[seggs]

wow debra what a thread you have!!!!!
great to hear your adventures keep it coming! and if you have any watercolours for sale ? i think a few people on here would be interested by that effort!

[flippsy]

Originally Posted by seggs

wow debra what a thread you have!!!!!
great to hear your adventures keep it coming! and if you have any watercolours for sale ? i think a few people on here would be interested by that effort!

Second that!!!

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by seggs

if you have any watercolours for sale ? i think a few people on here would be interested by that effort!

Thanks Seggs & Flipsy - see my new signature

[matt green]

Originally Posted by deborah4

see my new signature

Woooooo....Pan left!

Well thats ''one'' of my pledges sorted

Matt

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by matt green

Woooooo....Pan left!

Well thats ''one'' of my pledges sorted

Matt

Well done Matt, shout if you want a hard copy of anything.

Ive received a few PMs referring to earlier posts in the thread. Unfortunately, I was not able to re-upload them, but will posts more pics with reports in due course. Here's a couple to keep it going (these particular ones won't appeal to many people as they are a bit fauvish, but just say if you want to download any to print!)

[timwootton]

Hi Deborah - A very belated Happy New Year (and many thanks for 'reminding' me of my birthday recently - much appreciated!). Just been catching up on your exploits over 2006 - crikey I can't believe you've only been 'at it' for a few months - you must have a remarkably retentive memory. I certainly remember your whirlwind visit to Orkney with fondness and no small amount of admiration considering the distances you have travelled - geographically and metaphysically - in solitude and reflection.
A huge well done from me.
Tim.

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by timwootton

crikey I can't believe you've only been 'at it' for a few months - you must have a remarkably retentive memory.
Tim.

Certainly be 'at it' for a lot longer than a 'few months' LOL - my parents are keen birdwatchers and Ive been what I would call a 'casual' birder for many years - actually from the age of 7 or 8, when I used to go to Bently Wildfowl Trust to paint ducks!!!!. Have taken a few solo trips in the past, both to Scotland and Europe but they weren't specifically 'birding' trips, more holidays, although I spent much of the time birdwatching especially when I was in Scotland a few years ago for a month. Admittedly only starting 'listing' late last year and getting 'totally obsessed' with it, so my hours went up to 2-3 days per week instead of just occasional weekends. Visiting you of course was part of a 3/half week tour specifically set aside for birding but resulted in me losing my job for taking unpaid leave from work. Still it was worth it, just to see you win at pool Guess my memory's very good for visual things but useless for other things - Certainly can't remember what I'm supposed to be doing from one day to the next!


Ps. It's a GREAT NORTHERN DIVER!

[bartooon]

Originally Posted by deborah4

Here's a couple to keep it going (these particular ones won't appeal to many people as they are a bit fauvish, but just say if you want to download any to print!)

Who says forums aren't educational? I didn't know what "fauvish" meant 'til I looked it up and now I know all about Fauvism, Matisse etc!

I have to disagree with your assumption that they won't appeal to many people though. I love the right hand one of Barnacles in flight - very evocative.

[timwootton]

Sorry Deborah - I got the wrong end of the stick. (Thought you were doing well on just a few months - ha ha!)

However must disagree wholeheartedly - def. btd.

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by timwootton

However must disagree wholeheartedly - def. btd.

See ya outside mate - NOW!! ( )

[matt green]

Originally Posted by bartooon

I have to disagree with your assumption that they won't appeal to many people though. I love the right hand one of Barnacles in flight - very evocative.

I agree (with bartoon that is!)

Can't really think how these could be improved without losing that unique self-found style.Maybe try some works on a larger scale?

Anyway...they all have a nice fresh contemporary style,any one of them would look great in a suitable well chosen frame.

Great stuff

Matt

[JohnZ]

What did the ducks feel about being painted Deborah ?

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by JohnZ

What did the ducks feel about being painted Deborah ?

They didn't feel a thing, John, they were all 'plastic' if I recall

... anyway enough of these silly shenanigans, back to 'Birding Day' reports - well when I get off this mad thread and get some birding done.....

