Monday 8th - Wednesday 10th April

Monday 8th

Sat waiting on my desk, where I had left them on Wednesday eve last week, were the 22 new replacement ID signs that I had printed. This morning's job was to trim them all to size and then laminate them, trim again and attached double sided tape to the back most of them. The trimming is done by hand using a sharp scalpel and a steel rule... the guillotines available to use just aren't sharp enough and scissors don't get that lovely clean edge. I also printed two copies of the souslik ID sign that I finished compiling last week, so they were also trimmed, laminated and trimmed again. 

This simple little job of preparing 24 ID signs for putting up on display, took all morning.

In the afternoon I got the adjusted text for the African penguins back from Rose in Education which meant I was able to finish that ID off and then print/laminate/trim it etc. I then went around the zoo grounds putting up the replacements, except for those that will go in the Seal and Penguin Coast exhibit (the penguin, Inca tern and eider duck). Again just two simple little jobs, yet they took all afternoon.

Tuesday 9th

This morning I had a bit of a treat. Recently the two students, who are archiving many items of the zoo's historical interest, had an open morning where the staff could go and view a selection of things they had put together. Unfortunately I missed this as it was on a Friday (a day I don't usually work on) But Sarah-Joy was kind enough to arrange for me a small visit to see some of these items. I spent a thoroughly enjoyable hour looking through old maps, guide books, postcards, animal inventory and newspaper clippings from way back in the zoo's history.. the latest was a guide book from 1964, which I remember from my childhood and actually had a copy of for many years, until I cut it up to add the photo's to my own reference library of animal images. I read clippings from the 1920-30's and saw postcard images from the late 1800's. Incredibly fascinating... I could have spent the day going through more of the same. But work was' calling' so I had to tear myself away and get back to the studio.

This beautiful lemur bronze sculpture stands on the landing of the stairs on the way up to the room where I viewed the archive items.

Thing's didn't go quite as I had planned today, as I had forgotten to bring my 'short-range' glasses in with me that I need for computer and close work.. i.e. drawing and painting. So Plan B was to sort out my reference photo's not quite so intensive on the eyes.. I needed some of the Roti Island snake neck turtle - the next species to be done from my list. So I arranged with the Reptile House keepers to go and look at/photo the female they had off show. I met Andy in the Breeding Room area and he took me through to the room that housed the collection of turtles in the off show area. They are housed in low high sided units that reminded me of huge paint trays for rollers! Each unit has the ability to be predominantly water with a bit of land or visa versa, depending on the needs of the individual of the species held in it. The 'girl' I had come to photo, was in one of the nearest units and as she is an aquatic species, her unit was full of water. We had just got in the room when a call came over the radio for Andy that there was a member of public at the main gate with a couple of turtles hoping the zoo would take and rehome them. 

Andy left me in the turtle room, whilst he went to investigate and see to the enquiry. In most cases it is impossible for the zoo to take in these unwanted pets as they just haven't the room and in 9 out of 10 cases the species is not one of the target species (endangered) the zoo concentrates on. In this case it was a couple of yellow bellied sliders (turtles) that were in need of rehoming. The lady who was making the enquiry luckily didn't have them with her and had a genuine reason for needing them to be rehomed (most enquiries come from people who have had an animal for a short length of time and have got bored with it or it has outgrown the facilities they have for it.) The turtles were her son's and he had gone to college and couldn't take them with him, he had them for over 10 years. Andy gave her the contact details of a group specialising in turtles.

In the meantime I was enjoying looking around the other turtle units... most were hidden in leaf litter and the composty substrate they were housed with, but one or two were partially or wholly visible.

When Andy came back we got on with the job of photographing our wonderful turtle. I took a few of her in water first and them Andy lifted her carefully out (they can bite) and placed her gently on the floor where I could get some photo's of her from different viewpoints and some close ups too.

I got that done as quickly as I could so that Andy could return her to her unit and water. I am always trying to lessen the impact on the animals when I have to get reference photo's like this and I know from past experience that the keepers wouldn't place their animals in a situation that would cause them stress or problems just for me to get photo's. If an animal can't be moved/disturbed, as is sometimes the case, I have to either get the best I can in situ or get images off the internet.

Would you mess with this guy? Egyptian spiny tail lizard

After photoing the turtle I went up to Bug World and met Mark, to get some photo's of a giant Ghana landsnail. These were 6 month old snails yet they were already pretty darn big at about 4" long in the shell. They have yet to reach full size! Snails have their own pace of life and to get the angle I needed for reference meant placing one on the work top in the breeding room (it had been sprayed with water beforehand) but of course having been picked up out of their lovely open toppped large flat container it closed its foot, tucking the head and antenna in at the same time. The shape and way they closed their foot is a little like a venus fly trap... only slower! Mark picked out an individual he told me was called 'Dave', but 'Dave' wasn't hugely interested in unfurling itself.. not even when a large juicy piece of fruit was laid in front of him/her. Snails need time, you just can't hurry them to do anything, so I waited and waited. Patience is needed when working with animals, especially when you want a snail to stretch out along a worktop to show off its foot shape, colouration and the diagnostic tail feature that sets it apart. It has a little ridged flat top to the tail, so that has to be seen in my  illustration, but to see it properly at all the snail needs to be relaxed and striding forth along a surface. We swapped Dave for Steve... or was it the other way around? Anyway, the second snail eventually started to stretch out and at least half an hour later I got the reference shots I needed.

