pair of its legs. If these joints did not show up enough against the background then the legs would look as if a section was missing or broken.

This whole process, of course, would be easier if during the scanning process the colour picked up by the scanner and represented on the computer didn't change so drastically at times. With the mixes I was doing, the original colours (using gouache paint) was much darker and a murky brown. Not exactly pleasing to the eye, but after scanning, changed into much more acceptable colours.


These first two images show the background as much lighter and yellower than the original. The second of the two had more blues and browns added but looked not much different once it went through the scanner, although it looked considerably different painted on the paper.


After some to-ing and fro-ing with paints and scanner I finally got this mix (third image) for the background, which is what I have decided to go with. The general colour should sit nicely and compliment the colouration of the tailless whip scorpion to be painted on top.


I cut a piece of 300lb watercolour paper to about 10" x 7" (very roughly 25 x 18 cms) and with a 2" wash brush I wet the paper all over to help spread the gouache paint (mixed with water to a yoghurty consistency) evenly across it. I used just enough water to wet the paper with one brush load... too much would cause the paint to thin - I want an opaque base to work on so I get the paper just wet enough to ease the paint across the paper. I used a size 10 round brush to apply the paint and spread it out and then to minimise any possible streaking through colour separation (sometimes occurs depending on colours used in mix) I used the wash brush to even out the paint layer.

This was then left to dry thoroughly. I then transferred my drawing onto tracing paper ready to then transfer to the painted background. Once the background was dry enough and the beastie traced onto it, I then mixed a base colour for the animal and started carefully filling in the traced outline on the painted background.

Late in the afternoon both my colleague, Anna, and myself were in need of a break - Anna from the computer screen and me from the careful tracing, three times (once from original drawing, then over back of tracing and then tracing to painted background), of the beastie. It's not the simplest of shapes.

So we headed out to the tapirs as there is a new addition to the group. Just over a week ago a little baby girl was born. We hoped to see it on show, but they were nowhere to be seen either inside or out. We were just about to return to the studio when one of the keepers on the section, Rob, came out of the tapir house. We asked if it was possible to see the baby and were let into the house to where Leanne, another keeper on the section, was just about to feed them. We were allowed into the stable to meet Mum and the youngster as well as her older brother and sister. After making a fuss of mum, Tamang, and Tiptap (older sister of the baby) patting their necks, playing with ears and rubbing under their chins - we were then ok to go up to the little one and give her a tickle and pat. She is sooo cute, but what baby tapir isn't... they are just adorable little 'humbugs' with their brown and cream stripey coat. Her fur was a little curly, making lovely little waves in her cream stripes. She investigated my hand with her soft warm wet prehensile nose and gave my fingers a little lick. We spent about 5 precious mins in with them and it was such a privilege - we are grateful to the lovely keepers who allowed us that wonderful access and contact. Priceless.


This photo is of a baby tapir that was born in 2005. I chose this one out of my collection as it shows the coat at a similar age with the waves in the stripes and dark brown against the creamy stripes. As the youngster will grow and get older these stripes will straighten out and fade, eventually disappearing to leave uniform dark smoky grey brown as it turns adult.

Wednesday 11th April

This morning I went up to Bug World straight away, the aim was to get there early enough to view the rockpool display for a while before the visitor numbers grow to the point that I am only in the way when I try to take photo's. I was in luck today, the bigger of the two hermit crabs was right at the front of the tank, in clear view and facing towards me! Even better was that it was in no hurry to move on so I was able to play about with the settings on the camera to get the best photo I could. The brittlestar was in the same place and still only had three of its tiny legs in view, poking out of the crevice it was hunkered down in. Not much else new to get photos of, although Sammy the shanny was pootling around quite friskily and bashing into the poor hermit crab as if he (Sammy could be a 'she') didn't know it was there... or care, for that matter.

It wasn't too long before the first of the visitors arrived and started filtering through more frequently. Pretty soon it was almost a constant stream coming by. Some go straight by the tank and not seeing anything obvious, some decide that there is nothing in there and declare their point loudly as if they have been cheated. Others stop to investigate and of those only a few take the time to really look. But those that do are delighted when they see something, pointing excitedly at their discovery. I love it when people show such an interest and don't just expect everything to be there to 'perform' for them - that they value and appreciate that this is the animals' home and sometimes it can be seen and other times not.

