Robert E Fuller

Now that the clocks have turned back and our days are shorter, I’ve been thinking back to what an amazing summer of wildlife I’ve had.

It’s so much easier to watch urban foxes than their country counterparts, where these quick-witted, sharp-eyed mammals are all too elusive.

On a live screen playing in my art studio, I can see Bonnie the tawny owl feeding two fluffy, wide-eyed chicks.

I am currently enjoying amazing views of both a tawny owl and a kestrel as they sit on clutches of eggs.

I often collect bird pellets and take them back to my art studio to dissect. These matted clumps of indigestible fur and bone are coughed up by birds every day and offer fascinating insights into their diets.

AS spring unfolds, I like to paint with my studio door open so that I can hear the bird song.

TWO tawny owl chicks whose arrival I had been eagerly waiting to watch on my nest cameras, tragically failed to hatch.

MY wildlife cameras give me a direct view into the daily lives of the barn owls that occupy Fotherdale, the valley that sweeps away from my art studio in Thixendale.

THIS year more than any other I have come to understand how important it is to connect to nature – and how so many of us feel cheered up by wildlife.

ON a TV monitor beside my painting easel, two playful stoats bound about. Far from a distraction, these happy animals lift my spirits as I finish a new art collection for Christmas.