My story as an artist and filmmaker started with watching wildlife in water. I construct total habitats round ponds after which doc the extraordinary drama of on a regular basis wildlife.
I’ve travelled the world to observe wildlife but it surely’s the species residing near my Yorkshire dwelling the place I’ve uncovered essentially the most spellbinding tales. And these mini-dramas often revolve round water. From the frogs in my backyard pond – whose lives rival any trendy Sci-Fi film – I’ve made it my mission to file the extraordinary lives of on a regular basis animals.
On this speak, delivered on the World Chicken Truthful 2025, I reveal how water is on the coronary heart of my work with wildlife.
My wild backyard
I constructed my backyard, excessive on the Yorkshire Wolds, with wildlife in thoughts. And as with all wildlife backyard, I started with water. From there I added drystone partitions for stoats, an underground sett for badgers, nest packing containers for owls and a woodland for passing hare and deer. Then I positioned 80 cameras all through.
My fascination with wildlife started by watching the creatures in my backyard pond. A lot of my adolescence was spent staring into our backyard pond, following the unimaginable dramas that unfolded in its watery depths. I watched again swimmers, diving beetles, wolf spiders, newts and tadpoles as they performed out their grotesque, thrilling lives.
Again swimmers, for instance, will inject tadpoles with a toxic saliva that dissolves their insides! Artwork This fascination for nature was additionally the start of my life as an artist. I’d draw every thing I noticed, recording each element. I wasn’t any good at college, being severely dyslexic, however I wished to be taught every thing in regards to the behaviour of the animals I watched.
My wildlife pond
After I moved to my present dwelling, the place my gallery can also be located, the very first thing I did was dig a pond. And never lengthy after frogs started to reach. I filmed their story, proper from their raucous mating to the fascinating means the cells of their spawn divides, by means of the metamorphosis from tadpole to froglet.
I then constructed a pond particularly for stoats, and subsequent to it a secret nesting chamber and tunnels for them to cover in. This too led to a movie, uncovering the key lives of those elusive animals. There at the moment are 9 ponds in my backyard and no more room for any extra owl or kestrel packing containers. So once I acquired the possibility to develop a brand new habitat in a close-by ash woodland, I additionally started with a pond. This has since attracted so many species: from badgers, to foxes, roe deer to even a goshawk and my cameras doc all of it.
Water sources additional afield
At a bigger stretch of water, not removed from my dwelling, I’ve discovered extra topics to movie. I’ve created synthetic nesting chambers to draw kingfishers and, while ready for his or her eggs to hatch, have positioned hides near a swan nest in addition to a reed warbler nest the place a cuckoo chick was lurking.
To file all this unimaginable, secret, motion, I’ve used distant cameras. However even with this help, my work may be exhausting and includes lengthy days in a disguise unable to go away for worry of lacking out on all of the motion. This spring I even constructed an underwater tunnel to movie a swan nest.
I hope you’ve got loved studying extra about my filmmaking course of and the dramas that unfold while you present water for wildlife – and I hope I’ve impressed you to exit and create habitats for the creatures in your gardens too!
