Rook (Corvus frugilegus). Words & picture by Matt Sewell.

It’s almost as if they shouldn’t belong to the Crow family; sociable and generally vegetarian, Rooks are just out for a laugh really. With a clownish, daft face and a shaggy, dishevelled appearance, these croakers aren’t out to cause mischief like their cousins. In fact, when not in their rookery, they spend most of their time in fields not being scared by scarecrows (maybe if all the farmers got together and changed the name to ‘scarerooks’, that would work better). But farmers should just leave them alone as they eat as many pests and crop-eating bugs as they do seeds. Good old Rooks.

Matt’s forthcoming book ‘Our Garden Birds’ is now available for pre-order (signed and includes postcards plus a free new set of bird badges)

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Coal Tit (Periparus ater) Words & picture by Matt Sewell.

Like a faded Blue Tit who’s pulled his head out of a bottle of coal dust rather than milk, it’s easy to distinguish him from his brighter Titmouse cousins. Like Goldfinches the Coal Tit prefers to spend his time in great flocks, flitting between woodland, gardens and orchards, making for a gorgeous sight to behold – lucky us.

Matt Sewell bird badges are now on sale in the Caught by the River shop.

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Redwing (Turdus Iliacus). Words & picture by Matt Sewell.

Looking like a thrush that mistook a can of red spray-paint for his deodorant and headed out for the day.
It is now the perfect time of year to spot bands of Redwings. As they have now made their long journey over from northern Europe to take part in daring daylight raids on holly bushes in towns, hedges and gardens. Maybe its the holly berries that gives him the healthy glow.

Matt Sewell bird badges are now on sale in the Caught by the River shop.

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Occurence Of Birds from R & A Collaborations on Vimeo.

Occurence of Birds by R & A Collaborations: Occurrence Of Birds is the second film to be made as part of our 5 X 5 / 7 project. This project involves us making five films with five people over seven days. In this film we set out to discover illustrator Matt Sewell’s interest and love of birds and why he draws them. The moving image is constructed entirely from still images taken in “bursts” creating an effect that evokes early film qualities. The soundtrack is created from a recording of Matt’s vinyl collection of bird sounds and an interview. The finished film is the result of 14 hours continuous work from inception to completion.

Badge pack number three: Starling, Tawney Owl, Linnet & Waxwing

Now on sale in the shop.

Swift (Apus apus). Words & picture by Matt Sewell.

Summer is coming to a close and sadly the swifts have just about all departed and the skies don’t look the same anymore. The swift is a bird built for one purpose only, to fly. Like a bow that took flight with the arrow, he is a permanent fixture screaming through our summer skies. Even though he’s often mistaken for a Swallow or Martin, the Swift isn’t even in the same family, but is in fact more closely related to Hummingbirds and another curiosity, the Nightjar. The Swift is a strange one as he’s unlike so many other birds. Strange facts surround him, such as he spends more time in the air then any other bird, he feeds and drinks exclusively in the air, he collects his nesting materials whilst in flight and he bathes, mates and sleeps whilst on the wing. Another myth is that the Swift doesn’t have feet, that one isn’t true, he just has short legs.

Matt Sewell bird badges are now on sale in the Caught by the River shop.

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Matt (Bird of the Week) Sewell has just launched a Spotting & Jotting app for the iTunes and Android markets.

It’s an interactive colouring-in book of illustrated birds. There’s ten scenes to choose from, each beautifully illustrated. Colour in the birds to your heart’s content & even save the work onto your device! At just 69p it’s well worth a look.

Green Woodpecker. Words & picture by Matt Sewell.

Of the three woodpeckers on the British Isles the green is the most instantly recognisable. His plumage cleverly makes him hard to detect whilst up a tree, but once this guy leaves the camouflage of leaves he’s like a neon powerball bouncing through the thicket. So really there is nothing surreptitious about the Green Woodpecker. He flies like a madman up and down, up and down and when he’s not banging that beak away at a tree, he’s calling loud with his piercing ‘yaffle’ laugh. This is an olde name for the bird, as in Professor Yaffle, Bagpuss’ friend. So what makes him such an extrovert? Maybe it’s the extra long tongue he hides in his beak? Apparently it can stretch the length of his body to reach bores, beetles and weevils. Personally I think he’d be more at home with a can of lager and a kebab!

Matt Sewell bird badges are now on sale in the Caught by the River shop.

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It’s a very special ‘Bird of the Week’ this week. Matt chose the Stephen’s Island Wren from the extinction list given to him by Ceri Levy when requesting his participation in the ‘Ghosts of Gone Birds’ exhibition. This watercolour stands at 50cm x 70 cm and can be viewed at the ‘Ghosts..’ exhibition at the Liverpool School of Art & Design, this Thursday and Friday.

Xenicus lyalli. Words & picture by Matt Sewell.

Before the late 1800′s a handful of flightless wrens had enjoyed a peaceful, predator free life on a tiny island off New Zealand, singing their songs to the sea for hundreds of years. One of only a few known flightless songbirds in the world and found only on this tiny isle, their whole family would be tragically wiped from Earth by a deadly predator know as Tiddles.

Sadly as with most stories of extinction, the story begins with man arriving at the island, or should I really say the British arriving and building a big old lighthouse. As tradition holds every lighthouse keeper has a cat for companionship and, of course, for the rats. Sadly, Tiddles, the Stephens Island Lighthouse cat ,had arrived and consigned his place in history.

Unaware of the changing times the tiny green wrens just simply didn’t have time to evolve wings and flight and went about there business scampering around the undergrowth as if nothing had changed. Unfortunately this moggy certainly took his job very seriously and within a few months all of the poor little wrens had been pounced upon, extinguished and left outside the lighthouse door.
What can you say really, its just so tragic, a whole species snuffed out in a blink of an eye… Bloody cats! I know why i have always been a dog person now.

Matt Sewell bird badges are now on sale in the Caught by the River shop.

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Cardinalis Cardinalis by Matt Sewell.

I stumbled upon this bright, young punk in Central Park whilst I was in New York recently putting on a solo show. My trip was for twelve days, working round the clock for all but one and a half days after the opening of my exhibition. In these last days I tried to cram in as much of the Big Apple in as possible, so in the last few hours we breezed up to Central Park to take in the sites. But my real aim was to spot a Red Tailed Hawk that Ceri had told me to keep my eyes peeled for. Time was tight and after a stroll, a hot-dog and a few conversations with the resident mad people we headed home, with nothing but a few spots of some weird robin/blackbird hybrid. But just as we were literally leaving the gates my girlfriend shouted ‘Matt whats that!!’ and there he was, the Cardinal in all is vibrant blush glory.

Looking like a mohicaned, american cousin of a bullfinch and proud as punch, he hung around a while to let me have a good old look before chirping and heading off as if to say “I’m just the tip of the iceberg mate, but you’ll be back. Now go home and tell your people of me!” He was great, I’m sure they are as common as Starlings over there but for me he was everything I needed to seal an amazing trip and to get me back home.

Matt Sewell bird badges are now on sale in the Caught by the River shop.

Click here to see previous birds of the week.
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spottingandjotting.co.uk