Birds, deer and hares in snowy Northumberland

Last weekend I had my first trip to Northumberland for my friend (and fellow artist) Kittie's birthday ceilidh in Lowick village hall. Jennifer had to drop out because of work which meant there was space for me with Kittie and her family in a beautiful self-catering cottage - 'Skylark' cottage at Laverock Law. I had hoped to visit Holy Island/Lindisfarne at least one of the days but circumstances didn't allow. It didn't matter at all - Skylark was perfect for exploring from, and cosy and homely to be in in the evenings. (Details of an ongoing competition to stay at Laverock Law Cottages are at the bottom of this blog.)

view from Skylark cottage

We arrived on Friday evening, leaving Edinburgh in a soaking sleet which quickly became snow as we travelled south. In Northumberland the snow was lying deep. That night, after a veggie haggis Burns Supper we went out in the snow from midnight until 1.30am. We were walking through a magical landscape, blanketed inches deep in white. The crunch crunch crunching of wellies and boots followed us except when we stopped to listen and look, which we did often. We walked on track and in woodland and on open field. Fields were wide expanses of nothing, sky and land matching in colour and in tone. Where there weren't hedgerows and trees we couldn't tell where land ended and sky began. Bending down to hang our heads upside down we watched the land become the sky. The sky become the land.

Several times deer bounded across the landscape. Indistinct to our bare eyes but quite crisp through binoculars. We looked at their hoofprints and saw where they had walked close-footed, then where they had run. Where they leapt they left three or four metre gaps of untouched snow.

Tawny owls began calling and we stood for minutes, motionless and listening. They were all around, near and far, whoo-oo-ooing to and fro. It sounded like there were four or five at least. One called so close that it must have been only two or three trees from us, but we could never see it. Captivating creatures, teasing this owl-obsessed human with their invisible presences.

We also heard pheasants chattering and a burbling bubbling that I think was grouse or the red legged partridges you see around there. This night, and on every other walk, we saw hares with their long slender hind legs and ears dipped in black ink.

On Saturday during the day, after a communal breakfast I walked the snowscape alone for four hours, from 11 until 3. I did an extremely slow circuit, an angular loop of no more than 4 or 5km along field boundaries and tracks. I forded a burn in my wellies, entered woods to seek tracks and signs - hoof and paw and foot prints and droppings of deer, rabbit or hare, fox, birds, and badger perhaps? My route took me to the hamlet of Holborn and back.

When I was nearly back at the cottage I sat in a snowfield and painted the land using watercolour on top of pencil. It was bitterly cold. I had to stop very quickly and whirl my arms round and round to bring blood back to my fingertips. The snow must have been affecting my brain too... I do tend to carried away when out in nature, but the caption I wrote here is particularly strange - "Nostalgic, British, BBC bliss!"

Northumberland snow, pencil & watercolour in sketchbook, 14.5x41cm

After the Saturday night ceilidh we stopped cars on the way home, necessarily, to avoid running over a woodcock that stood docile in the road. It was feeding in the areas of meltwater. The first woodcock I've ever seen. It's quite a large bird, almost pigeon sized. Long straight beak and perfectly camouflaged plumage (perfectly camouflaged when in woodland or marsh, but not when standing in headlight-illuminated snow). Earlier in the evening Kittie's sister had found a pair at this same spot. They let her walk so close that she could have leaned down and picked them up.

On Monday morning there wasn't much time to walk but we watched hordes of birds on and below the bird feeders of the cottages, including at least 10 bramblings Just in that one time were at least:5-10 blue tits, great tits, coal tits
5-10 long-tailed tits
5-10 house sparrows
5-10 greenfinch
10+ brambling
5-10 tree sparrows
15-20 chaffinch
15-20 siskins
15-30 goldfinch
a great spotted woodpecker
... and probably more!

