My visit to Lotherton Hall on Saturday 20th April

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of visiting Lotherton Hall again to see the owls that live in the bird garden.  Once there, I met Gascoigne, or "Gazza" as he is known.  He has been hand - reared at Lotherton Hall and is named after the family who once owned the estate "The Gascoignes"

I was really lucky to see Gazza up close.  His handler, Richard Wardle brought him out of his habitat for me to have a closer look. Gazza is so beautiful and straight away I knew I wanted to make our model owls inspired by him.

Richard had looked after Gazza since he was in his egg and had huge knowlege about him.  As Gazza moved around on Richard's hand I was able to see how his wings folded and how he moved.

Richard showed us the edge of his wings and explained that the reason for there being a "comb construction" on the wing's edge is so that the owl can move through the air silently to catch it's prey.  I very much doubt we will be able to create that subtlety with pom-poms, but hey, what a fascinating fact!

Tomorrow in Artclub we will be painting both owls!  They are as tall as me and this evening I made their beaks. I will put some pictures on the Art and Creativity blog this week so you can see how they are progressing.

Thankyou so much to the staff in the bird garden for taking the time to talk to me and letting me meet Gazza.  I had a lovely morning.