The harbour crab came to the front in full, and perfect photo, view when there were two little girls looking in at the time. They, of course loved it and oooh'd and ahh'd quite excitedly as it clambered across the front of the tank, showing itself off nicely. However, this did mean that I couldn't take advantage of that rare opportunity that the crab had offered. I had to stand to one side biting my lip and the urge to shove my way in to get that 'would-have-been-a-perfect' photo! So I had to watch that one slip away from me. Maybe I'll get lucky another day... I do have a photo of this crab but could do with a better one really.

So then as the crowds built up, it was time to head back to the peace and quiet of the graphic's studio. I uploaded the hermit crab photo's and then sorted out my collection so far - comparing the shots, picking the best and deleting the rest. Then I chose a photo each for the common limpet, painted topshell, edible periwinkle, common brittlestar, cushion star, hermit and harbour crab to put on the IDs. These had to be resized and then added to the computer file. So far I have 10 of the 23 species suitably photographed for the IDs. Now waiting for some more info to come from Mark and pretty soon I can started printing and putting them on display.

I had an email from Jonny in the Aquarium with info for four species (greater pipefish, shanny blenny, flounder and spiny starfish) that are also kept in the underground section of the Seal and Penguin Coasts. They haven't had a proper ID for sometime as there were plans to revise the ID situation there. However, once the seahorse ID went up it was decided that the others should have IDs done the same way too. These are presented as the Aquarium format i.e. minimal text on a black background with pic and symbols for dietary habits. I have no illustrations done for any of these species yet, but they now get added to my list.. which now seems to have shot up in recent days! Once I had compiled the info on the computer file, I printed, trimmed to size and laminated them before applying double-sided tape to the back and sticking them on display in the section by the relevant tank displays.

At 3pm I popped back to Bug World, as earlier arranged with Mark, as they were doing a water change in the rockpool display and a feed afterwards. When I got there at just after 3pm the water change was done and Mark was waiting for me, so that he could drop the feed in. The idea of this is that it might draw out some of the more shy animals, hopefully giving me the chance to get photos. Sadly for successful photos the only area where I can get a decent shot, without glass and water distortion, is in the 4" strip along the front edge of the tank. So whilst the harbour crab and the goby did come out.. they were at the back and middle of the display - out of range for photo's. However, it was still a useful exercise, as up until now I hadn't seen the goby (the staff have given it the wonderful name of Obi Wan the goby - love it!). Now at least I knew his/her size and colouration so I now know better what to keep an eye out for to see it again. It is quite a small fish, just a couple of inches in length, and coloured very mutely, blending in so well with the rocks they have in the display that if it sat quietly on one, I doubt I would see it, unless I knew it was there!


Finally back to the studio to mix colours for the tailless whip scorpion background. I need a colour that is pale enough to show up the darker markings of the beastie, as well as enabling a clear view of its spindly legs, but also dark enough to show up the few pale markings on those legs. The animal is a smokey brown/purple colour with pinky buff markings on the body and some almost white markings on the two very spindly legs. I mixed a mid greyish brown and painted a patch of colour onto some watercolour paper, let it dry and then scanned it into the computer then printed it onto the good quality paper that is used for the ID signs. I do this to see how the computer 'reads' the colour and will reproduce it in the printing process. Some paint colours just do not seem to scan and then reproduce true and will throw up the most odd slant on the original. Some greens and yellows just seem to evade the otherwise competant abilities of our scanner and printer, so if they are in the mix it can alter the outcome sometimes for the better sometimes for worse. The murky pale brown I had mixed and painted, came out a lovely warm buff colour! Although it was a nice colour it was not suitable for this illustration, so on Monday it will be back to the drawing board to mix another version as the pale markings of the beastie will get lost on that background once scanned and printed; although it would look absolutely fine on the original.

This is the drawing I did of the tailless whip scorpion this week.