As I've said before, enjoyment of a trip isn't entirely judged by the numbers of birds seen... but in case you're interested, over the whole weekend I saw 38 species:

blue tit
great tit
coal tit
long-tailed tit
house sparrow
greenfinch
brambling
tree sparrow
chaffinch
siskin
goldfinch
great spotted woodpecker
robin
blackbird
crow
rook
geese (grey, unidentified, flying over)
fieldfare
redwing
magpie
yellowhammer
kestrel
cormorant (white belly of a juvenile, flying over)
buzzard
herring gull
woodpigeon
pheasant
bullfinch
starling
woodcock
tawny owl
jackdaw
wren
sparrowhawk (flying across a snowy field - I'm always surprised to see these in the open)
dunnock
red-legged partridge
unknown ducks (in flight, far away)
grey heron

long tailed tit, goldfinch, mrs great spotted woodpecker (no red on her head)

brambling, chaffinch, siskin, goldfinch, at Laverock Law Cottages

Three male bullfinches in the field by Laverock Law Cottages

animal tracks and signs

fox trail? notice where the tail has brushed the snow...

the field where I sketched

Win a stay at Laverock Law:
(Laverock Law Cottages have an ongoing competition to win a stay with them. Anyone can take part in their regular 'Northumberand Mysteries' competition on their facebook page.

my cosy bedroom

Skylark Cottage

 And finally a dog:

 It's snowy. Or Snowy!

On commissioning an artwork

Over the past year I've worked on a number of private commissions, read here about two of them.

Working to commission is very different from preparing for an exhibition. With exhibitions I generally have free reign within a specific theme. One might imagine commissions would be restrictive but I don't tend to find that the reality. I enjoy the process.

I try to have an initial meeting with my customer, getting to know them and what they might like. Then I go away and produce preparatory sketches to give ideas of colour, composition, content, size. A second meeting to discuss what's liked more and less out of what I've done so far. Then I get started.

I'm always happy to be approached to discuss possible commissions - do get in touch!


In exchange for physio

In the summer of 2012, I delivered a painting of the Wallace Monument to the physiotherapist whose practice (Physiocube, Edinburgh) has been such a help to me since the onset of my RSI in 2010. It's a pleasure to be given opportunity to exchange service for service, rather than service for money. And if Picasso could pay for hotel bills using drawings and sketches...

Wallace Monument, acrylic on board, 45x82cm

A retiring doctor

Also in 2012 I was commissioned by my local doctor's surgery to paint the retirement gift of one of Linlithgow's longest standing GPs. This commission was a real treat to work on as over a morning coffee and chat what Dr MacKenzie decided he'd most like was a scene of nearby Blackness Castle and shore - where it turned out both he and I often go birding.

I made a few trips with my watercolours and produced various sketches to gather information and to start to think about what might work most successfully. After more coffee and chats I began the painting proper. The finished painting is acrylic on board and features a foreground oystercatcher - one of the species of wading birds regularly seen on the Blackness mudflats.

The final painting - Blackness Castle with oystercatcher, acrylic on board, 40x50cm

Blackness Castle (3), watercolour & acrylic, 28x38cm

Blackness Castle (1), watercolour, 28x38cm

Blackness Castle (2), watercolour, 28x38cm

oystercatcher sketches, Mary Erskine playing field, pencil in sketchbook, 14.5x20.5cm

Two other paintings inspired by my initial Blackness sketches: 

A painting of the castle, donated to Edinburgh's bi-annual Postcards for Sick Kids exhibition to raise funds for the Sick Kids Friends Foundation - "Helping sick kids and their families since 1992."

Donation to Postcards for Sick Kids 2012 - Blackness Castle, acrylic on board, 15x20cm

The other shows a shelduck with the Forth Bridges behind - only two bridges, so it'll soon become a historical document.

