Sketching in Blackhorse Wood

As I have mentioned before... as part of my in-house training at the zoo, I have a half day sketch session about once a fortnight. In this time I can sketch whatever I want to sketch on zoo property. As I now work just three days a week at the zoo for nine months of the year... I have to get each illustration done as quickly as possible... I rarely allow myself luxuries like spending time sketching an animal unless I deem it absolutely necessary. I wish I could spend time to sketch each animal but it makes each job too long and it's a struggle to keep on top of my 'to do' list as it is. But  sketching is important as it is easy to loose one's 'hand and eye', so regular sketching sessions help me with observation and my art skills. 

It's three weeks since my last sketch half day  and this time I thought I would head up to the Hollywood Towers Estate that the zoo owns and is currently developing into a new visitor attraction. They have owned the land, some 120 acres, since the 60's and it has had planning permission to build another zoo attraction there. For a few years I have gone up before any big changes are made as new buildings are added and old ones renovated as new facilities and enclosures get put in. Pathways and access roads built and the land 'tidied up' ready for visitors. 

Having had the privilege of wandering the fields and woods over a couple of years on occasional visits I am sad that things must change there... it is a beautiful wood and I loved the feeling of discovery and exploration, no other people around (except for the gardeners and a few animal keepers - but they kept to certain areas) So the freedom of wandering the woods spotting roe deer, foxes, many birds and insects... and seeing the naturalised seasonal plants.. like crocuses, snowdrops, bluebells, daffodils, ramsons, cyclamen were a delight.

The new attraction is called 'Wild Place' and it has the first phase opening in July... so this is the last month that I could visit and experience it as I know it.. quiet, peaceful, without the hub bub of visitors and staff. I haven't been for a year myself as I had a frozen shoulder problem last year and it would be silly to tackle the steep slippery rough animal track pathways whilst in pain or unable to use both arms for steadying myself or picking myself up when I slip.

Hence I was really looking forward to my visit...

The changes are already happening and the sound of workmen can be heard around the central area where the 'model farm'  and big barns are.

I signed in with the site manager and picked up my Hi Viz jacket that I was to wear. I asked if I had to wear it in the wood as I wanted the chance to see wildlife and wearing a flourescent yellow jacket was not conducive to that aim. Today luckily there was no work going on in the wood, so I was told there was no need to wear the jacket whilst in the wood, but I had to put it on at other times. 

After signing in I drove back alone the track to the Greenhouses. I parked there and went to see the bird keeper who was looking after the hornbills I had come to photograph and view. These birds are in quarantine so I needed to don wellies, quarantine disposable overalls and disposable gloves before going in with them.

Some of the greenhouses

After spending about an hour with them I had a quick snack lunch and then walked across the fields and from there down into the woods.

From the greenhouses to one of the entrances to the wood

Track down into Blackhorse Wood

I was saddened to see 'no entry' signs on posts stuck in the tracks on a few of the routes through the woods and the track way that led to the Wild Place forest learning camp was wider, cleared and well used... my sense of 'escape' was extinguished.  

I walked down to the camp and beyond it to the high fence that follows the bottom edge of the wood. When I last used this track along the fence line it was so thick with plants that to follow the deer track you had to push your way through nettles and other vegetation... now there was a clear pathway - it was a trail now for the Forest Learning groups. Now and again along the trail laminated signs were hanging from the trees or fence asking questions about British wildlife. A great idea, but again... totally ruining my sense of exploration and discovery of the place I once knew. I have to get used to the fact that this is now a different place... and it is great for those who visit.

Track along the fence line

 I took a lot of photo's again, recording what I see; some of the changes, beautiful scenery that inspires me....

I sat in my foldaway chair where the view beyond the fence looked out across the bottom fields on out to the estuary. Here I did my first sketch of the day...

