Hidden behind the beauty of nature is the harsh reality. Life is not a bed of roses. Young animals and birds may be cute when you see them but they are incredibly vulnerable. Take a humble bird, it spends time making a nest in a safe location, weaving trigs and manmade materials into a home to keep her eggs warm and safe. She sits on them until the hatch and then heads out to look for food. When she returns they are gone. Taken by other birds. Nature is cruel, she is harsh. Don’t take her at face value and respect the struggle that creatures we take for granted go thro.

This work was inspired by a landscape photograph I took near Ullswater in Cumbria shortly after I witnessed a Heron swallow a baby duck whole, Yuck!