During my first visit to Bodenham Lake I took a number of photographs for reference and I was attracted to the patterns and shapes in a very small section of one of the images, which depicted a view from the new bird hide on the eastern side of the lake across to an island with a number of tall trees on it. In the background was Dinmore Hill and Queenswood, a sight that I was very familiar with and had lots of personal significance.

My initial objective was to create a loose composition using the techniques that I had developed in the Nupend picture and to some extent this was achieved, particularly with the backdrop. However, the whimbrels were more of a challenge, because they had to be recognisable and I didn’t want them to be just flat shapes. Therefore, the outcome was a compromise of styles – loosely detailed. To counter this I chose an unusual and limited colour pallet, which surprisingly adds a feeling of mystery to the work. I also made the landmark fir trees, that are on the side of the A49 going up Dinmore Hill, appear to have a haunting look.

I was tempted to do further work on this painting but decided that I would loose some of the spontaneity and looseness, so decided not to and leave it as it is.

Whimbrel – background information from Herefordshire Wildlife Trust

The islands of Bodenham Lake were unmanaged after gravel extraction finished in the 1980’s. In 2018 the Trust recognised that the tree cover on the islands of Bodenham Lake was very uniform, meaning that the islands only suited the needs of a limited number of species. In 2019 and 2020 the Trust transformed two and half of the islands, so that Bodenham Lake supports the needs of ground nesting and wading birds.

The newly created lower islands are perfect for wading birds, which feed in exposed mud. The new islands have attracted whimbrel, a wading bird to Bodenham Lake for the first time in 20 years. Whimbrel are on the RSPB red list of UK Birds of Conservation Concern (BoCC).