Kingcups by the Pond

Thursday, 13th May 2004
Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

Two blackbirds are engaged in a melodious duel in the neighbouring gardens to the left and the right as I sit at the bench by our wildlife pond and draw the kingcups, also known as Marsh Marigolds, Caltha palustris, in the last patch of late afternoon sun. The kingcups were looking fresher when Barbara photographed them almost a month ago. Now clusters of pod-like seeds are appearing. A female smooth newt turns sinuously just below the pond surface. There are plenty of pond skaters this year, gliding about on the surface but if I don't control the floating plant that is, as usual, threatening to take over the whole pond they soon won't have any space left to move in.

Nick Gordon

I had sad news last week that wildlife cameraman Nick Gordon died on April 25th in Venezeula at the beginning of his latest filming expedition. I met Nick at Martinmere Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve when they filmed me drawing for his Wild Shots series. He set me the challenge of animating a sequence of a jaguar which he'd filmed in a waterside clearing in the rain forest.

Nick told me that as a boy he'd read Charles Waterton's Wanderings in South America and said that the book had inspired him to become a wildlife filmmaker. I'd hoped that some day I might have had the opportunity to show him what remains of the nature reserve that Waterton set up in 1830s, not far from here at Walton Park.

My Jaguar animated gif, an inadequate tribute of Nick's talent and dedication.

Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk