ITV's Calendar on how I have adapted my garden to study wildlife

People often ask my about how I capture the character of an animal or bird in paint so I thought I would share this TV clip since it describes how closely I watch wildlife for my work. The piece was recorded for  ITV Calendar News to promote my exhibition last summer but it remains relevant.

You can see how I encourage wildlife into my garden using nest boxes for owls and garden birds and how I made a nesting chamber to attract a family of weasels here.

My animal nest boxes are all wired up with surveillance cameras so that I can watch what happens when the wildlife disappears from view.

I also have hides dotted about the garden, which I can move about depending on where the action is.
And best of all look for the moment where you can see my new tunnel that leads directly from my living room to a hide opposite the spot where I feed tawny owls each night.

This device means I can get from my house into the hide without disturbing the weasel family or the stoats that also visit. I've got some incredible photographs from this location and I use these to paint from.

The video promotes an exhibition I held here last summer celebrating how much fun it is to watch wildlife and includes some of my own footage of joyful moments like when the weasel kits first discovered snow. So please enjoy it and look out for some laugh out loud clips of the wildlife I have photographed here at my home and gallery in Thixendale.

An Exclusive Preview of My Latest Original Paintings

My winter exhibition opens on Saturday, but in case you live too far to visit, here is a selection of the original paintings going on show.

Red Stag of Studley Royal

 Original Acrylic Painting  £3450

Framed Size: 23.5" x 18.75" Image Size: 9.25"x 13.5"

One winter after heavy snows I woke up to find it was minus eight degrees. The landscape was twinkling with a haw frost. On the spur of the moment I decided to visit Studley Royal near Ripon to see the deer. When I got there it was thick fog and very cold, but by late afternoon it began to clear and this magnificent stag appeared out of the mist. Click here to buy. 

Proud Partridge

Original Acrylic Painting  £2,950

Framed Size: 22.5" x 17.75" Image Size: 8.25"x 12.5"

I love it when it snows. I like to watch how wildlife copes with the white-out as food becomes scarce. Red-legged Partridges seem to peck at anything above the show – to see if it’s edible. Click here to buy

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Black Grouse

Original Acrylic Painting £2,150 

Image Size: 10" x 7

I think watching black grouse performing their courtship dance is one of the most spectacular wildlife encounters that you can have in the UK. They perform this dramatic display on a designated area known as a ‘lek.’ I have been especially lucky to have been able to watch it right on the edge of the lek itself, hidden inside a small hide. Click here to buy. 

Tawny Owl Chicks

Original Acrylic Painting £7,950 

Framed Size: 41.5" x 34" Image Size: 28.75" x 21.25"

Every year I use my pair of local tawny owls as surrogate parents for owlets that have been handed in to rescue centres. Some years this pair has raised up to 10 chicks, which I supplement feed in my garden. They land on this particular branch on the edge of my garden at dusk every night. Click here to buy.

Barn Owl in Elm Stump

Original Acrylic Painting £6,550

Framed Size: 29" x 33.5". Image Size: 17.5" x 21.25"

I put this old elm stump into a tree near my house to make a natural nest box. Kestrels and tawny owls have used it in the past to nest in but 2015 was the first year in which a barn owl used it. The male barn owl overthrew a pair of kestrels which were planning to nest there. It was an hour-long battle but the barn owl won. This is the female which arrived two hours after the male's fight with the kestre. It was very interesting watching the barn owls meeting for the first time. Click here to buy.

Hare in Snow    NOW SOLD 

Original Acrylic Painting Image Size: 7.5" x 5.75"

I was just heading back to my car after a long day photographing hares. The sun was low in the sky, giving the surrounding snow a warm glow. I decided to leave the hare small in the picture to give it a sense of scale.

Colourful Kingfisher    NOW SOLD

Original Oil Painting 

Framed Size: 13.75" x 17" Image Size: 8" x 11"

I spent three years studying kingfishers along a stream. I positioned a hide up stream of the nest and tempted them closer by putting small fish in a tank in the stream. One year the pair raised three colourful broods! 