Mark then took me around some of the other displays to get more reference photo's.... there are now common prawns in the rockpool exhibit and whilst I was trying to get photo's of them Mark spotted a dog winkle (aquatic snail) that I hadn't yet got photo's of... unfortunately it was a little too far away from the front. The thick glass and effect of the water makes the range at which I can successfully photograph anything, limited to just 3-4 inches from the front.

After the rockpool we went to see the goliath beetles. Mark had bred some 'Major males', my illustration on the present ID sign showed a minor male i.e. the horn at the front of the head is small, but the eyes are big. Major males have much bigger horns, but smaller eyes. Bigger horns are better obviously for fighting for females and bigger eyes are better if you have a disadvantage in the fighting ring - as they can see and find females easier enabling a minor male to sneak in and mate with.

What determines whether they pupate into Major or Minor males are the conditions under which they grow as larvae. Given optimum light, protein and temperature they turn out as Majors. Mark showed me a major male, not the biggest they have, he couldn't find him in the display... but still a big beetle at about 2" long. Then he showed me a beetle still in the case where they pupate. They don't emerge straight away after pupating, they stay in the protection of the case until their body hardens.

Then lastly he showed me a larva of this species... my goodness what a monster!

Back in the studio after lunch I uploaded the photo's I had taken and sorted them out into various ref files, as well as cropping and light adjusting them. As the landsnail illustration is the last on my list at the moment, it will be some months before I can get to it, so I took one of the photo's I had taken this morning and put that on a new ID document, putting in also the text and dietary stamps needed for this species. I printed it and laminated it ready to take up to the section tomorrow.    

Wednesday 10th      

This morning, before the visitor numbers built up, I went out to put up the replacement IDs in the penguin area of Seal and Penguin Coasts. These signs are a little more involved to put up as they are mounted on a piece of foamex with a perspex sheet covering them and screwed into a wooden panel screwed to the 'rockface' and 'ship cabin' wall in the themed walk-through area. Between the perspex cover and the foamex board, around the edges, is a strip of household draught excluder (put there to keep the rain out) and over time this has got a little delicate, so when I prise the foamex and perspex apart I have to do it very slowly to allow any of the strip that is stuck to the perspex to peel away in one piece. Do it too quick and the strip tears and the seal is damaged. Once the signs were in and back in position I popped up to Bug World to drop off the landsnail ID before heading back to the studio.

Inca terns displaying in the Seal and Penguin Coast exhibit

Once back in the studio I sorted out what reference photo's I need for the Roti Island snake neck turtle and adjusted  some with light levels and cropping before printing out a collection of images on two A4 sheets. This took me up until lunchtime.

After lunch it was my afternoon sketching session. It was meant to be last week but it was so cold and there were so many visitors over the school break that I decided to leave it for another week. This afternoon was practically tropical in comparison to last week's temperature. However, to sit for a few hours sketching I knew it was still cold enough to warrant an extra layer of clothing, hat, scarf and gloves.

I decided to concentrate on birds this afternoon, but I wanted to be in front of an aviary that was quiet visitor-wise, as it was quite busy in the zoo. So I plonked myself down by the Lilacine Amazon parrots section in the round aviary, which is tucked away a bit in a dead-end pathway.  

Two of the three parrots were displaying, which I video'd and put in the post before this one.

I was there for about an hour sketching and got quite cold so I headed to another reasonably quiet aviary (though why I don't know, as I think it is a gem of a place to be) The Forest of Birds exhibit in the center of the zoo grounds. I stayed here until just before 5pm sketching the Victoria crowned pigeons first, then a Mindanao bleeding heart dove. 

There was a pair of the crowned pigeons sat on a rafter in the top of the aviary, I liked the angle of viewpoint. I had to work on the head a lot to try and get the detail of the eye, beak and crest relationship sorted out and understood. These are big birds with a wonderful booming call, but today they were silent.

One of the Mindanao bleeding heart doves came down and sat on the fence in front of me, so I had to sketch him/her. Don't know the sex as they are not sexually dimorphic - they look the same. Then it went back up to a cosy spot on the sculptured wall o f the house near to the waterfall, to settle down  for a rest. Also on this page is the last sketch of the day.. the Victoria crowned pigeon.. I really like this particular sketch... it 'feels' very 'Vic crown pidge' to me.

Often overlooked, this lovely little Mindanao bleeding heart dove is beautifully marked with a deep red heart patch set against a bottle green head and white contrast partial bib and that soft buff of the chest and under body. 

Another of the photo's I took this week, I had to include it as I just thought it quite comical.

A rhinoceros iguana sat on top of one of the giant tortoises.