Rockpooling

First job of the day was to pop down to the seahorse display in the underground section of Seal and Penguin Coasts. Phil, my line manager, said the ID I had put up last week was now propped up on the top of the tank with the sellotape hanging off it, looking very tatty. Jonny was already down there so I arranged to meet him. On entering the underground area I noticed the floor was all wet and found Jonny fixing a tank display. One of the old pipes supplying the tank with water had broke overnight and had drained the tank and flooded the area. Luckily the tank system has a fail safe and about 6" of water remained in the tank keeping the inhabitants, flat fish, safe. So Jonny had a lot on his plate on top of his usual busy rounds in the morning. I headed to the seahorse display alone and sorted out the ID sign, replacing the tape I had used withhopefully stronger tape. But I'm not convinced it will hold either as the glass that the sign needs to be attached too is very cold and things don't stick too well to very cold glass. May have to rethink the way we display the sign.

Back in the studio an email from the bird section gave me a few changes to signs on display where they had moved a few species around the aviaries. Two of the moves were easily sorted by the bird keepers themselves by just carefully removing the ID's and putting them in the holders of the respective new aviaries. The grosbeak starlings (Scissirostrum dubium) had been moved out of the Forest of Birds aviaries so I went over to remove the ID sign from the 'book' displays. There are three 'books' in the aviary and 2 of them were easily sorted as I had been warned some months ago that the species was due to be moved, so in the time since, I had rearranged the ID sequence so that the grosbeak info was on a single page and removing it wouldn't upset the rest of the sequence. However one 'book' had yet to be changed - it's position meant that the 'book pages' didn't get as wet during cleaning etc so it didn't get as tatty as quickly as the other two. Consequently the grosbeak sign was doubled up with another and removing it meant I had to replace the other species.

Back to the studio to print the ID off, trim to size, laminate, hole punch, bang in the eyelets and take over to the aviary to change over. Finishing just before lunch.

After lunch I got back to and completed drawing the tailless whip scorpion, this took a few hours. I have emailed Mark in Bug World (he had a day off today) to see if he has a dead specimen of this species - the photo's I took of the live animals and the ones I found on the internet do not show the feet structure well at all. As the animal has a pair of very long thin legs I have decided to have a plain colour as the background, rather than try and paint it on a log or rock or something. This way these legs will be much clearer to see and appreciate on the illustration (they are very impressive and a very distinct feature). Therefore I need to change the leg and foot positioning as if it is standing on a flat surface (all my ref photos are on a variable surfaces with feet in cracks and crevaces in shadow). So if I can get hold of a dead specimen I could look at the feet under a magnifying glass to see how the feet are constructed so I can paint them in a convincing position.

Unable to progress further with the illustration until I hear from Mark, I went back up to Bug World to try and get more photos on the rockpool species. I sat there for an hour and 15mins waiting and looking. I was rewarded with the harbour crab coming out as well as a better view of one of the hermit crabs. I also found three tiny 'fronds' waving out of a crevice in a rock. Greer, one of the invertebrate keepers walked by and identified my 'fronds' as the legs of a brittlestar. Sadly it didn't come out any further other than to wave its legs about a little more but at least I know what size it is and what to look for in future, so hopefully I can get a photo another time. I also got a good shot of the Painted top shell Calliostoma zizyphinum, a beautifully marked conical shelled snail. People come by and look in briefly thinking the tank is empty. I love being able to point out the hermit crabs the fish, the anemones etc getting people to really look rather than glance and dismiss. The kids get really into it once you point a few things out and start telling you of things that have found in the past in rockpools.

Time was pressing on so I headed back to the studio to upload the 97 photos to the computer and sort through them deleting the out of focus, too dark, blurred images. Then filtering through the rest finding the images I thought I could use resizing and adjusting light levels and filing them in the relevant species folders in my Rockpool Folder on the computer.

Day over - time to go home.

Bank Holiday and catch up

Being a Bank Holiday Monday, here in the UK, I have a day off work today, so maybe I better use this day to catch up on last Wednesday's entry.

I contacted the bird section this morning to see if I could get access into the Lorikeet aviary. This is a walk through exhibit where visitors can also feed the lorikeets. It doesn't open until later in the morning so I needed to see if a keeper could let me in to replace some ID signs. Luckily my timing was good and I managed to get across in time to meet Rachel, a senior keeper on the bird section, so that she could let me in. As it was she was dashing off to check on the gardeners who were cutting back some ivy - Rachel is one of the bird keepers monitoring the wild bird population within the zoo grounds and she was worried as there was a robin nest in amongst the ivy, so she was in a hurry to make sure the gardeners were aware and didn't disturb or expose the nest. She gave me her keys and I let myself into the lorikeet aviary and I was able to change over the old tatty signs for some fresh new ones pretty quickly.