I was there about an hour... I saw no deer but heard lots of birds, including a few buzzards overhead. Once I was up and moving on I disturbed one buzzard as it sat on the top of the fence... it flew off quickly on hearing my approach. I tried to walk softly and quietly but with so many dried twigs and leaves on the track it was difficult not to be noisy.

Not a great photo of the buzzard, but I was pleased to get that. 

I followed the fence line right along the base of the wood and followed the adjoining fence as it went back up the escarpment cutting through the line of trees. At this point I am now right round the other side of the curved expanse of woodland covering the escarpment. I scrambled up across the undergrowth off the track to emerge behind the clock tower.

I wanted to get back to the fields about halfway along the woodland's line. So I skirted the field trying to find the deer track that I had used many times before to get back down into the trees. I couldn't find it! I pushed through the undergrowth where I thought it should have been and came out vaguely near, I thought, to where I wanted to be in the trees.. But on trying to negotiate my way down the steep bank covered with the slippery yellowed dead leaves of a swathe of long gone bluebells I realised the track was now gone, overgrown and I couldn't find it. So I carefully and slowly made my way back up to where I had been as I knew there was a track skimming the edge of the trees there somewhere. 

On my way I found this gully, where I sat down for a snack of a twix biscuit and some orange juice and then sketched the base of the tree just in front of me. It had bare ivy stems twisting up round its trunk, like a strangler fig.. and I thought this would be interesting to sketch.

Whilst I sat there I heard small steps approach slowly through the dried leaf litter. I stopped to listen and look to the right of me in the direction of the sound. I couldn't see anything as the land dipped behind the bank, but I guessed there was a deer there. It stopped, maybe it could see me or maybe it just heard or smelt me.... there was a few seconds of silence and then the sound of something running, betrayed by the dry leaves on the ground.

I finished my sketch... it was now about 4.15 and I had to be back at my car to get out of the gardeners yard before 4.45 as they would be locking up. Then I had to be signed out and off site by 5pm today.  So I slowly made my way along the track, heading towards the top fields. I had wanted to sketch there but time was running out fast. Other times I have been here I have been able to leave my car somewhere else and so not have to be so quick to leave. 

Me and a large fungus on the tree trunk

I had by now put my hi viz jacket on and was seeing the signs of development as I crossed the top fields... tracks cut wider and scoured out ready for permanent covering to make access roads, old animal buildings renovated and paddocks lined out with new fencing. To me it was all very sad... this secret haven was already vanishing. But that isn't to say that I don't like what will be here. I think it will be an amazing place to visit and learn in and I do look forward to seeing it grow into the eco park that will challenge and encourage visitors to change something in their life to benefit the planet.

The smell of freshly cut grass drying in the sun was  thick on the air, a farmer was cutting in the field I wanted to cross so I had to skirt round and go through Webb's Brake where the ponds are.

The  joining series of ponds have been cleared of excess plant growth, making them clearer to see, which was lovely. Yellow flag iris skirt a few of them ponds and duckweed covers the surface. I walked through the small woody glade they are in and emerged back out on the opposite edge of the field where I first entered the wood at the beginning of the afternoon. On my way back to the greenhouses and car I saw Jackie from the Wild Place Forest School putting up a teepee with a friend. I wandered over for a quick chat and tried to help as they were attempting to tie the canvas together at the top, a bit of a stretch up. But it was now nearing 4.45pm, so I left them to it.

I hope I can get up here again before it opens towards the end of July... it is a special place.

A week of sun at the zoo... yeehaa!

Monday 3rd

This week I am due to do my bi-monthly 'ID sweep', but first I want to finish the common chameleon.... I have only the tail left to paint.

I have brought in something to help me do close work... some magnifiers that I attach to my glasses. They make me look a bit like some crazy scientist, but they are just the job for allowing me to see the end of my brush when I'm putting on small details like hairs, spines or dots.

So I finished the chamelon in relative eye comfort. I have had these magnifiers for sometime but had forgotten about them... rather silly as I could have really used them when I was painting that great plated lizard a while back.

