TWASI MEMBERS DAYS OUT AND TRIPS

Why not take the opportunity to meet at an interesting venue, and to sketch, photograph or even sculpt the wildlife in a friendly group of like minded artists.
A group of us regulary do so - come and join us this year

Read reports from TWASI members below

Top Lodge, Fineshade Woods, Northamptonshire - May 2011
By
Chris Saunderson

Brandon Marsh visit Sunday 17th April 2011 (binoculars recommended)
By
Leslie Read

The sun was shining, the birds tweeted, twittered, warbled and honked while a small but elite band of 4 strolled round admiring the flora and fauna, the Lapwings aerial display, Heron's hunting, though the Kingfishers were notable by their absence but we had a very good close up of a pair of Canada geese who were so close to one hide that they could look in and watch us.

Lunch time saw us enjoying our picnic and feeding the pied wagtail and robin on the crumbs from the very nice cake Sarais brought to celebrate the various birthdays and anniversaries' of TWASI members .

The afternoon was taken up by watching Little Ringed Plover running up and down the island's beach, argumentative Greylag Geese, various ducks and low flying Canada Geese, fortunately, me being vertically challenged, the latter only nearly took my hat off, even the rabbits were chilled out and only hopped off a little way if you got closer than arm's length from them, then after the obligatory cup of tea and résumé of the day.

Barbara, Chris, Sarais and I wandered off home in the late afternoon sun , already looking forward to the next TWASI outing.

CHESTER ZOO - June 2010
By
Chris Saunderson

WEST MIDLANDS SAFARI PARK- September 2010
By
Chris Saunderson

INTERNATIONAL BIRDS OF PREY CENTRE, NEWENT, GLOUCESTERSHIRE
by
Sarais Crawshaw

Despite some heavy rain at times, we had a good day in August at this renowned centre, particularly with displays of raptor flying organised by Jemima Parry-Jones, with a very entertaining commentary.

This gave us a good chance to watch the birds in flight, landing, and some, like the Burrowing Owl, going into & emerging from its' burrow!

The centre has a very good range of birds of prey of all types and sizes from all round the world, and some had families of youngsters, so there was plenty to sketch & photograph. It was thrilling to see some huge birds like bald eagle and sea eagle so close, and even the more usual birds gave us a chance to study them in detail.

Using reference from the Red Kites, I was able to compose a painting using an oak tree I found in springtime in mid Wales – I have called this “Bud-Burst”.

TWYCROSS ZOO – 8 th May 2010
by
Sarais Crawshaw

In early May we had intended to spend the day at Fineshade Woods, watching Red Kites overhead and bluebells underfoot, but the weather decreed otherwise. With lashing horizontal rain and freezing temperatures, we made a last-minute decision to visit Twycross Zoo instead – at least there you can sit indoors to watch the wildlife!

The new Visitor Centre there is large and very well equipped, and provided warming drinks and a hot lunch to lift our spirits.

Many of the animals were understandably sheltering from the elements. The egrets were hunched up sheltering their eggs from the rain, but we got good views of others, particularly the apes in their houses with glass walls. This makes it easy to sit and sketch on the spot, if you can ignore all the many children crowding the view.

I found the endangered Scottish Wildcats out of their den several times, and was able to sketch and photograph there, and later used the reference for a pastel drawing I have called “On The Brink”.

Grafham Water 2010
by
Pauline Thompson

A grand day out. The sun was shining, a lovely warm day. It's easy to get to, especially for me, as it's straight down the A1 and right for a bit. To say it isn't that far from the A1 it's very quiet and peaceful although I imagine it can be quite busy as it's a local spot for yachters, other water sports, walkers, cyclists and wildlife watchers in general. There is plenty of space though so you don't need to be in the thick of it. Various walks around the water, and through woods, which of course there are the various woodland birds to look out for. We did hear a nightingale, which was really nice, as I hadn't heard one before. You can walk round the water as well if you like although it would take quite a while.

The watercraft is prevented from going where the birds tend to congregate and there are hides around those spots. There wasn't much around really when we went but there were heron, cormorant, coots, moorhens, mallards and odd swans. There was one very obliging cormorant that sat on a fence post sticking out of the water very close to the hide we were in and posed for quite a while. Got some good shots of him haven't done much with them yet though, so unfortunately nothing to show you. It was a very enjoyable day and well worth a visit.

BRADGATE PARK LEICESTERSHIRE October 2010
By
Joy Roberts

By mid-morning given decent weather the park is over-run with locals so the best time to appreciate the landscape, red and fallow deer that roam the park is around dawn. The first challenge is to jump out of a warm bed and venture out into the cold, but wrapped up with numerous layers, the reward and experience is worth making the effort.

A small group of us met before 7am and quietly entered the Park down the main path. It was peaceful and dark, just the occasional sound or blur of a deer crossing ahead, or moving through the bracken. As the light improved we watched a magnificent stag perform nearby, before making our way further into the Park towards the old house ruins.