[deborah4]

Well I haven't got any birding done today, gone down with a fluey something, so thought I'd cheer myself up with another Day on Islay ...

Friday 20th October - Second day on Islay

... But it's Wet Wet Wet. Views from the Hostel room of Grey overcast skies suggests the Second Flood is long overdue. Speaking of which... a quick look at the Natural History Trust sightings board, and there they are! Sprawled in white chalk capitals, ''15,000 Barnacle Geese at RSPB Loch Gruinart''. They started to arrive yesterday, while I was counting Greenland Whitefronts over the Rinns. This was it - the day I'd been longing for ever since deciding on this trip several months back - the Goose Extravaganza at Gruinart RSPB Reserve with the arrival of 30-35,000 Barnacles (Branta leucopis), for their winter reprieve from the harsh conditions of the Arctic. Managing to hitch a lift along the shore of Loch Indaal as far as the turn off for the Reserve, I step out of the Plummer's van into a fresh onslaught of wind and rain. Views across the Loch are bleak, but just light enough to clock in a pair of Red Throated Divers and 1 Black Throated Diver (no GNDs today ), along with a small flock of Common Scoter immediately visible. With a 3 mile walk to the Reserve and the promise of coffee on arrival, I decide not to linger...

The rain's holding off for a while and in the lull, Greenfinch, Stonechat, Starling, flocks and flocks of Redwing with a few Fieldfare thrown in and one lone Reed Bunting on the walk towards the Gruinart pastures: With a Grey Wagtail bobbing around as I cross a small but optimistic bubbling brook. Nearly there, but not before being clocked myself by a solitary Buzzard, who seems intent on escorting me the rest of the way, as he moves along the tree -lined road, stopping each time, just ahead of me.

I hear them first: Thousands of Barnacle Geese, like a distant football crowd cheering a 90 minuter into the back of the net as, in the distance, a myriad of white and black specks rise up like a swarm of locusts above the mudflats. Wow! It's the noise rather than the spectacle that grabs me in a way that's impossible to describe and as I get nearer, I notice this crescendo is accompanied each time by the mass uprisal of what must be over half the numbers of geese now feeding on the carefully prepared grasses (by the loving hands of the RSPB), which appear to be turning rapidly to mud as it's pulled up roots 'n all. No, not a football crowd, an oncoming Express train, getting louder and louder as the geese gain height until it evolves into a nondescript roar. New arrivals are likely to be 'shifty' but there's certainly something else going on in the distance and just as I come to the last turn up a steep slope to the Visitor's Centre, over the sea end of Loch Gruinart; a young Golden Eagle glides over distant peaks towards Beinn ******. (Well I'm thinking that's what it was, too big and wrong flight jizz for a Buzzard ... again speaking of which, as I arrive at the Visitor's Centre, the Geese go up again, this time only a mild panic, merely two more Buzzard whose primary concern is dealing with a large rook flock roosting in the trees in the woods adjacent to the Centre. Just as noisy though! And time for a closer inspection from the Hide...

Suddenly overhead, a faint babbling of Barnacles - I step outside the Hide (fortunately it's stopped raining and may even brighten up a bit later) - in the distance coming in over Loch Gruinart another large skein (some 150) of Barnacles arriving - scoped views show several more long stretched out 'V's, 50 strong, and just behind them ... and behind them, even more ... they are coming in fast and strong, by late afternoon I've clocked up at least 25,000 Barnacles now on the Reserve and they are still coming ... Well perhaps I could be excused for ignoring everything else on the mudflats in my notes, but quite frankly, other than a pair of Greylags, a few small huddles of Whitefront along with the usual habitat stuff and a slightly less usual Common Snipe, I just can't think of anything more to add to what has been an incredible experience. Yet again, timing couldn't be better, my first day on the RSPB Reserve at Loch Gruinart and it was the day the largest proportion of wintering Barnacles arrived on Islay. More on Gruinart the next day, or would it be the day after?