So the chameleon was finished and checked by Andy in the Reptile House and this time there were no adjustments to be made. Phew! So it was scanned onto the computer and the picture file placed onto the ID document. Once printed, I laminated it and trimmed it ready to take to the Reptile House later.

During the afternoon I went out around the zoo to do my 'ID sweep'. I have a set route that I follow taking me around all the enclosures and animal houses so that I can check the state of all the ID signage. I clean any that are dirty, restick those that are loose or peeling and make a note of all those that I think need replacing; such as faded, damaged or missing signs.

This took me about 2 hours today, shorter than normal as I didn't have time to get round to the bird house in the centre of the zoo or around the lake. It was almost 5pm and the animal houses close at that time, so I shall do that another day.

Back in the studio I wrote my to do lists up... one for the replacements and one for people I need to contact about different queries I had as a result of my walkabout. Things like.. plants needing cutting back so an entrance sign does not get obscured, checking with an animal section if a sign is missing whether the enclosure is empty or the sign has come off for some other reason.

I had met Mark and Carmen from Bug World in Twilight World on my walkabout.. they were just finishing sorting out a new enclosure in the underground area for some juvenile imperial scorpions... so a new ID sign would be needed. I had illustrated this species many years ago so it was just a question of presenting the illustration and text in a way that was suitable for the enclosure situation. In the underground area the signs are all white text on black... allowing for either the sign to be backlit or illuminated with 'dark light' making the white glow bright with a bluish colour. So I would need to adjust the illustration to be a silhouette, so that was my next job this afternoon and into tomorrow morning.

I started with a copy of the illustration on the computer and carefully went around the outer edge of the body, legs and hairs with the brush tool set to red colour (about 5 pixels width) in Photoshop. I couldn't do a mask because the nature of the illustration meant the boundary between the animal, shadows and background merged in similar colours that would confuse a mask setting. I did try it first, as it is obviously the easiest and quickest route, but it didn't work so I was back to manually outlining the wee beastie. This was quite intense concentration and so for a break I stopped to photocopy 30 ID guides for the butterfly exhibit.

Tuesday 4th

I carried on with the imperial scorpion outlining it in red as I was doing yesterday. Once the animal was outlined and the background a flat red, I then drew over the body of the scorpion with the brush tool (still set to red) marking in the body and legs segments.  (More photoshop blurb coming up..) I selected the colour range for the red and inverted it so I could, with a greatly enlarged brush tool (200+ pixels), sweep across the scorpion and change its colour to a flat white. Undoing the 'invertion' I could then sweep over the background and scorpion changing the red lines and background to black. This was then saved and ready to drop onto the ID sign.

Before I started on the text sign for the scorpion, I finished the butterfly ID guides by putting each one in an A4 laminating pouch. Anna helped by putting them through the laminator for me, as she needed an eye break from the computer screen.

I opened the old ID sign for the animal that used to be housed in the exhibit that the scorpions were going in. This was so that I had a template to work from as the text is 'wrapped' into an uneven shape. The ID sign is backlit and displayed in a shaped hole by the side of the tunnel system of the exhibit. So opening up the old sign gave me the size of text, the font, the shape etc to copy.

I ended up just changing the text to that which is on the scorpion ID and added the silhouette that I finished this morning. The finished size is slightly bigger than A3 (when it was design we were able to produce a sign on a transparent film the old way using a repro camera and fixer chemicals etc in a darkroom... so the size was not confined to A3. Now however I will have to print the sign out from the computer on 2 sheets of A3 and join them together.

In the late afternoon we had a treat as Dave, the Education Manager, gave a little show of some of his photo's that he took on a trip to Borneo. And after that I started printing out some of the replacement IID signs from my list.

Wednesday 5th

I carried on printing the list of replacement IDs and in the process had to convert a number of them from Quark files to Illustrator files. I'm gradually getting through all the outstanding Quark files. 