Black Fox    NOW SOLD

Original Oil Painting

Framed Size: 27.75" x 22" Image Size: 13"x18.5"

A customer of mine got in touch to let me know he had seen a rare black fox near his home in Halifax. There are only thought to be a handful of black foxes in the UK. Although black in colour, these foxes are technically known as ‘silver’ foxes since the fur is tipped with white. The unusual black colouring is thought to be a genetic anomaly. Historically these foxes were valued for their fur.

Curlew in Meadow   NOW SOLD  

Original Acrylic Painting 

Framed Size: 23.5" x 16" Image Size: 6.5" x 13.5"

Curlew and Chicks NOW SOLD
Original Acrylic Painting Framed Size: 23" x 20" Image Size: 11.75" x 8"

One day, I found a curlew’s nest. They scare easily, so to put a hide up nearby I had to build it very carefully, putting just one piece of the hide together at a time. The day the chicks hatched I spent a full day taking photographs as they took their first wobbly steps – what a privilege! The following day they were fully mobile and looking for insects in the grasses.

Goldfinch at a Nest       NOW SOLD
Original Acrylic Painting Framed Size: 14.75" x 18.75" Image Size: 9" x 13"

Goldfinches are one of Britain’s most beautiful birds. This pair nested in an elderberry tree next to the back door of my parent’s house. I put a hide on top of their porch roof to study this nest up close.

Little Owls      
Original Acrylic Painting  £2490Image Size: 10.5" x 7.5"

I photographed four little owls as they fledged from a tree close to my gallery in Thixendale. They took shelter in a rabbit hole under a large rotting log. Little owls are known to nest in rabbit burrows where nesting sites are scarce, but I have never known fledglings to leave the safety of the trees and go to ground.
 As I watched one evening, a chick rushed out of the hole under the log and pounced onto a beetle whilst the others looked on. The way their tilted their heads to locate their prey was so funny to watch. This owl quickly polished off the beetles; to the envy of his siblings, who were still dependent on the food their parents brought them. Click here to buy. 

Sparring Sparrowhawks NOW SOLD
Original Acrylic Painting
Framed Size 30.5" x 31.5" Image Size: 17" x 17"

I have a love hate relationship with sparrowhawks as they can cause such destruction to the song bird population in my garden. I decided to try and entice a female sparrowhawk who was a regular visitor to my garden to feed on dead pigeons that I put out for her, instead of preying on my garden birds. It worked and I fed her every day for around 5 months.One day a new and more aggressive young female sparrowhawk spotted her eating my daily offering and launched an attack. I was fortunate to have been in the hide with my camera when it happened.

Black Rhino                        
Original Acrylic Painting £2750
Framed Size: 25.5" x 21"  Image Size: 15" x 10.5"

There is usually a dramatic moment or two when I go to Africa and this was one of them. I spotted this black rhino in the distance walking across a plain of Etosha National Park in Namibia. I set off on a 30km detour to see if i could photograph it coming towards me. I got there just in time, but when it heard the engine of the landcruiser it broke into a fast trot, heading straight for my car. It veered off at the last moment, just before it got to me - phew! Click here to buy.

Chaffinch on Blackthorn Blossom            
Original Acrylic Painting  £2750Framed Size: 16.5" x 24" Image Size: 6.25" x 12.5"

Male chaffinches are beautiful birds. Their melodic song is very distinctive. It is a short, fast rattling sound, best remembered by imagining a cricket bowler running up to the crease with the ball and then delivering with a flourish. Usually rendered as "chip chip chip chip chip - chooipchyoo." Click here to buy.