Oh, there was another target for the trip, that I'd completely forgotten about in the excitement, but as the day drew to a close, I decide to walk up to Ardnave Point as this would be a good time to get onto Islay's very precious population of Chough who should be gathering on the dunes before their nightly roost. More on that later ... (so you'll have to wait for 'mine' too, Allen M, if you're reading this )

[matt green]

Another fine instalment Deborah

Wouldn't have been ''a scottish'' trip without all those geese and eagles now
would it,glad you got' em all!

Really like the scenes in the photos,looks a very quiet and peacefull spot
(except for all those geese),would make a nice local patch eh?

Matt

..hope the fluey thing clears up soon btw

[joannec]

Another inspiring report......more good karma means perfect timing again.

Joanne

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by joannechattaway

...more good karma means perfect timing again.

Joanne

the 'Karma' continued

Later that afternoon

The chances of covering the 3 mile trek to Ardnave without being soaked was slight I suppose given the now very thundery sky. Yep, after surprising a Stag Red Deer, trying his best to look like a ridiculously large clump of Bracken amongst the like in which he was 'hiding', I hadn't ventured more than 500 yards when the heavens opened. Nevertheless, finally reach the Point by 5.30 but the light is already low and about the right time for the roost party - it's just a case of finding them on this wide expanse of sand dune and pasture. Just time to take a few pics, and briefly check out a very nice Male Hen Harrier sweeping the heather clumps further afield. Everything's grey today ...and my boots are wet again. I'm also seriously at risk of twisting an ankle: There are hundreds of rabbit warrens here pot-holing the dunes. There are also Brown Hare and for the first time in years, I see a rather large example eyeing me up from the top of the next dune.

Red-billed Chough (p. pyrrhocorax) on Islay, have, compared to the continental populations of pyrrhocorax and Alpine Chough (p. graculus), adapted to sea level habitat remarkable well. However, this has not been without a tremendous helping hand from the RSPB on Islay, who have worked ceaselessly with local farmers to make farmland 'Chough-friendly'. Low intensity pasturing, minimal management of rough pasture and low fertilizer use is vital for Chough, one of the very few breeding populations in the UK, to flourish here on Islay.

The sound of wind rushing over the Dunes, brings with it rather distinctive Corvid 'chirrups' - and then, another target for the trip, as I climb the next Dune to look down on some 15 Chough having a feeding jolly on the small invertebrates buried in the sand. They are all colour ringed with each individual having a unique colour. The group gradually move back towards some farmland away from the Point and I follow them to see where they are heading as more arrive. There are some 40 + individuals here, and I enjoy the show as they leap and bound with a zest for life and each other that is truly uplifting. They enter the roost just before dark, and I too, have to face the trek home, an 8 mile hike back to Port Charlotte Youth Hostel. Fortunately, after covering half the distance, a kindly lady pulls up on the Loch Indaal road and takes me the rest of the way. Lucky end to an even luckier day.

[JohnZ]

Yet another fine report Deborah. Oops sorry two reports !
You appear to have been through Hell and high water, particularly water, on your travels to the frozen North. Yet it is clear form your reports that you appear to have enjoyed every minute. Well most of them anyway.

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by JohnZ

Yet another fine report Deborah. Oops sorry two reports !
You appear to have been through Hell and high water, particularly water, on your travels to the frozen North. Yet it is clear form your reports that you appear to have enjoyed every minute. Well most of them anyway.

Appreciate the feedback John: I did enjoy the birding but it's the writing up of the reports that feel like Hell and high water so it's good to know that they are appreciated and people have read them. The Choughs were indeed a joy that day, as were the geese

[Larry Wheatland]

Lovely paintings from your Scottish trip. Makes a nice change from digipix.
I guess the White-fronted Geese you saw on Islay would have been the Greenland ones ? I've still yet to see those. Chance they might be seen as a split before too long perhaps.

[r2didi2]

Wow Deborah - I didn't realise you did paintings/drawings - they are really excellent :-)))

All the best
Didi

[Upland Birder]

Hi Deborah,

Islay is a place I want to go to amongst many other islands off mainland Scotland. Your two recent postings were really interesting. I think you should put together a book on your birding adventures combined with your artwork and a few photo's.