I also rang the site manager out at the Hollywood Towers Estate to find out what the new protocols are now for visiting, as since the builders and other contractors  have been there building and preparing the site for the opening of Wild Place this summer it's not so easy to walk around the site. I am planning to there this afternoon to do some sketching. It's my afternoon to sketch and I thought it would be good to get back to the estate again before it opens to the public and wandering around takes on a whole new aspect. Gone will be the times of wandering  around with no-one else around, enjoying the wildlife and place in peace and quiet. So this would be one of the last times I would be able to do that.

Also I had some birds to see and photograph that are kept there at the moment so I left late morning and drove out to the estate. Once I had spent a good time watching and photoing the birds I had some lunch and then set off into the woods. I shall do a separate post about my afternoon in the woods.

A few photo's from round the zoo this week.

Male Satyr tragopan

Kamran and Ketan play fighting

Livingstone's fruit bat chomping on flowers in their enclosure

Baby ring tailed lemur riding piggy back

The stunning wisteria plant on the front of the building that houses the Coral Cafe and Bug World

Common, common, common chameleon

Do you like the title? I wonder if you picked up the nod to a song by Boy George? The Education Dept had put a play on the words in the text that is on the ID sign and  I couldn't resist doing something similar, because it just screams to be done, doesn't it :)

Another short week... with a Bank Holiday on Monday, I was in just on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday 28th
Here is where I had got to last week with the common chameleon.

I had got a base coat of rough colour on the body ready to start detailing this week.

But first thing that greeted us this morning in the kitchen was this delicious looking display of cakes.

The cupcakes are homemade by one of the ladies in Education Dept, who had a birthday at the weekend. We have this lovely 'tradition' that when it is your birthday you bring in goodies for everyone to share. And today there are two birthday's worth of goodies. Needless to say.. the cakes, disappeared rapidly... and they were very yummy.

So Back to the chameleon...

I worked on the painting all day, with just a couple of breaks for a few other little jobs, giving convenient 'eye-breaks'. I am adding the texture of the chameleon by dotting the colour on and started with the head and moved back across the body from right to left.

As for the other little jobs... I had a couple of email requests to print some extra ID signs... one was for the Goeldi's monkeys (the expanding group have been split up and a sign was needed for the second group's new home). The second was for a scientific name change on the lesser goliath beetles. Got both printed, laminated and delivered to section or put up on display before the end of the day.

Another little job was to remove some gorilla interpretation signage and props from the portacabin by the Education Centre. It had been used as a store whilst the gorilla house gets it make-over for all the 'set dressing' items and signage. Now the room was needed for teaching sessions so had to be cleared out. Louise and I took out a few items that were the responsibility of the Graphics section, one included the life size wooden panel cut out of a gorilla standing upright with the arms outstretched. The arms of a male gorilla are as long as they are tall and so it was quite a thing to manoeuvre through doors and up stairways that had right angle turns in them. Got it to the Prep Room and had to leave it obstructing a cupboard.. there was no where to put it where the arms wouldn't be sticking out to clobber unsuspecting passerbys or where it wasn't obstructing something. I think we're going to have to do some reshuffling of stuff in our storage areas to get it somewhere safe and out of the way.

Lastly at the end of the day I started planning out how I would do the chart for the ID request submissions. This was something discussed in my half yearly appraisal... I had collated all the info I had on dates of when ID requests were received and when the illustration got done. Once we have got this going properly I can then better assess my work load.

Wednesday 29th

Continued working on the chameleon today, had hoped to finish it but needed frequent breaks for my eyes as doing all the dots was a little hard on the eyes. I'm quite happy with it so far...I am trying to get a colour that is mid way between when I have seen the chameleon looking really green and when I have seen it looking almost sandy coloured. 

So by the end of the day this was where I was at with it... just the tail left to do next week.

I started the day off though by continuing with the chart for the ID requests... think I've come up with a chart that will work.

