Page 122 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10
P. 122
VIEWPOINT
WILDLIFE CHAMPION
ATM
In our series about people with a passion for a species, we ask the
wildlife artist ATM why he cares so much about kestrels?
Why are kestrels special? connection with nature.
Because I trained them when I was I recently painted a kestrel in Acton,
growing up in Rochdale. I was 14 West London, on the side of emergency
when I bought my first kestrel from housing made of shipping containers
a lad at school for £5. He hadn’t trained stacked four-high in a big estate.
it so I read books about falconry – the The bird is shown hovering above a
best one was Jack Mavrogordato’s wildflower meadow. We’ve also made
A Hawk for the Bush, which was an planters for growing vegetables and
inspiration for me. He had such respect herbs, insect houses and sown seeds
for birds of prey and the complicated to make real wildflower meadows
and difficult art of training them. around the tower blocks, as part of a
community project working with the
What did training involve? local school and youth groups. This
It was a long process of stage-by-stage kind of thing could have a huge impact
increases in trust between the bird if it was repeated in lots of other places.
and me. I made all my own falconry S A kestrel is a
equipment from leather: hoods and Why are kestrel magical sight. How much time to you have
jesses; leashes and lures. You need to numbers falling? to spend birdwatching?
get a bird trained to the point where it Kestrels hovering along I love their Not as much as I’d like, but I’ve
will fly 30 yards to your fist, then you the roadside used to be assured light just been to Arne in Dorset where
know it’s ready to fly free. The first time a common sight, but I heard the wonderful sound of
it did was extremely nerve-racking. they’re now a rarity. It and the way nightjars. I grew up wandering the
I’d get up every morning around must be due to lack of they hover. T valleys and woods around Rochdale
6am before school and fly the kestrel, habitat, plus farmers and I love wild places and birdsong.
swinging a lure round my head and using more pesticides Seeing a kestrel today is a magical
snatching it away at the last moment, and rodenticides. We’ve sight. I love their assured flight and
as the bird would swoosh overhead, also lost meadows, field margins and watching them hovering above a field.
arcing and diving after the food. other unkempt areas. When I was They remind me of those sunny
growing up we used to go to days of my youth and the freedom of
an area simply known as ‘The exploring wild places. Matt Swaine
Long Grass’ that was perfect
hunting terrain for kestrels – it ATM is a London-based street artist whose
was full of voles. Our constant work celebrates the beauty of threatened species.
See more of his art at atmstreetart.com
need for tidiness means we
don’t allow nature to grow wild.
So key habitats and the whole The expert view
web of life, all the plants and
creatures that depend on each “The kestrel often hunts by hovering
other, just aren’t there. over rough grassland. Around 70 per
cent of their diet is made up of voles, Portrait: Mark Atherton/The North Somerset Times; Kestrel: ATM; Stafan: Zsolt Nagy
What do you want your whose numbers tend to peak every
artwork to achieve? three years. This corresponds to bigger clutches
I paint endangered species, of eggs. There have been significant population
mostly in urban areas, to reach declines in the UK as a whole – around 35 per cent
people who may not have a – and the RSPB suggests this is driven by a loss
of habitat, often due to more intensive agriculture.
Left: ATM collaborated with Karen
Francesca to create this kestrel and Anti-coagulant rodenticides are another problem.”
meadow painting in West London. Stafan Roos is senior conservation scientist, RSPB
October 2018