Back to the studio to sort out the photos on the computer, that I took yesterday of the rockpool display in Bug World. I picked out three decent images to use on the ID panel for this display and did a little adjusting of size,colour and lighting before I added them to the ID appropriate file.

Then I went back to Bug World to see if I could get any more shots. One of the hermit crabs was near the front and was sticking his head out nicely, unfortunately he was facing the wrong way so this did me no favours trying to get a photo of him. A lot of the snails were at the wrong spot in the tank for me to point the camera at without getting the distortions from the angle of the shot through water and thick glass. Mark, the assistant curator of invertebrates was around and he let me into the room where I could get to the rockpool tank off show. Here I could look down into the decetively large tank. Mark turned down a few of the water systems so that the surface was less disrupted by water from tubing flowing in. I was able to see some of the gastropods (snails etc) better and took a number of photos, playing with lighting levels to improve the shots of the limpets and different periwinkles.

After lunch I ordered some more eyelets for the bird ID's online and arranged to meet Jonny, assistant curator of the Aquarium, down at the new seahorse display in the underground section of the Seal and Penguin Coast exhibit. The seahorses and pipefish were new arrivals and had not yet really settled in so were difficult to get good photos of. I took a number just in case any came out but after discussion with Jonny it was left that he would contact me when the animals were settled and happier and consequently likely to be a lot more visible.

Whilst taking the photos a man aged about 20-30 banged on the glass window - trying to 'attract' the seahorses attention, I suppose. When Jonny asked him not to, through the glass, the man walked away grinning and laughing... he obviously thought it was funny to bang the window and get caught by a keeper. Sadly such behaviour is not uncommon and it never fails to amaze me that some visitors, rather than having a respect and compassion for the animals, seem to enjoy trying to irritate or disturb them, as if it was for their entertainment. I On the same day later that afternoon whilst up near the lion exhibit I saw a group of people teasing the lioness (she has two 15 month old youngsters that she is still very protective of) until she leapt snarling at the glass that seperated her from the humans. They all laughed, a few I think were shock at the speed and feroscity of her 'attack' as their laughs seemed a little nervous. But why do that? Was it to get a better photo or to be able to go home and say, Hey guess what I did at the zoo today? I really don't understand people treating animals that way.

Inbetween visiting Jonny and going out late in the afternoon to help Phil, the graphic design manager (my line manager), I started drawing up my next subject to illustrate - a tailless whip scorpion also known as whip spiders (not to be confused with whip scorpions). They have no stinging tail and are harmless to humans. I had taken the reference photos of this amazing beastie some months back before Christmas. I didn't have time to get the species illustrated prior to the Christmas holidays so I did the ID sign but used one of my reference photographs on it instead as a temporary measure. Now I have caught up with my species to do list it is time to get started on this invertebrate.

Last job of the day was to help Phil get a couple of the new Zoolympic panels up. The Zoolypmic trail is a series of challenges for the visitors to do so that they are able to compare themselves to, and marvel at, the abilities of some of animals. There is a running track that measures your speed between two posts, a hold your breath stop watch counter, a standing jump measure, a height board etc etc. I helped Phil get two of the new replacement panels put in place for the stand on one leg timer and the how fast is your reaction challenges. The panels are very smart and printed onto a lovely shiny perspex panel. For both the panels, holes needed to be drilled through for the start stop buttons to be reached. Phil did all the tricky drilling (done with a mean looking special drill bit) I just held the panels in place. We had a few problems but Phil sorted them out quickly and we managed to get the last of the two panels in place just before 5.30 (home time).