Each animal section has its own colour, so I can see when say invert or bird ID requests come in... putting the species name and date received under the appropriate month, I also mark in when the illustration was done. At the moment the information is not quite reading well as there are numerous illustrations that I have done where I do not have a date of when the request came in. So already this chart is showing me I have to be more aware of that, to keep better records. 

Here are some photo's that I took in the zoo this week, on the few occasions I got to go out into the grounds.

This is Satan... a velvet swimming crab in Bug World, he's a bit of a bullish character in his tank, but he's very handsomely marked. On his legs he has shiny stripes of purple blue.. looks like he's wearing very natty pyjama's.

Then I went into the Aquarium, always good to wander through and see if Jonny has sneaked any new fish in...sometimes I spot a new arrival, but this week if there were any new additions, I didn't see them. 

But the red-bellied piranha - Pygocentrus nattereri caught my eye.. Jonny has set up a lovely tank for them.. looks very dramatic and shows the fish off beautifully.

The scales of these piranha always fascinate me. They look like they have gold flecks embedded into their skin... when the light catches these flecks, they sparkle. Jewels from the Amazon.

But they don't have a smooth skin surface... it's scales and if you look closely they are not uniformly laid out along the body... in places the scales get quite higgledly piggley... and some of them are shiny, whilst most are not. But look at the colours, in even the dark area of their body.

And then.. one of my favourite fish (of which I admit there are quite a few candidates)...

The Dragonfish...or Asian arowana - Scleropages formosus. Sadly, not a great photo of one.. but they had just been fed and so were moving about quite actively, making it tricky in a large tank with low lighting to get a decent shot.

Wednesday 22nd

It was a very short working week at the zoo this last week, as I had taken both the Monday and Tuesday as holiday... so that I could work in my role as a self employed wildlife artist, rather than an employed wildlife illustrator. I was doing a demo evening in Gloucestershire on Monday to an art group, so that would be a late night back home (nearly midnight by the time I had unloaded the car etc); I needed Tuesday to unpack and put away from that and prepare for the two workshops I was to do on Thursday and Friday. So it was just Wednesday that I was at the zoo.

The souslik's were due to be put in their enclosure, after finishing quarantine off-show, this week, probably Monday, but ID signs were still on my desk when I got in on Wednesday. After giving the mammal section a call, I learnt that they were only put in this morning and would most likely stay pretty much hidden for the day until they had settled in. So first job was to pop out and put the signs up.. two copies of the ID sign and one sign explaining why we have wire strung over the top of the enclosure. There were no sign of any sousliks... I was keen to see them as their keepers had said that they were very small and cute, much smaller than the black-tailed prairie dogs we had there before. The European souslik is Europe's version of the prairie dog and is endangered in the wild.

I started painting the common chameleon illustration; the background I did last week I was still happy with so I painted in a few twigs before starting the chameleon itself. I didn't get very far with the painting today as I seemed to have lots of little jobs come up that took me away from my brushes.

One of those jobs was to laminate 27 A5 signs for the Edible Flower Garden that has been done in conjunction with a local school. The Garden Department allocate a flower bed to the school for one of their projects; to design a layout for plants that can be eaten or used as herbs etc. The 27 signs were drawn by the children and were the names of the plants used, such as cornflower, ox-eye daisy, borage and lavender. The signs were already cut to size I had only to put two side by side in an A4 laminate pouch and then cut in half at after lamination.

Another of the little jobs was to removed damaged interp from a walkway near the AmphiPod. On the posts of the covered walkway there are some flap signs...on the topside of the lid is a question or statement and by lifting the wooden flap you then see the answer or more information. Two of the flaps had been broken off so needed to be removed... I removed a third that had the topside question missing so it was pointless just having the answer up.

This last job was done at the end of the day and as I walked back to the studio I went via the souslik enclosure to see if they were out now that the zoo was quieter. As I approached I saw several dive down into the tunnels, so I found a spot behind a small shrub that was near to one of the holes and luckily the wind direction carried my scent away from the enclosure. I waited for about 5 minutes before one poked its head bravely out of the hole. A few more minutes of patient wait, not moving or making a sound  and one came out warily.. I managed to get three photos before it disappeared when someone else approached the paddock.

