Long-billed Dowitcher. Gibraltar Point, Lincs. July 2004.

I forgot my notebook when I went to see this lovely rare American wader, but it was really really really really close to the hide, so I had this utterly insatiable crazed lust to sketch a 100% life-like recreation of this spectacular creature's form on paper for posterity. So I went back to the car and found a chewed biro and a scabby piece of paper in the glove compartment before enchanting a hide full of awestruck bird-fanciers with my Velazquez-esque artistic abilities, and then later sellotaped it into my birdspotting jotter when I got home. But just look at what's happened! The sellotape has gone and made my vital field observations all blurry and messy. God damn!!! The feet are brilliant though, yeah?

When the Taliban ruled in Afghanistan they outlawed the depiction of any living creature, and you know something, when I look at this field sketch I find myself in some kind of agreement with them.