westraystudios.co.uk

by Bob Smith

Back in the spring of 2008, a friend Bob Smith, approached me with his idea of producing a pocket-sized guide to the birds in his local park. Well, he is a life-long resident of West Ham in London, and the Borough is fortunate to have a huge park where the residents can go for a quiet walk, sit and watch the world go by, or even take part in sporting activities.

Unlike Orkney there are also lots of lovely trees which look magnificent in the warm months and majestic in winter. Being a keen photographer, Bob spent the best part of a year photographing all the different species of birds that visit the park, and he asked me to make it into a pocket guide to sell to visitors as an aid to helping the visitors and locals alike to enjoy the environment.

We decided to throw in some close-ups of the birds' heads as illustrations in order to help with identification. Those illustrations kept me busy for at least nine months while Bob continued to photograph the birds.

The book has proved very popular and it is available to buy online from the web site

http://www.birdsofwesthampark.co.uk/ and you can see my illustrations on this page below.