We are TV stars!!!

Well, 'Born to be Wild' was finally on BBC4 on 10th July 2008. It was over a year ago that we filmed it. The production company did a good job and overall it was a pretty good programme.

I have found a review in the Independant which was favourable, including the phrase - 'The attention to detail, especially in Phil Wilkins's beautiful paintings of insects, and ...'

At the top of this post are some of the bee paintings I was working on when they were filming.

Young birds fledging

There has been a lot of activity on the bird front around our garden. Several nest-boxes were used. The young have been feeding away from their nests.
As well as the usual robins, tits and starlings, we have had a few slightly more out-of-the-ordinary fledglings.
For the first year, the swallows nested in our barn. A single bird showed interest last year. A pair returned this year. They laid eggs in the artificial nest, but only one hatched. We were worried about that one at first, but it did fine.
We also found a stock dove chick in our field. It let me approach very close for a photo before flying off. The green woodpecker was on our telegraph pole. It is an adult, I just liked the photo.