Courting Frigate Birds       
Original Acrylic Painting £3,450
Framed Size: 26" x 26"  Image Size: 12.25" x 12.25"

I watched these magnificent frigate birds on my trip to the Galapagos Islands. During the breeding season the males puff out their throats a bit like toads to create incredible displays. The way in which the females seem to snuggle up to these inflated red chests is so tender. I wanted to capture the intimacy of this ritual in my painting. Click here to buy.

Galapagos Penguins                  
Original Acrylic Painting £3,450
Framed Size: 26" x 26" Image Size: 12.25" x 12.25"

These penguins are only found on the Galapagos Islands. They are also the only penguins to live north of the equator. There are less than 1000 breeding pairs left in the world, so they are considered to be an endangered species. Click here to buy.

Giant Tortoise: Super Diego         
Original Acrylic Painting £3,450Framed Size: 26" x 26" Image Size: 12.25" x 12.25"

Most people have heard of Lonesome George, the last giant tortoise his kind, but how many know about Super Diego is a giant tortoise who is largely responsible for bringing his own subspecies back from the brink of extinction. Super Diego is a 135 years old giant tortoise and 'mega-dad.' He is thought to be solely responsible for bringing the saddle-backed Espanola tortoise back from the brink of extinction after fathering an estimated 1,700 baby tortoises since being acquired by the Foundation in 1977. Click here to buy.

King of Savute 
Original Oil Painting £8,950
Framed size: 37" x 29" 

The title of this painting 'King of Savute' really sums up this magnificient painting of this male lion. I photographed him in Botswana in 2000, and I remember as I watched him that he really exuded power & presence.

Fox-a-mousing

This painting of a fox mousing in the snow is currently on show in my gallery in Thixendale, North Yorkshire. 

I spotted this fox as I was driving home late one evening. Dusk was just settling over the snowy landscape when I saw something moving by a straw stack. I stopped my car just in time to see a fox slinking round the back of the stack out of sight. It reappeared a hundred yards away, heading towards a long straight drainage channel on the edge of a field; almost the size of a small canal. I was all fingers and thumbs getting my camera out.

Meanwhile the fox passed through a hedge and re-appeared on the bank of the channel. It turned and looked at me in a nonchalant manner before continuing down the bank. Here it cocked its leg to mark out its territory. Suddenly it froze, head pointing downwards and ears up. I guessed it was ‘mousing’ or more likely had heard a vole moving under the snow.

It repositioned its legs, ready to pounce, and pinpointed the position of its prey before it sprang high up into the air and dove into the snow, front feet first. Its nose was buried deep in the snow while its thick brush tail wagged from side to side as it hunted. Then the fox lifted its head back out of the snow, and shook it. Bits of reed fell from its mouth – it had missed.

It continued onwards and I followed it on foot as it set out on this night of mischief. I used the hedge as cover to get closer.Wild country foxes are tricky subjects to approach but there is no harm in trying. By the time I caught up with the wily creature it was watching a flock of starlings nosily bathing and drinking under a bridge where the water hadn’t frozen.

Stealthfully, the fox crossed the bridge, but the birds were far too wise and fast for him. They flew into a nearby willow tree and settled down to roost. The fox continued on the opposite side of the channel. I ducked back through the hedge to keep out of sight as I followed. After 100 yards I crept back through and found him on point, looking at the ground again.

This time he was after a mole. The dark soil of the freshly dug mole hill stood out against the whiteness of the snow. A twig snapped beneath my foot and I froze as the fox looked my way. Luckily some movement underground refocused its attention. He paused, repositioned his feet and cocked his head to one side. 

By this time it was too dark to take photographs, but I was enjoying watching. After a tense few minutes, the fox sniffed the molehill, raked over it with its front paw and then, realising that the mole must have escaped, cocked its leg peevishly on the molehill. It was as if it was saying: ‘If I can’t eat you I’ll leave you with this smell instead’.

As the fox trotted off, I decided to try to keep up. But as I stepped forward my foot cracked noisily on an ice puddle hidden under the snow. The next footstep made the same sound and I was afraid I had scared off the fox. Sure enough as I reappeared out of the hedge, it had vanished. I could see hundreds of yards in each direction but it had outwitted me.