Blackness sketches, shelduck, (1), pencil in sketchbook, 14.5x41cm

Blackness sketches, shelduck, (2), pencil in sketchbook, 14.5x41cm

shelduck studies, pencil & watercolour, 14.5x21cm

shelduck, Tadorna tadorna, acrylic, 14.5x21cm

2013 - January BTO waterbird count, Linlithgow - Philpstoun

2013 - January BTO WeBS waterbird count, Linlithgow - Philpstoun


I missed my December count because of recurring Achilles tendon problems, so it was great to be back on my regular route today. Other than a couple of short light snow showers the weather was mostly fair. At times the low winter sun even managed to break through the clouds.

I began my count at 8.50am, turned around at the Philpstoun Bings at 11.10am and got back to the house, count completed, at 12.15. My cereal pot this time was eaten on the move, feeling a bit too cold to sit and breakfast at my usual spot overlooking the flood field, and too hungry to wait that long anyway.

I was watching the canal even more closely than normal, having seen last Thursday an otter in the stretch right behind my house. I've never before seen an otter in the wild and had certainly never heard of one in the Union Canal. No sign of it today.

No sign of many waterbirds either! Excluding gulls I saw only 16 that were eligible for my count. A poor show indeed. The canal wasn't iced at all but I wonder if a row of several below zero nights had put birds into hiding or made them fly elsewhere in anticipation of a freeze.

The flood field was largely frozen and there were only 12 individual birds to be seen, compared to 355 last November. Also, its size has decreased significantly since my last visit in November. Despite a lack of waterbirds the rest of the landscape was alive - 38 bird species seen in total.

At one point on my return a huge gathering of gulls was far up, away over Linlithgow. Black-heads from ploughed fields. They formed a circling column in the sky. Like a squat cyclone that spun slowly anticlockwise. Slowly and steadily, hundreds of gulls together creating this massive form.

black-headed gulls on fresh ploughed field

Waterbirds seen:

On and around canal:
moorhen - 1
mute swan - 1 (PCF, light green ring, black lettering. At St Magdalene's, Linlithgow)
dipper - 2 - on the burn beyond Philpstoun, as it runs under the canal bridge.

black-headed gull - 200+ (probably quite a lot more) - Due to field-ploughing beside the canal. They follow the tractors, raiding fresh turned earth.

common gull - I counted 2 amongst the black-heads but suspect there were quite a number more.


On the flood field:
mallard - 8
widgeon - 1 (female)
lapwing - 3



All other birds seen:

canal count notes, pen on card

buzzard - 3 - In and out of trees beside the ploughing, seeming hassled by such a mass of gulls.

yellowhammer - 30+ - in trees and hedgerow and field around Park Farm. In mixed flocks with the following eight (in blue):

tree sparrow
house sparrow
chaffinch
robin
great tit
blue tit
reed bunting - winter males with warm chestnut caps.
 
brambling - 4 - Not a close-up but nevertheless exciting! The first I've seen in 2013, and I saw none in 2012. These beautiful finches come from Scandinavia some winters and wow those who notice them with the plumage not unlike the chaffinch, but not the same. They have an orange chest colour that continues in wide streaks onto the shoulders and upper wings. A wide white rump patch shows as they fly their bouncy flight.

blackbird
crow
rook
jackdaw
woodpigeon
collared dove
pigeon
dunnock
goldfinch - heard, not seen
bullfinch
kestrel - seen often today, probably always the same one. It was flighty, always moving on as I approached its perch.

pheasant
magpie
starling
coal tit
goldcrest
greylag geese - 4 - They flew over, fairly high, heading north. I could tell the species distinguished by call, not visuals.

wren - walk along the towpath for any reasonable length of time and every so often one will were back or fore straight across the canal, only an inch or two above the water.

pied wagtail
raven! - Just one, but notable - only the second time I've ever seen one in the Linlithgow area. I heard its cronking call and looked up to see it passing over, very high above. Without that distinctive sound I'd never have noticed it. It flew a straight line east to west over the Springfield estate.

38 species seen.
















And definitely not birds:

Fungi and lichens fascinate me, although I know very little so far. In the books I've seen various drawings and photos of the Earthstar family and a few months ago I encountered a whole squadron of them - like pods from outer space, gathering in the leaf litter below a large stand of lawson cypress. I think this is the Beaked Earthstar, Geastrum striatum :

Small fungal growths that seem to climb this stump alongside creepers of ivy, like juicy white slugs on their way to feast:
 

Minute stub-ended fingers only a few millimetres long, emerging from deeply fissured bark on the horizontal branch of a nameless tree (my oversight, forgot to wonder what species it was.) :

I'll put these photos on iSpot and update once I have the answers...

New Year 2012 - 2013 in Kingussie. Walks, birds & red squirrels

Every New Year we go with a big group of friends to a self-catering accommodation somewhere in Scotland. This year was our third in Kingussie.

Kingussie sits within the boundaries of Cairngorm National Park and is a lovely place to visit. It has cafes and general shops, pubs and places to stay. The long main street is lined with pictureque stone houses. Air is fresh and wildlife is plentiful and there are walks and views in every direction.

It's an easy town to reach, 12 miles south of Aviemore on the A9 and 42 miles south of Inverness. There's been a railway station since 1863 and it's only two-and-a-half hours by train from Glasgow, two-and-three-quarters from Edinburgh or one from inverness. See timetable on the ScotRail website.





Day 1 - Sunday 30th December 2012

A wild day, mean weather. Jennifer and I in multiple layers - thermal then main then waterproof. We walked north towards the hills, along minor road beside the Gynack Burn. Robert Louis Stevenson loved to explore here during his 1880's holidays in the town, floating paper boats down the stream.

We only went a few miles, partly because of my currently tender Achilles tendon (left foot) but chiefly because of driving snow, sleet and rain. I managed one quick pencil sketch but it was too finger-numbingly cold for anything more. I added watercolour when I got back.

Gynack Burn, pencil & watercolour,  19x28.5cm

A second sketch was done from memory, trying to capture an optical illusion I'd seen while out - by the burn was a yellow-lichened tree, seeming quite spherical. On looking closer I noticed that the tree was actually a third taller than it originally seemed, so more like a rugby ball than a football in shape. The youngest branches and shoots were still maroon red, lichen not yet having had time to colonise them. They were lost against a dark background of firs.

yellow-lichened tree, by Gynack Burn path, pencil & watercolour, 28.5x19cm

We lunched in woodland just before it opened onto bare hillside where the wind blew even stronger. Jennifer found a shelter under low branches of firs. It felt snug but even here it was wet and snow was dumping down on us. Just before, in the woods, an extra fierce gust brought about a thumping all around as laden branches shed their loads. 

After sandwiches, and soup from a thermos, Jennifer headed back. I went more slowly, looking at snow and trees and river and distant hills. I found two yellow jelly fungi on a stump in a plantation forest, more phallic than perhaps any I've seen. I uploaded my photos onto the amazing iSpot website (if you haven't yet tried it - do!) and quickly had a response to tell me it was Yellow Stagshorn, Calocera viscosa, coloured orange due to frost damage (and it certainly was cold!)

In the upper slopes of Kingussie many people have bird and squirrel feeders in their gardens. Red squirrels are common, we saw 6 or 7, eating peanuts or scampering across a path. One scared off a jay that I'd been watching. It was the closest I've been to a jay. The jewel-like metallic wing patch matched an alert blue corvid eye. The body is mostly a salmon-pink-grey with a black moustache and tail and wing patch. You see a square white rump patch as the bird flies.

Probably because of the weather, I saw only eight bird species in the several hours I was out:

blue tit
great tit
coal tit
chaffinch
blackbird
woodpigeon
collared dove
jay

our under-tree lunch spot

snowed trees by the Gynack Burn

snowed trees by the Gynack Burn

Yellow Stagshorn, Calocera viscosa

Yellow Stagshorn, Calocera viscosa

Day 2 - Monday 31st December 2012

Much better weather. Wind and spits of rain but no snow and no sleet. Blue sky broke through sometimes and shone bright against mixed clouds of ochre and grey.

I walked south to Ruthven Barracks, built by the Hanoverian government following the Jacobite rising in 1715. Leave the town by crossing the railway at Kingussie station. There's a level crossing but I chose the footbridge for the view - distant hills and mountains were deep dark blues. On either side of the quiet road are flood fields, extremely waterlogged at present. Fantastical lichened trees rose from the shallows and a few mallards swum amongst trunks and long dry grasses. I sketched standing up, using pencil with my sketchbook resting on a fence post. Watercolour was added in the evening. There were shaggy-coated horses eating hay from a rack in the field I looked across.

Ruthven Barracks, pencil & watercolour,  19x28.5cm

 The barracks are raised above the landscape by a man-made motte. I sat up there and painted, trying to capture colours and curves of fields and trees and hills. I hadn't long before Jennifer was to pick me up so I worked quickly and with no pencil under-drawing. Often I find this gives my most exciting results.

from Ruthven Barracks, watercolour,  19x28.5cm

Insh Marshes road, from Ruthven Barracks, watercolour,  19x28.5cm

With Michelle and the kids we drove to the Highland Wildlife Park where Jennifer and I get in free with our Edinburgh Zoo membership. Only four miles north of Kingussie, it's a great morning or afternoon out. The animals have lots of space and the collection includes many native and once-native Scottish species - pine martin, Scottish wildcat, capercaille, wolves, beavers. Also two polar bears, eagle owl, snowy owl and my favourite of all, a pair of great grey owls. Stunning creatures.

Great grey owls, Strix nebulosa, are chunky and fluffed-up to cope with the cold conditions of northern Europe and Asia and America. Every part of the body -even the toes- is thickly feathered. Squat wedge heads snap to and fro as they look around with a piercing and intelligent stare. The wings have an impressively large surface area compared to body size and weight, meaning that as with most owls, the great grey has very low 'wing loading' (read first paragraph here - barnowltrust.org.uk). Low wing loading minimises number of wingbeats required to stay aloft so the bird can move silently, gliding in to catch its prey of voles and other small mammals. One of this pair stretched its wings fully and flew directly towards me from the back of the enclosure. I managed one A5 page of really quick sketches but the park was closing and my hands were numbing again.

great grey owl sketches, pencil, 21x14.5cm

Bird count still quite low for the day but I suspected there would be more to see if I went beyond Ruthven Barracks to the Insh Marshes reserve... so the next day I did.

blue tit
coal tit
great tit
chaffinch
blackbird
robin
rook
crow
jackdaw
hooded crow (only one seen this whole trip)
woodpigeon
collared dove
mallard
swan
geese - grey ones but unsure which - too far away
treecreeper
various small songbirds, seen and heard passing over throughout the day. Not identified.

17 species

flood fields on way to Insh Marshes

sketching Ruthven Barracks

Insh Marshes from Ruthven Barracks

Evening catch-up - in the dining room adding watercolour to sketches and writing up my day. Minor distractions.

other evening activities - walnut-shell candle-boats to tell our fortunes for the new year

Day 3 - New Year's Day 2013

We saw in the New Year along with the rest of the village - out of doors beside the park with fireworks and dancing and free drams of whisky. At lunchtime on New Year's Day (it took longer than usual to get up) I headed off towards Ruthven Barracks, walking beyond this time into the grounds of RSPB Loch Insh reserve. Rather than exploring further I went into the Gordonhall Hide and was inspired to sketch paint a small part of the scene in front of me. A heron was crisply lit amongst brown-greens, mauves, earth reds and ochres. Dark reflected water. The bird's strong yellow beak shone beside bright white face and chest and blue-grey back. Black in the eye-stripe and in parts of the wings. Legs orange-yellow.

New Year's Day heron, Insh Marshes, pencil & watercolour,  19x28.5cm

On the return walk dusk was on me and quickly turned to night. The barracks were floodlit a gold yellow. Non-lit sections were in deep shadow. Sky and clouds behind the barracks were deep dark blues. Distant mountains showed some touches of snow but were mostly silhouettes.

Many more birds seen today:

blackbird
blue tit
great tits
coal tit
long-tailed tit
starling
crow
jackdaw
raven - just one, it cronked and flew a circle over the water and a mounded isle as I watched from the hide.
robin
greenfinch
chaffinch
greylag geese
lapwing - a whole flock, swirling over the marshes. Recognisable even from far away.
widgeon - many on the water, whistling gently to each other.
mallard
house sparrow
siskin
redpoll - likely but not certain. Bright red on head, Brightish red on chest. There were lots, along with other birds of similar size - perhaps the females or possibly linnet or twite. Light. Whites. Greys. Pretty and very delicately beautiful. 3 species I need to learn.
treecreeper - two together, in a mixed flock with the long-tailed tits and redpoll/linnet
a dipper - on the Gynack Burn
great spotted woodpecker
collared dove
woodpigeon
heron
whooper Swans
herring gull
buzzard

28 species seen on the first day of a new year.

painting from the Gordonhall Hide, RSPB Insh Marshes

Ruthven Barracks at night

Day 4 - Wednesday January 2nd 2013

Our final morning. I managed a short walk around the nearby terraces to have a last look at squirrels and birds. Successful on both counts. Three or four red squirrels on feeders and trees. One was making the grunting that I already knew from greys.

Two new birds for the trip - goldfinch and pheasant. Which, along with:
blue tit
great tit
coal tit
greenfinch
blackbird
crow
jackdaw
treecreeper
woodpigeon
collared dove

makes 12 species today.

my final two sketces - red squirrel, Kingussie, pencil, 21x14.5cm

A good trip.

November BTO waterbird count, Linlithgow - Philpstoun

This is my second month of blogging the results of the union canal bird count I do for the BTO's WeBS scheme. My route is Linlithgow to Philpstoun. Read about the route and the reasons for doing the count in this previous blog post - http://landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/counting-canal-birds-linlithgow-to.html.



The count - Friday November 23rd, 2012

Started 9:10 am. Turnaround time 11:25 am. Finished 12:40 pm.

Weather was good, bright but quite breezy. A cool autumn day. - autumn or winter..? There are almost no leaves left and we have light frost a lot of mornings. Several times I've had to to break the ice on the bird water. Today the sun was a little too much in my eyes as I started out - it was easy to scan the fields on my left but not so easy looking across the canal on my right. I'm used to this. A peaked hat helps.

This month was my best ever in terms of numbers of birds seen. We've had a lot of rain and the flood field was at its fullest. I've never before counted so many birds there. I spent such a time standing watching that I felt I must eat breakfast as I continued my walk, rather than sitting on my normal patch of wall.


A few interesting sightings:

- Much more goosander activity than normal. I saw five individual birds -male and female- but also a group of six that flew past following the line of the canal then veering right to head towards Linlithgow Loch. Normally I'll see one or two lone goosanders on the water at most, sometimes a pair. A couple of months ago Kittie (www.kittiejones.com) and I on an Aberdour drawing day saw a gathering of around 30 goosanders swimming in one of the bays.

- Three bird of prey species - buzzard, kestrel, sparrowhawk. I always see buzzards but rarely either of the others.
- When this kestrel moved in flight it was buffeted violently by the wind yet seemed to have no problem hovering motionless above fields as it scanned for prey. An old local name for the kestrel is windhover. A perfect title.
- The sparrowhawk was when I was only two minutes from home. Normally you have no more than a glimpse as one flashes past your bird feeders into surrounding hedgerow and gardens, but this one was perched and preening. It was far away but I made a quick sketch. Its warm cream and orange chest shone bright against an earthen scene - the slope of the railway embankment, dead grasses and undergrowth, bare branches.

- Just beyond the flood field I heard the call of skylarks. With my binoculars I could see two dark specks high above. It sounded like there were more. I don't recall ever seeing them on this count.

canal count notes plus sparrowhawk sketch, pen & pencil on cereal box

Waterbird count:

moorhen - 5
mallard - 3
tufted duck - 1 (female)
goosander - 11
black-headed gull -6

On the flood field:
oystercatcher - 59
curlew - 22
lapwing - 65
black-headed gull - 86
herring gull - 6
common gull - 32
mallard - 30
widgeon - 49
snipe - 4


All other bird species seen
and heard:

song thrush
goldfinch
goldcrest
long tailed tit
tree sparrow
reed bunting
house sparrow
buzzard
kestrel
sparrowhawk
skylark
wren
robin
greenfinch
chaffinch
blue tit
great tit
crow
rook
jackdaw
magpie
woodpigeon
feral pigeon
blackbird
starling
dunnock
collared dove


Total: 39 species

Linlithgow - Airngath Hill, circle walk, Saturday 3rd November, 12.30pm to 2.40pm

Something I love to do when out on a walk is to make a complete list of all the bird species seen. It makes me that little bit more observant and I end up with a page in my notebook (more often a scrap of paper) that I can look back at and compare the next time I take that route. The British Trust for Ornithology's BirdTrack is an easy-to-use online system where you can record these complete lists. The information is really valuable in the understanding and protection of our wildlife and countryside.

So, last Saturday I decided to treat myself to an afternoon break. It was a nice day and I'd been indoors all morning. My brother's 'Hallo-Fawkes' fancy dress party was that evening and I'd nearly completed the owl mask I was going to wear. I made a circular walk through Fiddler's Croft at the east end of the Loch, up the tree-lined avenue towards the Grange then turning right at the top into the thin stretch of wood along the south side of Airngath Hill.

A deer a little upslope -antlers starting to grow- looked alertly then bounded away, white rump bouncing. I stopped in the woods to climb two trees, both horse chestnuts, one still living but lying on its side. I got far further 'up' this one than under normal circumstances! My circle was completed by coming down the country road past the Bonsyde Hotel and skirting back into Linlithgow.


Birds seen:

coal tit
blue tit
great tit
dunnock
robin
wren
chaffinch
goldfinch
siskin - three or four, in large hedgerow at the east end of Fiddler's Croft.
woodpigeon
crow
magpie
song thrush - in Airngath Hill woods. Probably two. Beautiful fawn-white-tan colouring.
blackbird
yellowhammer
buzzard
pied wagtail
pochard
goldeneye
tufted duck
mallard
coot
moorhen
greylag goose
great crested grebe
little grebe
goosander
common gull
black headed gull
mute swan

30 species...

...in only two hours. You don't realise just how much is out there until you really start to look.


Of course, the walk being over I then have to come home, write it up, prepare it for my blog, log my bird list online - a two hour walk becomes rather longer.

Inchcolm Island, in the Firth of Forth

Last weekend Jennifer and I went to Inchcolm Island for the first time since either of us were children. Jennifer was last there on a holiday club trip from school and my last visit was the birthday party of a friend - we played pirates on the boat across and on the small swing of beach below the Abbey. This time we were with her parents, making the trip thanks to vouchers I'd been gifted.

Inchcolm Island and Abbey are owned by Historic Scotland. The island sits in the waters of the Forth, four miles from the Forth Rail Bridge in the seaward direction. We were booked on the 12.15pm sailing of the Maid of the Forth, a 225-seater blue and white ferry boat that departs from Hawes Pier, South Queensferry, right beside the railway bridge. It's quite awesome, to set sail and get closer and closer, and eventually pass right alongside those massive red iron legs. Legs that support the weight of up to 200 trains a day. Think of the thousands of men who constructed it, 130 years ago! ... 57 lost their lives in the process.

Directly after passing under the bridge we're alongside Inchgarvie Island which is made as much of concrete bunkers and gun emplacements as it is of rock. Memories of war. Cormorants and shags were perched all over and eight or more herons stood solitary but together on one small area of island wall.

Inchgarvie & Forth bridges

herons on Inchgarvie

looking to Inchkeith, from the Maid of the Forth upper deck, pencil in sketchbook, 41x13.5cm

The weather was perfect - a clear and crisp autumn day with no more than a ripple of waves. From the open-top upper deck I saw guillemots and gulls and more cormorants and shags. A pair of eiders floated close beside us and a few times gannets in threes and fours flapped past in their dark juvenile plumage. I did only one quick sketch, showing Inchkeith island with a white and red lighthouse in front, a boat behind that, and another further off to the side. The Forth is always busy with boats. It's a working river. Conical Berwick Law peaked its head above the outline of the island. 

After 45 minutes we were arriving at Inchcolm where the beautiful 12th Century abbey offered itself up for our explorations. It's a peacefully impressive ruin, quite small. I imagined monks strolling the cloister and tending to their gardens of herbs and medicinals. You can walk up the narrowest spiral staircase I've ever seen until you reach the top of the abbey's square squat tower and have views all around. East, south, west and north: East Lothian; Edinburgh; the bridges; the Fife coast; and out to sea beyond Inchkeith.

Inchcolm Abbey cloister, photo by Jennifer Alexander

Inchcolm Abbey, photo by Jennifer Alexander

We only had an hour and three quarters until the ferry returned so we didn't spend too long at any one spot. We wanted to see as much of the island as we could. It took about an hour of fairly brisk walking to get along all the paths and not-paths, to see each of the many leftover war emplacements. We walked on top of some of these bunker buildings and I noticed on one of the roofs a colony of unknown (to me) small succulent-leafed alpine plant. Thriving among the pitted concrete. It's amazing how nature always finds a way to fight back at man's creations.

Most exciting is the brick-lined tunnel running about 100 metres through the hillside that makes up the east of the island. There's a kink in the middle so when you enter you think you're going to be walking into complete darkness. It was built around 1916 by the Royal Engineers, used probably to take ammunition to the far east of the island.

Inchcolm ammunition tunnel, photo by Jennifer Alexander

deserted building on Inchcolm, more wartime ruins beyond

Jennifer on Inchcolm, the Forth bridges beyond

The buildings are mostly open to the elements, there's no glass in any of the windows and possibly never was. All that we went into had signs of having been used by nesting birds - droppings decorating the floors, nest piles in corners. In a couple of the buildings were the remains of gulls: one long-dead juvenile lay on its front, wings half spread, beak half open. I turned it over with my foot and was surprised to feel how light it was. A collection of feathers but not much more. Despite the weight, the skeleton must have still been inside because bodyshape and skin were unbroken. It was just completely dried out. A desiccated gull. 

It's not only birds - grey seals come to Inchcolm too, to have their pups. October and November is the right time of year but we didn't see any young, just a few dark adults enjoying the waves. With visitors around most days of the week I'd have thought they wouldn't want to birth there.

Our explorations used most of the time available to us so I didn't have long to sketch, only 20 minutes before our ferry came back. Jennifer looked round the visitor centre and I got two quick pencil studies done. This sort of sketch can still prove very useful. I often write colour notes and sometimes add watercolour at a later date.

Inchcolm sketch, pencil in sketchbook, 41x13.5cm

Inchcolm sketch and bird list, pencil in sketchbook, 41x13.5cm

I kept a list of all the birds I saw on and from the island:

pigeon - by far the most numerous bird here. There were hundreds on the less-walked rocky areas.
shag
cormorant
redshank
dunnock
pipit - meadow pipit I think, down on the seaweeds and rocks at the water's edge.
robin
wren
crow
chaffinch
lesser black backed gull
black headed gull
gannett - juveniles - out at sea
guillemots - out at sea
razorbill - just one, out on the water. Looking so similar to a guillemots at this time of year, only the stub-end beak and white wing line distinguish between these two chunky auks.

15 species seen.


How to get to Inchcolm:
From Edinburgh you can get to the ferry easily by rail - take the train to Dalmeny station. It's only a ten minute walk from there down to Hawes Pier.