Nuts and Shamas

I started the day trimming the ID signs, I printed yesterday, to size ready for laminating. I did the goeldi Monkey signs first as they would be an easy and quick replacement job. So once done I nipped out to Zona Brazil an area where the Goeldi's enclosure is, which is conveniently just across the path from the building I work in. My quick straightforward job took a wee bit longer than planned due to me dropping the new signs down into a recess behind a high fence on the outside section, which needed some crafty stick twiddling and finger grasping moves for me to retrieve them. And then with the indoor sign I forgot to bring some tissue. There is a sprinkler system on the indoor section designed to create a humid environment for both the plants and animals. Consequently when I remove signs in the indoor section I always find the surface behind the signs quite wet and sometimes with algae growth. So I had to do a quick run to the section staff room where luckily it was their morning break and I could 'borrow' a few tissues to clean off and dry the surface so I could put the new sign up.

Back in the studio and trimming the bird ID's I also printed yesterday, I realised I had to print some more. These particular signs were for the Forest Of Birds which is an indoor aviary. The ID signs are presented in a type of book form - the pages have one species per side and are laminated to protect them from wear and tear. They have eyelets in the laminate through which a couple of U bolts hold them to a wooden backing board. There are three such 'books' through the house and all show the same ID signs... so I try to keep them matched with the order that the ID are seen in the 'book'.

Back earlier in the year there were a couple of changes made. The violet turacos were taken out of the aviary and replaced with red crested turacos and I was warned that in the near(ish) future the grossbeak starlings would also leave the aviary. So I made a list with a rearrangement to the order in the book. Due to a few previous changes the three books were out of sync order-wise... so, in March as one of the books needed some replacements done, I redid the whole book so that the new species order could be 'installed'. This month another of the 'books' needed a good few replacements so I now need to bring that one up to date with the new species order. Which is why I realised I had more IDs to print. Another 7 species were printed and also trimmed. I them carefully place two trimmed signs back to back in between two layers of laminating plastic and put it through a machine that heats the plastic, bonding the two layers together encapsulating the paper inside. This is one page of the 'book'. I then trim it to size and down one edge that I have left with a clear 30mm border in the laminate I hole punch two holes at the same point for each page.

Into these holes I push one half of a metal eyelet and then place the other half over it so that the laminte is between. I then bash this with a hammer to fix the two eyelet pieces together. I have to bash it right.. too lightly and the eyelet doesn't join well and too hard and I can twist the eyelet out of shape. And if I'mnot careful I can flatten a finger or thumb!!! Once the eyelets are in place the pages are then ready to be put onto the U-bolts to form the 'book'.

I left going over to the Forest of Birds, to do this, until later in the afternoon... again it was busy in the zoo and so I waited until the bulk of the crowds had gone so that it would be easier to do the work without getting in anyone's way.

It's always a fiddly job doing these signs as the U-bolts are fixed thriugh a backing board and this is fixed to some structure in the aviary and each one has very little room underneath to undo or do up the nuts holding the U-bolts in place. Luckily the one I did today wasn't the one with all the cobwebs behind! Eeek! But still very fiddly - the only benefit to the time it takes to get the nuts threaded and done up is that I get to see the birds. I was listening to the male white-rumped shama today as I struggled with awkward recesses and unwilling nuts. It is another beautiful songster.. often mimicking other bird calls. But today as it sang it's heart out it bobbed its tail up and down, something I hadn't seen it do before to any effect. It must have been displaying because his white rump feathers were all puffed up as he moved his long tail up and down... and when his tail was up, he held it almost vertically.

The last half hour of my day was spent taking photos in Bug World before it was locked up for the day. I have to try and get decent photos of the species inhabiting our native rockpool exhibit, so this was my first real attempt to accomplish that. I was lucky... the shanny (fish) came out and was wonderfully cooperative moving to the front of the tank in clear view. His name is Sammy, apparently... Sammy the shanny.

I managed to get a couple of fairly decent anemone shots, snakelocks and beadlet, but the little snails are not easy and there are many species in there I'm sure I won't get photos of at all. Back to the studio to upload them and quickly go through to delete the ones that are of no use before I go home. Tomorrow I can sort out those that I could use for the ID signs and hopefully get Mark to tell me what is what. I know I have a couple of the periwinkle snails but I don't know which ones are which of the two species in there.

Golden eggs and Goeldi's

Another bright day at the zoo brings in lots of visitors now the Easter school hols are in full swing. Lots of kids running around trying to track down all the golden eggs on the egg trail that's in place for Easter.
I spent the morning on the computer working on the ID's for the new native species rockpool display in Bug World - our invertebrate house. It won't be quite a straightforward job for several reasons. First I have to wait for the Animal Department Registrar, Alice, who keeps all the animal records and Mark, the Assistant Curator of Invertebrates, to sort out the scientific names for some of the species.