A silhouette in the distance caught my eye and I checked it out with my binoculars. It was a roe deer browsing. I was out in the open now and the deer was quick to spot me and quickly pronked into some cover. I turned to head back and crossed the bridge retracing the fox’s movements. I soon picked up its fresh tracks and as I approached the molehill I caught its unmistakably pungent smell.

I crossed the bridge where the starlings had gone to roost. They were silhouetted against the sky, which was now lit up with stars. It was well below freezing and the snow was developing a crust. Imprinted into it with perfect precision was the shape left by the fox’s head where it had pounced for a vole. 

Preview of new original paintings 2015

I've just finished a new collection of paintings in time for my exhibition opening on Saturday, November 7th-29th. Here's a sneak preview.

Weasel Wall, Acrylic painting by Robert E Fuller £4,350 Image size: 26x18" Framed 39 x 32" 

I had a family of weasels living in my back garden so I made nesting chambers and feeding boxes which I  surrounded by natural stones or roots and I installed ten surveillance cameras to track their movements around the garden. This is one of the male kits emerging from its nest.

Fox-a-mousing, Original acrylic painting by Robert E Fuller. £2,150.
Image Size: 10.5x6.25" Framed 20.25x6.25"

I saw this fox one winter coming out of a stack of straw

bales. I parked my car and followed it on foot down a bank of a canal.  The fox stopped and I watched it listening face down in the snow; it then pounced into the air plunging head first into the snow after a vole or a mouse. It missed and went on its way. I looked at where it had pounced and there in the deep snow was a perfect face print of a fox!

Short-eared owl in flight, original acrylic painting by Robert E Fuller. £2,595,
Image Size: 13.5x6.75" Framed: 23x18"

I spent several days in deep snow watching five short eared owls hunting for voles in a valley on the Yorkshire Wolds. I was amazed how they could dive into 18” of snow to catch their prey. I was dressed in a white ski suit to disguise my presence as they hunted.

Grey Partridge- Christmas Calling Acrylic painting by Robert E Fuller £3,500
Image Size: 10.5x14.25" Framed: 20.5x25"

I was photographing hares on a snow-covered field hoping to capture them boxing in the snow. The mist came down and I was surrounded by white. I heard a grey partridge calling, it was getting louder each call it made – then a single partridge came out of the mist towards me. A weak sun came through the mist and lit up the bird as it called; it kept running and calling, looking for the rest of the covey before it vanished into the mist.

Barn Owl in Elm Stump, Original Acrylic Painting by Robert E Fuller. £6,550
Image Size 17.25x21.25" Framed: 29x33.5"

I lifted this old elm stump into a tree near my house to make a natural nest box. Kestrels and tawny owls have used it in the past to nest in but 2015 was the first year in which a barn owl used it. The male barn owl overthrew a pair of kestrels which were going to nest there, it was an hour long battle but eventually the barn owl won. This is the female which arrived two hours after the male’s fight with the kestrel. It was very interesting watching the barn owls meeting for the first time.

Climbing Stoat, Original Acrylic Painting by Robert E Fuller £5,290
Image size: 13 x 18.25" Framed: 32.25 x 25.75"

I had a family of stoats living in the garden and this one found the branch where I feed my local kestrels. I love how mischievous they are; sometimes they would push the kestrels off the food and pinch it, they always won, even though the kestrels were reluctant to leave their food.

Galapagos Greater Flamingo Original oil painting by Robert E Fuller £2,100
Image Size: 6 x12.5" Framed: 17.25x22.75"

There are only approximately six hundred Galapagos greater flamingos left and they are never seen en masse. I was lucky enough to see two males having a power struggle for dominance, the one that gets their head highest wins!

For more of my original paintings or for more information please call 01759 368355 or click here to see my website.