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| from Altarstanes harbour |
(Apologies everyone, some glitch is preventing me from increasing the text size...)
A week on the Isle of May with:
Susan Smith - www.susansmithartist.co.uk
Kittie Jones - www.kittiejones.com
Lara Scouller - www.larascouller.com
Liz Myhill - www.lizmyhill.co.uk
Nye Hughes - www.nyehughes.co.uk
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This was my fourth stay and, as seems always the case, my most productive week of the year so far. All day every day to spend outside, watching, walking, working. Wildlife and dramatic landscape everywhere you look. It's a seriously special place.
My previous visits have all been in June, at the height of the seabird breeding season. This time, beginning of April, only a bit of the breeding has started and the island feels a very different place. Shags were on their eggs and gulls were taking up their territories but the auks -puffins, guillemots, razorbills- were mostly not yet on the cliffs, and the eider ducks weren't yet nesting.
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The Isle of May is a hugely important centre of research. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Sea Mammal Research Unit and the Isle of May bird Observatory Trust have all been involved for many years. Some more links:
Isle of May blog - keep your eye on this for frequent updates and photos
SNH island website - island homepage
SNH island website - how the island is managed
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology - long term seabird studies
Really nice .pdf booklet here - www.snh.org.uk/pdfs/publications/designatedareas/islemay%20jewel%20of%20forth.pdf
To watch the island on webcam, live, click here and here.
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Some of my previous Isle of May blog posts and artworks:
2013 - http://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.co.uk/2013_06_01_archive.html
2013 - https://isleofmaynnr.wordpress.com/2013/06/10/dead-puffins-live-puffins-an-artists-first-view-of-the-may/
2014 - https://isleofmaynnr.wordpress.com/2014/06/05/no-rain-leos-blog-post/
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| Low Light, where we stay |
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| two robins |
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| spot the chiffchaff |
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| loch, Main Light, walled garden, bathhouse, Scotland's oldest lighthouse |
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| oystercatcher |
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| black redstart, male |
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| from Altarstanes |
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| from Main Light |
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| rain at sea |
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| a day of showers |
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| helipad |
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| my first ever ring ouzel! honest. |
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| Low Light, low light |
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| short-eared owl, dusk sketches |
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| short-eared owl, dusk sketches |
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| shag pair |
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| shag sketches |
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| island graveyard |
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| wheatear |
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| Altarstanes |
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| Low Light and spot the Bell Rock lighthouse... |
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| see arch? |
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| hundreds of guillemots & a couple of razorbills |
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| Bass Rock |
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| ink sketch. shag, fulmars, Bass Rock |
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| Green Face cliffs |
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| three-head guillemot, exceedingly rare |
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| May Princess, Liz leaving |
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| Low Light, last night |
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| in the lighthouse keepers' bathhouse |
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| leaving the island |
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