Rather less shy was this pudu, who came across to see what I was up to. The late afternoon sun turned the red tones of its coat up a notch bringing out those longer hairs on its head. 

I realise that I did not post a picture of the altered panther chameleon from the week before.. so here is a before and after image of the colour adjustments I had to make.

A new addition to the team

This week we welcomed a new member of staff to the Graphics Team; Louise has been employed as the graphic designer for Wild Place. Her first day was Monday and seems to be taking everything in her stride and settling in well in the team already.

Monday 13th
First job of the day was to respond to an email from the bird section. We no longer have brown breasted barbets in the collection so I went across to the lovebird aviary where they had been housed as well and removed the last of the ID signs for the barbet.

The panther chameleon that I finished last week needed to be checked and as Tim (Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians) wasn't in, I arranged to see Andy from the same Section. My coloration was incorrect..I had the chameleon too dull and green. We looked at my reference pictures and Andy deduced that at the time I took the photo's the animal was young and not fully matured into his more striking blue coloration that he now sported generally when calm and happy. We went to check the animal on display and Andy commented that his coloration was unusually dark.... not his normal self, so we went up to the off show area in the vet block to see another panther chameleon. His coloration was calm and quite blue... I took some more photo's and then headed back to the studio.

I altered the illustration fairly easily by carefully laying several translucent washes of blue and bluey green over the chameleon's body. This has to be done carefully so as not to lift the colour that has  already been painted. Then on top of that I dotted some more colour on to regain the skin texture and highlights. I added red also, a colour which was not present at all on the animal when I had initially taken the reference photos back last year.

Once done I went back to Andy and got the ok. The illustration was then scanned into the computer and placed on the ID sign, replacing the photo that was used until the illustration was done. The picture part of the sign was then printed, ready to laminate and take over to the section tomorrow.

Whilst out to-ing and fro-ing between the Reptile House I took a few photo's. The floral display outside the Reptile house has lost it's yellow of daffodils and now black tulips stand proudly in the sun. They looked like they were made of satin with that silvery sheen they had.

In the Reptile House the crocs were sat on the side of their pool where the female builds a nest and she was sat on top of a recently dug up mound. Maybe she's getting broody again.

One of the dinosaurs was being attacked... seems the jackdaws are plucking the feathering cover of Citipati, perhaps it is making good nesting material.

Tuesday 14th

When I came in this morning I looked at the printed picture of the panther chameleon and wasn't happy with it. So I reprinted it readjusting the colour at the same time, increasing the saturation and lowering the lightness. It came out much better.

On to the common chameleon.... I had 100 photo's of this chameleon on the computer... got some lovely sequences of movement in frame by frame motion. I had to go through each one to select the most useful and delete the ones that were too similar or slightly out of focus. This reduced the folder containing them from 500mb to just 148mb for 44 photo's! After thinking about the best pose for the illustration shape format, I selected a number of images to work from and arranging them onto an illustrator document to size and position onto an A4 sheet, I printed that and started the drawing.

This drawing spanned an A3 sketch pad sheet of paper, so to be able to trace the drawing across onto a piece of watercolour paper that would fit onto an A4 scanner, I needed to photocopy it to a slightly smaller size. Finally, before I headed home I cut a piece of watercolour paper to size ready to start painting on tomorrow.

Another picture, or two, from today... Kukena catching a ride with his Mum.

