Printing Plovers

These prints are based on drawings of the Plovers I've been watching this week. The top one is of a pair of little ringed plovers which have been busy dancing their mating dance along the shingle banks of the Severn at Caersws. The second image shows one of my favourite birds, the golden plover. I first saw these on a moorland ridge above my house in Carno and I've watched them every winter since, always in the same place amongst mossy hummocks and acid grass. This week was the first time I've seen them in spring with the dark black face and bib of their summer plumage. I hope they might breed. I stayed with them all day in really hot sunshine; mainly they stayed still tucked into the grass, disappearing completely when disturbed by a passing jet. In the evening they became more active, grooming like (this one in the foreground is shown mid preen) then feeding and squabbling - By 19.00 when I left, they seemed to be preparing for something, maybe to roost in a different location.

I'm really into this method of watercolour printing at the moment; It tends to keep the freshness of my original sketches whilst allowing me to use a strong palette - I'm hoping it will help improve my use of colour in the field which I really struggled with on the golden plovers - many subtle yellows and greys.