July Nature Diary (2024)

Hedgehogs, robins, frogs and birds of prey

July was a busy month for nature spotting as well as just being generally busy with the end of the school year for my daughter, as well as a number of trips and work events to keep life interesting! This is my excuse for why I’ve only just finished editing my July Nature Diary entry, anyway - and why there’s quite a lot of ‘work in progress’ illustrations!

1st July 2024

I took Mick (our border terrier) through the cemetery this morning and we came across a hedgehog, bustling through the long grass, looking very busy. Whilst hedgehogs are usually nocturnal animals, according to The British Hedgehog Preservation Society you are more likely to see them out-and-about in daylight hours during high summer, when the nights are short.

A hedgehog illustration in coloured pencil (Ali Edwards)

As long as the hedgehog is moving with purpose and/or collecting grass and leaves it is probably just a Mother hog, trying to fit in all of her chores of nesting/feeding young. If you see a hedgehog in daytime and it looks lethargic, appears to be 'sunbathing', is wobbly or otherwise gives cause for concern, you should act to help it (see The British Hedgehog Preservation Society website for lots of helpful first aid info).

9th July 2024

After a couple of months of being AWOL, a robin has made a welcome return to the garden today. I’ve been doing some quick gestural sketches in pencil to try to capture the more common poses and the cheeky glances.

A spread in my sketchbook with a range of gestural drawings of a robin

Did you know that the reason we don’t see robins as much in the height of summer is that this is the point that their food sources are most plentiful and so it is simply that they keep to dense hedgerow and wooded areas and don’t need to visit garden bird tables, etc?

Unlike in most birds, male and female robins are almost impossible to tell apart as both have the bright, red breast for which they are famous. In the females this is purely decorative, whilst for males it acts as a way to settle territorial disputes with other males. In fact, this loveable little garden companion is actually one of the most aggressive of our native birds, with male territorial disputes often descending into a vicious fight that can leave one or both birds injured, or even dead! You’ll never look at a robin in quite the same way again, will you?!

18th July 2024

I love attending art workshops and this latest one had a great twist! It was hosted by Emma Carpendale over at The Creative Flock and involved a virtual tour of Icarus Falconry, a birds of prey rescue centre. We spent about 90 minutes being introduced to different birds by the keeper and attempting some timed sketches. It was a nice change of pace and a different sort of experience for me as I still draw mostly from still photographs. I did manage to capture some rough sketches, but I’ll admit I just spent some time enjoying watching and learning about the birds - they are fascinating creatures and even those basically brought up in captivity from being a hatchling are still clearly ‘wild’ as opposed to behaving and interacting like a domesticated animal.

The spread in my sketchbook of images crated during the live tour of the Birds of Prey centre.

This workshop has also inspired me to try some more detailed illustrations of birds of prey - starting with this Little Owl.

Little Owl in coloured pencil study - work in progress

29th July 2024

Common Frog in coloured pencil study - work in progress

My other half was doing his semi-regular chore of dredging our garden pond - using a small net to get rid of fallen leaves and other debris that ends up there. Imagine his surprise on a slightly deeper pull to find he’d deposited a frog out onto the surrounding stones! It immediately returned to the pond with an indignant ‘plop’ and spent the next ten minutes mostly submerged but with its eyes above the water line, staring malevolently at him. He has learnt his lesson, Mr Frog!

Incidentally, we knew it was a frog rather than a toad because of his rather handsome markings and also because he jumped into the pond; toads tend to ‘walk’ rather than hop.

I’m always pleased to find frogs or toads in the garden as they like to feast on snails and slugs that would otherwise be eating my vegetable crops. We have a number of ‘wilder’ areas in our garden where we leave piles of old wood, large stones/bricks and other unearthed garden rubble etc, as well as having our small, shallow pond, which are all ideal for frogs and toads looking for both summer cover and winter hibernation spots.