Chris spotted a Peacock and it wasn't long before the bird landed on the wall posing nicely for pictures. The deer are used to the presence of people, but even so, unless you remain quiet and keep your distance they will run for the safety of the sanctuary if nervous. (One place humans are not allowed and there are wardens on hand to ensure that this is adhered to). However, patience is something TWASI are used to and before long a group of photographers tipped us off that some of the deer were sheltering under the trees further down the path.

By this time the light was glowing which really brought out the autumn colours in the park. We approached slowly and quietly, taking a few frames, then quietly eased forward at the appropriate moment. The deer were content to allow us to photograph for around 20 minutes but finally moved off when they saw an army of photographers wandering towards us (not TWASI members).

By this time the call of Tea, Bacon Sandwiches and Cakes was too much to ignore so we all made our way back to the Newtown Linford entrance. On route we encountered deer quite close to the path despite the increase in human activity. The Park offers good opportunity for landscape photography and painting and has numerous waterfalls and monuments. If you leave the main path and explore it is fairly quiet. Car parking is pay and display but we parked on the road as the gates were locked before dawn.

Reflections of Travelling Artists in the USA
by
Leslie Read

Depending on where you go flights can be long but the trip is well worth the trouble especially in the fall, the colours can be amazing. From vast open plains, mountains and lakes, aspen groves and pine forests, we saw them all; the weather can be as changeable as the scenery but you can watch a storm over the mountains and not see a drop of rain, you can drive up over a pass from the sun in the 70's through a snowy Christmas card scene to sunny 70's again all in 25 miles - due to the altitude.

Just driving through Yellowstone and Grand Teton you can see Chipmunk, Squirrels, Bison, Elk, Mule Deer, Coyote, Prong Horns, Moose, Bald Eagle, Red tail hawks, Golden Eagle, Osprey, Heron, Cormorants, Trumpeter Swans, Goosanders, Blue birds; with a little more searching Black bear, Sage grouse, with luck Wolves, & Grizzly.

In the space of 3 weeks we travelled on 7 flights stayed in 6 hotels and travelled approximately 10952.6 miles and took 6000 photos…….each.

On the 17 th September we moved into the town of Jackson visiting The National Wildlife Museum.

One of the highlights was the Jackson Hole Arts Festival & Quick Draw where we reacquainted ourselves with artists we met 2 years ago and made new friends. We spent some time chatting and reminiscing with John Seerey-Lester who was doing a book signing at the Trailside Gallery his wife Suzy (a very nice lady) was also there exhibiting her work also Kyle Simms, plus other painters and sculptors. We visited most if not all the galleries in Jackson and watched demos in most of them i.e. Jim Wilcox, plus several other artists in his galleries most of the galleries also had artists doing demo's all well worth seeing.

Our 3 rd week saw us in Sandstone, Minnesota organised by Vic Sharratt at Lee Greenly's Minneapolis Wildlife Connection and with Dave Rolfe the 4 of us photographed: - Wolves, Cougar, Lynx, Black Bear, Coyote, Foxes, Fisher, Grey fox, Beaver, Racoons, Skunks, Lee let us feed a couple of his fawns while he got the next session ready.

He was also very knowledgeable about lighting and backgrounds to get that extra special shot. Thanks Vic, Lee, Dave & Mo at Amy's café (wonderful brunch) for a fabulous 4 days.

From L to R Vic Sharratt, Jan Watts, Lee Greenly, Dave Rolf & Leslie Read

After all the wildlife watching/photographing we felt we needed a little retail therapy which we got on our last full day in Minneapolis at the Mall of America, this we found was more tiring than the previous 3 weeks - if you go wear very comfortable shoes and give yourselves a couple of days to walk round leisurely.

Now what next……

On 27 September six TWASI members arrived at the Living Rainforest situated near Newbury, a very scenic part of Berkshire .

Operated by the Trust for Sustainable Living, the centre looked like a fascinating place to explore.

There are two greenhouses; housing a collection of over 700 tropical rainforest plants including orchids and insect-eating varieties.

The variety was brilliant and a great place to study plant life.

The rainforest centre is a fascinating place to explore, the more you looked, the more you found: peeking though the leaves reveals tropical birds roaming free, terrapins out basking and the occasional butterfly fluttering past.

The ducks were very entertaining as they squabbled to climb onto one of many giant water lily pads. The centre also houses a dwarf crocodile, toucan, very cute Goeldi's monkey, bird-eating spider, python, tortoise and various lizards.

We all spent the morning sketching and taking photos and later regrouped for lunch in the café. As it was a hot sunny day we sat outside on the patio surrounded by their very pleasant gardens. The centre is manageable in half a day. It and certainly well worth returning to, to see the change in the plants as the seasons change and discover something that was missed on your previous visit.