The animal record list is done through a universal record database used by the zoos in the UK and sometimes it is a little slow getting updated with any changes to scientific names. It's surprising how one species can be referred to by not only different common names but also, when classification changes are made, by different scientific names. Obviously there is a wish to have the animal info as up to date as possible on our ID signage... but the dilemma is that if the animal records show one version and the keepers give me another I have to go with the former (as hopefully will others in the zoo) otherwise it gets confusing. In the past there have been incidents where an animal ID gives one name, the annual report gives another and the keepers use yet another. Unless you are really in the know it can lead to one species being thought of as two because the names being used are different. To keep everyone 'on the same page' it was decided a year or so ago that the animal record list managed by Alice would be the definitive and everyone should defer to that. So Alice and Mark need to go through the species list for the rockpool and decide on the names.. and change the records list (if poss) to update info if necessary.
Secondly I shall also need from Mark the type of food each species eats. i.e. whether it eats plants, animals or rotting stuff. There are symbols for each category that I can place with each species on the ID.
And thirdly... because of the nature of the display, it has been decided that photo's should be used on the ID signs. Problem is getting these photo's. By its nature the rockpool is made up of rocks and stones and so has many nooks and crannies and the species by their nature of being secretive and retiring hide for most of the time. Getting photos of these animals, without taking the rock display apart (which is not going to happen) is going to be pretty impossible and any success of seeing and photographing one is going to be down more to luck. There are, of course, photos on the internet, so why don't we use them? Well, using images from the internet is fraught with problems and our main concern is copyright issues. We can't just take images off the internet and use them in our signage as most photographers, like artists, have automatic copyright over their intellectual property...i.e. their photos.
So it is going to be a case of gradually building up the photos of the species as and when I see and photograph them successfully within the display. There will be species I'm sure I will never get a photograph of... In time, the switch over to painted illustrations could be made, depending on the longevity of the display itself.

Just before lunch I popped across to Twilight World (our nocturnal house) to remove a spare ID board that is not needed at present in the forest area. It was a quick job of unscrewing two screws and lifting the wooden board off.

After lunch I went on a walkabout in the zoo, cleaning grafitti and scuff marks off of ID signs and interpretation panels. We have some 'anti-grafitti wipes', these are strong non-solvent based wipes that will shift most marks and to protect my hands I wear latex gloves when using them. But I have to take a supply of the gloves as the solvent soon 'melts' and breaks through the thin rubber. Strong stuff!
It was very busy and as I walked around the zoo I could see kids running around with ice creams, looking for the golden eggs and marking found ones off in their maps. Great fun. Though I was asked where the eggs were by children a few times, I couldn't help as I had no idea where they were all hidden.... but I did see the dinosaur egg on one of the lake islands, a crack in the shell as if it was about to hatch.
The dinosaur footprints (that I drew the template for last week) were across the lawn but I didn't get to see them, too many people. Maybe tomorrow.
Whilst out, I checked the Forest of Birds (tropical aviary in the centre of the zoo) for tatty signs... I didn't have time to go in last week during my 'Sweep'. There are a few IDs to replace so I made a note of the species and headed back to the studio after finishing the sign cleaning.

The last half of the afternoon was printing the 14 bird ID replacements and two copies of the Goeldi's monkey (Callimico goeldii) ID. One of the mammal keepers had stoppped me and let me know a visitor had spotted a spelling mistake on the Goeldi's ID, so that needed correcting and reprinting.


Goeldi's monkey are cute little primates from South America, this is the illustration I did of them some years ago. They are just a little bigger than a squirrel and have a coat that looks like it has been cut badly with scissors - the long dark fur falls as if in chunks. On my walkabout I had stopped to watch our family group of six, for a few minutes. They were in twos, grooming each other and chatting with their bird like high pitched trill whistles in the indoor part of their enclosure. Such wonderful little critters they are a delight to watch for a while... their big brown eyes watching for everything with great curiousity. After I had stood for a few minutes watching, one came over and sat on a branch close to the wire and watched me back. I wonder what thoughts were going on in its mind?