Later this year I am going in search of Choughs. What a great sighting you had.

I know what you mean when you see Skeins of wild Geese flying in from a distance. You observed something very special. Its great when you look at them in flight through the scope. Its amazing when you see formation after formation in the distant sky beyond the formation out in front. I love to watch wild Geese. I even love Canada and Greylag Geese.

Below are a couple of poems about Wild Geese from two different perspectives that I originally posted in the Birds and Poetry section. I hope you like them.

A few weeks before Christmas I listened to a Radio 4 programme called Shared Earth. The presenter was on Islay. It got me thinking that we share the Earth with Wild Geese. During the programme a poem was recited and then I contacted the BBC to find out what the Poem was Called and the Poet. They got back to me.

Here it is:-

SOMETHING TOLD THE WILD GEESE

BY Rachel Field

Something told the wild geese
It was time to go,
Through the fields lay golden
Something whispered, "snow"

Leaves were green and stirring,
Berries, luster-glossed,
But beneath warm feathers
Something cautioned, "frost"

All the sagging orchards
Steamed with amber spices,
But each wild beast stiffened
At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese
It was time to fly,
Summer sun was on their wings,
Winter in their cry.

Here is another poem about wild geese

A HUNTER'S POEM

By Lem Ward Crisfield

A hunter shot at a flock of geese
That flew within his reach,
Two were stopped in their rapid flight
And fell on the sandy beach.

The male bird lay at the water's edge
And just before he died,
He faintly called to his wounded mate
And she dragged herself to his side.

She bent her head and crooned to him
In a way distressed and wild,
Caressing her one and only mate
As a mother would a child.

Then covering him with her broken wing
And gasping with failing breath,
She laid her head against his breast
A feeble honk ...then death!

This story is true though crudely told,
I was the man in this case,
I stood knee deep in snow and cold
And the hot tears burned my face.

I buried the birds in the sand where they lay,
Wrapped in my hunting coat,
And threw my gun and belt in the bay
When I crossed in the open boat.

Hunters will call me a right poor sport
And scoff at the thing I did,
But that day something broke in my heart ...
And shoot again??? God forbid!!!

The above poem was published in The Chronicle in Crested Butte (USA).

When I heard the first poem and then read the second it generated a great deal of emotion in me. I will leave you to read and experience your own emotional response.

Look forward to your future postings. Keep them going. They are interesting and fun to read. They brighten the days of all who read them.

Dean

Cheadle Birder

[joannec]

[quote=Dean Powell] I think you should put together a book on your birding adventures combined with your artwork and a few photo's.



Hi Deborah

I agree with Dean, you should.

Joanne

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by Dean Powell

Hi Deborah,

When I heard the first poem and then read the second it generated a great deal of emotion in me. I will leave you to read and experience your own emotional response.


Cheadle Birder

Dunno Dean ... I read the Hunter's Poem several times over ... and then when I look at Julian's photos of oiled birds from the Norweigan slick, I'm in turn reminded of Anne's poignant posts on Malta, Nirofo and JP's anguish over windfarms ... the list is endless. I only wish it wasn't. If anything at all in my own accounts could inspire just a little more compassion and respect for wildlife in others, that's about all I could hope for really.

[deborah4]

Originally Posted by Larry Wheatland

I guess the White-fronted Geese you saw on Islay would have been the Greenland ones ? I've still yet to see those. Chance they might be seen as a split before too long perhaps.

Cheers Larry:

Anser albifrons flavirostris

b. Western Greenland
p. Iceland
w. Britain & Ireland

Populations could do with a boost (never mind a split :

1982/83 - concern in decline (= 16,500) -> protection from hunting in Scotland and Ireland. B. sites designated Ramsar + SP areas and compensation/management introduced
1991/2000 - 35,000
2006 - Populations again in worrying decline: 26,000 - Ban on hunting in Iceland but possible recent causes of decline climate change but also Canada Geese moving into traditional GWF breeding sites.

(stand corrected on above stats if wrong)