Art: Red Kite

I quite like Mono Monday challenges, but was going to skip it today. Another day at home, very enjoyable, but nowhere near any "Art". But then .................

Mowing the front lawn, I heard some sounds above and looked up. And was astonished. The first red kite I have seen in the north-west, over our suburban house, and being mobbed by three buzzards. We commonly see kites off the A34 south of Oxford, and less frequently around Stevenage,  which is near their English stronghold in the Chilterns. They've also been re-introduced to the Harewood House area outside Leeds.  And of course they're always survived in small numbers in mid Wales - when I was young they were one of those rare birds you were unlikely ever to see unless you happened to be in their Welsh stronghold (which I never was). In medieaval  times, and before persecution by gamekeepers, they were a relatively common urban bird, but that was history. The reintroduction programme has been a huge success, and the Welsh population has expanded, but today's flight past was very unexpected.. 

So it seems fitting to blip a red kite. The image (originally in colour of course) is from a great book I've got edited by Carry Ackroyd called "Wildlife in Printmaking". It is full of great images. And as the kite is my tweet of the day, that book (which is also full of great bird art) also features. I love good wildlife photography. But somehow painting and printmaking capture the essence of living things in ways which photography cannot. I don't know why, but somehow the imagination involved in drawing and painting adds something which a photograph, no matter how good, never can.

The extra is one of my favourites from the printmaking book. I know some purists do not regard wildlife art as "Art". I think they are wrong in a big way.