Wednesday 15th

Before I started painting the common chameleon I decided to check the coloration of the animal with Tim, as the photo's I had were also taken last year and I didn't want to have to alter another illustration. Chameleons are tricky things to illustrate as an identification image as they change their colour according to their mood or in response to one another. When I took the photo's of the common chameleon they were very green (not sexually dimorphic) but every time I see the one on show it is a pale sandy colour. Today when I popped up to check it's colour it was inbetween green and sandy. Talking to Andy from Reptiles, seems green is the 'normal' colour.. so we have a dilemma... do I paint it green or sandy coloured, either way it could look totally different to the animal. After discussions I'm going to paint it a greeny sandy colour part way between the two so that it's never too far off the animals colour as it changes.

I finished off the morning by painting a quick nondescript background for the chameleon.

After lunch it was my drawing afternoon... so I headed out and had a little wander. What was I to sketch today? I found myself up on the top terrace hoping to see the lion cubs out, they were but tucked right at the back up on the rocks. The drills were out so I settled down in front of them for about an hour and a half. These primates (related to Mandrills and baboons) are impressive looking animals and very active... always on the move, investigating this, investigating that. I struggled but kept at them. One did eventually sit for a while and looking up at one point I noticed he was nodding his head at me.... not just once but several times. I soon realised it was in response to me inadvertently nodding my head as I sketched him. I realised I was looking directly at him and then looking down to sketch a line or two before looking up again. I wondered if this was a friendly gesture or a threat one. I decided to be very careful and made sure I didn't 'nod' as I sketched, just in case. The last thing I wanted to do was upset the drill... that wouldn't be fair on him.

Whilst I was there Sarah, their keeper, came to give them a snack of fresh vegetables. I asked her about some of the behaviours I had seen, in particular the head nodding. It was indeed a threat gesture and she advised that if one of them started this and got agitated then it would be best if I walked away from the enclosure. You have to be so careful sometimes, something we think of as innocuous or don't even realise we are doing, can actually be very threatening to some animals. Luckily Donga or Rorke did not have any further adverse reactions to my movements as I sketched. They, in fact, came up close a number of times to sit near or look at me.

This is Rorke, what incredible facial structure drills have.

After sitting in front of the drills  for almost 2 hours was getting a little chilled (I had sat in the shade to cut the amount of reflections I could see on the glass of the drill enclosure) so I headed next to the Reptile House where it is a lovely toasty temperature.

Utila spiny tailed iguana

Did a few sketches there and then moved back out into the sun for the last half hour with the gorillas.

Whilst all eyes were on the gorillas, Salome was out and Kukena was being entertaining, when he wasn't hitching a ride on Mum. But almost hidden at the edge of the waterfall, just yards away, going unnoticed, there were more babies...

And now for something a little bit easier!

After my battle with the great plated lizard, my next species to do was to be a blue spiny lizard... but that had a specific 'scale' design and I just couldn't face another exacting paint job so soon. So looking on my 'to do' list, the next animal was a panther chameleon... patterned - yes... but with a little leeway on precision.

We had a Bank Holiday this week so I wasn't in work on Monday.

Tuesday 7th

When I got in this morning the first thing I noticed was that scaffolding was going up at the Round Aviary. I can just see this aviary through the bamboo stand just outside one of the windows of the studio. Work had been scheduled on this aviary as it is being changed from three partitioned enclosures into two and some renovating work will be done in the process; particularly on the old roof which was in need of repair. With all this going on the birds that had been in there would have been moved out into other aviaries either on or off show. After ringing Nigel (Curator of Birds) to see what ID's needed to be changed, taken down or added elsewhere, I popped out to make the adjustments to the signs on several aviaries.

Back in the studio I started on the chameleon. I had already done the drawing and had put a background on a piece of watercolour paper previously. Now all I had to do was paint the animal; I just hoped my feeling that this would be easier than the last one didn't prove wrong. After all, I thought the plated lizard would be fairly straightforward... it was just a series of square shapes after all! How wrong I was there!

I transferred the drawing onto the background and blocked the animal shape in with a base coat. The texture of a chameleon's skin is lots of little bumps... so I basically painted in the colours and pattern of the  animal with lots of little dots. I kept an eye on the general configuration of the bump pattern on different parts of the body and replicated that generally. By the end of the day I had got the body done and was quite pleased with the progress.

During the day, for an 'eye break' I went over to the Flamingo Paddock to check on Mister Ruff.... still no sign of ruff development. Nigel had emailed me to say he thought this may be due to there being no females in with him... but he would check to see if any other observations had been made of a similar situation. I did a bit of a google search and was interested to read that ruff are the only birds that have three male strategies for breeding. From what I read, on various specialist sites, it appears that there are three types of males, territorial, non territorial and sneaks or faeders. The dominant males hold territories of leks to entice females onto, the non breeding males come and go as 'satellites' around these leks, looking for opportunities to breed and then the sneaks are basically female impersonators having plumage similar to females and therefore being able to move mostly unchallenged amongst the females and sneaking in a mating when the dominant males are too busy to notice. Research indicates that these positions are born into and cannot change and their ruff colouration coincides with their relative position. Darker ruffs tend to be on dominant territorial males and paler/white ruffs on the satellite males with the faeders not having a ruff at all. But no specific answer to my question about why this male has not developed a ruff, other than a description of non-breeding male colouration. Maybe developing a ruff, for an adult male of breeding age, isn't automatic and it requires a trigger.

Whilst I was out and about I took a few photo's, as it was a gorgeous day weather-wise.

The little egrets were up in their nesting tree, displaying and standing over their stick platforms

Something I hadn't done in a long while was to watch the squirrel monkeys. They are on an island on the lake in the centre of the zoo. This island is crammed with trees shrubs and bushes surrounding their wooden hut. The biggest tree is huge, stretching high above the lake and the squirrel monkeys can go right to the top. They were very active in the trees and standing in a little bay by the meerkats you get a good view at the 'back' of their island. I stood here and watched them running around the tree boughs and crossing from one tree to the next, high up and then scrambling down using the ropes and poles put up to help them access as much of the trees as possible.

This one was high up in the middle part of the biggest tree, peering down at all the activity going on below.

This is Samuel, our male agile gibbon, he's such a handsome lad; he was sat watching the female, Duanne, beneath as she foraged on the floor of their island. They have a huge man-made frame work of poles of varying sizes and ropes to brachiate (swing by their arms) around on. He had just come out of their house and had swung with ease across the ropes from the hut to the framework and then on up through all the ropes and poles, until he came to stop at this point. He glanced down at me before resuming his watch on Duanne and taking in a general glance from his high position around the zoo. I find it frustrating and sad that when some people look at primates and see their downward turned mouths that they assume that is an expression of unhappiness, just like with a human. Most primates have naturally downward turned mouths when their faces are relaxed; they don't smile like us. In fact, a big grin can mean distress or fear for some primates, so we shouldn't assume their facial expressions mean the same as ours. 

Wednesday 8th

Back to painting the chameleon for most of the day. Just his tail, legs and head to do today, which I am soooooo relieved and pleased to say went smoothly and satisfactorily. I managed to get him finished, but he has yet to be checked by Tim (Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians); I'll contact Tim next week. 

I had my six month assessment today, which is a follow up to the annual main assessments we have each year in the Autumn. As a result of that chat with my boss, Phil (Graphic Design Manager), I will be recording the pattern of ID request submissions. I already record what species I do and have records of this going back to when I started the job in 1995, so this is a handy additional record to make. This is purely to see if there is a general pattern of submissions and when if any groupings occur and the impact that has. This could help me manage the 'to do' list and improve my performance. I went through my email records, ID file records and my species lists to start compiling a list dating from 2010 to present. I have yet to present this information in a table/graph form. When this has been done over a number of years we should be able to see the impact new developments/new staff/animal section changes/my part-time timetable etc has and keep a better eye on the timespan between the request coming in and when the illustration is done.

This week has been short, easy and a lot less stressful. Just what I needed after the last two and that darned plated lizard... will I ever forgive it and be able to look at the sign/animal without having flashbacks of the battle I had!