Cute babyness here!

Life certainly seems to be running away with me these days, so good to be keeping busy and getting out and about during this amazing time of year :)

First up, I managed to find a few hours to pick up my pencils last Sunday and it felt so good to get back into it after an unintentional two month break! Here's the next stage to my Puffin Study, prepare for a "squee" moment!

Puffling in progress

Puffling complete and this excerpt shows the work begun on the juvenile stage

In other work, things have been really hectic on the surveying front, newt monitoring surveys and bat surveys galore which are certainly keeping me busy! Ecologists the country over are no doubt nodding in agreement with this :) Here are a few pics from my travels over the last few days:

Buzzing about a Guelder-rose

Leopard slug

A definite squee moment, my first Great Crested Newt larvae of the year!

Stunning Bee Orchids, one site has loads of these, amazing!
I'd not had the pleasure of seeing them before, so delicate.

A particularly big Marsh Orchid

Not the best pic in the world but this was Thurs 12th/Fri 13th's "Honey Moon"
It started off a lot bigger than shown here, the same every June apparently!

In other news, I took my car theory test mid-week and I'm pleased to say I passed it. Yes, after 4 years on the road on two wheels I'm finally heading over the dark side and going for my driving licence...

Hooray!

Also on Saturday, I finally got round to booking a birthday gift given to me last year!! It was due to run out on the 26th June so I needed to get it in quick and thankfully the weather yesterday stayed dry. When I get a chance I'll probably write a more detailed blog post about it (saving it for a rainy day ;) ) but in the meantime, here are a few teasers from SMJ Falconry's delightful creatures. Plenty of drawing material to go at here!!!

Tropical Screech Owl

Harris Hawk taking a breather

Reggie Perrin - A Peregrine Falcon

Bengal Eagle Owl - I managed to catch her blinking her nictitating membrane :)

Just to show her sheer size, she was rather heavy!
Little Ashen-faced Barn Owl to the bottom right

Winking Long-eared Owl

A European Kestrel

I hope you've enjoyed these photos, I'll leave you with one more of a cheeky appearance in the Cambrian news, a Welsh local newspaper distributed in my old university town of Aberystwyth :)

Fame! Got to start somewhere :)

Don't forget you can see more of my pencil work over on my Facebook page and if you click the "Like" button you can keep updated with all the action as and when it happens!

Meg Ghyll's Fabulous Facebook Page ;) or indeed Twitter @MegGhyllArt

Ciao fer now!

Meg x