Do One Thing to Save Nature

Our wildlife is in trouble. My Christmas exhibition, which runs at my gallery in Thixendale, North Yorkshire, from November 7-29th, is aimed at raising awareness for endangered species through art. 

Here I've picked some UK species you can help bring back from the brink and suggested one thing you can do. I hope my paintings inspire you to action! 

Hedgehog in Autumn Leaves,
limited edition print
 by Robert E Fuller

Hedgehogs

The rapid decline of hedgehogs is due to the effect of climate change on hibernation patterns, road casualties and the increased use of pesticides, especially slug pellets.

What can you do Slug pellets kill hedgehogs. Encourage hedgehogs to eat your slugs instead of using pesticides. Attract a hedgehog to your garden by building them a house to hibernate in - an old log pile will do. Websites such as Hedgehog Street have some fun suggestions for hedgehog houses.

Squirrel Nutkin,
Limited edition print
by Robert E Fuller

Red Squirrels
With just 14,000 left, this is one of Britain’s most endangered species. Its decline is mainly due to invasive grey squirrels, a loss of habitat and squirrel pox.

What can you do Grey squirrels have to be kept under control and charities that tackle this need support.

Lapwing Study
Acrylic painting
by Robert E Fuller

Lapwings
Due to intensive farming practises, there are now just 140,000 breeding pairs left in the UK.

What you can do: Farmers: take advantage of stewardship schemes to protect them and to compensate you for productivity losses. Walkers: keep dogs on a lead during the breeding season so they don’t disturb eggs and young hatchlings.

Black Grouse Lek
Oil painting
by Robert E Fuller

Black Grouse

Dramatic changes to moorlands means there are just 5,000 males left.

What you can do Drink whisky!! Distillers Famous Grouse have teamed up with the RSPB to restore heather and low shrubs on moorland reserves for these birds. A percentage from the sale of each Black Grouse bottle goes to this scheme.

Grey Partridge
Not to be confused with red-legged partridges, English, or, native, greys appear on the RSPB's red list of birds in crisis. Controversially where greys are managed as game, numbers are recovering.

What you can do: Support the Game Conservancy Trust’s work to preserve the insects and provide nesting cover for them.

Tree Sparrows

Numbers of tree sparrows have dropped by 93%.

What you can do: Put nest boxes up in the garden. Tree sparrows are social birds that live in colonies so site boxes next to each other or build a sparrow terrace. Below is a terrace I built.

Barn Owl
Oil Painting
by Robert E Fuller

Barn Owls

On the Yorkshire Wolds, where winters can be extreme, populations have reached a dangerous low.

What you can do: Farmers: barn owls eat voles, which live in rough grassland: set aside field margins for them. Gardeners: Don’t trim the roadside verges outside your home where these owls hunt.

Butterflies and Bees
Three quarters of UK’s butterfly species have halved in the last decade and bees are suffering a serious decline too.

What you can do: Plant wildflowers to provide nectar. A variety of native species with early and late flowering plants will provide nectar all year round. Butterflies like warmth so choose a sunny spot.

Yellow Hammer
Oil Painting
by Robert E Fuller

Garden Birds

House sparrows and starlings are among the worst hit species. Others like yellow hammers or willow warblers are increasingly rare.

What you can do: Put food out over winter. Seeds and fat bars are best. If you can, provide water. A pond gives clean water to bathe and drink. In winter, break the ice on the ponds. Cats are one of the causes of decline. Keep cats in at night when they do most harm.

Art for Nature: National Badger Day Paintings

Today is National Badger Day and so I thought I would share my paintings and my passion for these gentle creatures in the hope that I can convince people that they really are worth protecting.

Although badgers are not endangered - like most of the species I've am raising awareness for  through my campaign #artsavingnature - they have been persecuted for centuries. In 2011, I found myself helping to convict some badger baiters after stumbling across them attacking badgers with dogs. To read more on that story click here. 

Badgers are really such lovable creatures. I've been captivated by them since the day when, as a youngster and at just 14 years old, I stumbled, quite literally, into a sett. A storm was blowing my scent away and since badgers have such poor eyesight they didn’t notice me as I stood among them watching the cubs tumble about my boots. It was quite magical to see the way in which they interacted. The experience had me hooked and all these years later, I’m still watching them. There is always something to learn about their complex social structure and nocturnal wanderings.

But getting close to badgers has never been easy. They are naturally very wary of humans – rightly so since they have been persecuted for centuries. Perhaps if more people got to watch them in the wild there would be more of a general incentive to protect them. But badgers have a particularly keen sense of smell and if they get the slightest whiff of human scent they remain underground. 

Over the years I’ve perched in some very uncomfortable, and usually unreliable, places to try to watch them. But six years ago I built a deluxe hide five metres up a tree overlooking a sett. I have watched the clan at this sett every night since and I've painted quite a few of their portraits. In time the badgers have become so accustomed to me that I can walk amongst them. They are curious about what I am up to - on one occasion Humbug, my favourite, decided she wanted to see if she approved of the pictures I had taken!

Below is the portrait I painted of her when she was just a year old. 

The clan always appear at dusk or just before and as night falls they gain confidence. They emerge like clockwork each evening and always disappear off in the same direction. Over the years I have got to know each member of the clan well and have watched as cubs grow. This painting is of Tufty, one of my favourites. 

Although badgers are largely nocturnal, in the spring and summer the nights are too short to forage and they often venture out at sunset.They usually spend some time at the sett playing and grooming before heading off. This time is important for them socially as it helps them to cement their bonds. It also makes great badger watching, especially if there are playful cubs around.

When I sit down to paint their portraits I always feel that I have to make sure I get their characters right to do them justice. In November I am staging a major new exhibition featuring paintings of species around the world that need protecting. The exhibition opens here in my gallery in Thixendale, North Yorkshire between November 7-29th and will focus on a number of UK species that are in trouble and offer you advice on what you can do to help.