Montrose - cycling thanks to Edinburgh Bicycle Coop

Cycling Sponsorship:
Thanks to generous sponsorship from Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative I now have a bike. I used to love cycling but have done none for the past three years since my RSI problems came along (now greatly improved). This machine that I'm trying has huge back-curved handlebars and seems like it's going to be the solution. I'm riding upright in the 'continental' style and find it massively reduces pressure on shoulders, elbows, wrists; and the view is so much better. You're probably much more aerodynamic when leaning forwards over a mountain bike or road bike but that's not what I'm after. Having Edinburgh Bicycle come on board is going to greatly increase the reach of my ScotRail-supported explorations by rail.

I've used the bike lots over the past two weeks – a week each on Islay and Mull (more about those in future blog posts). This evening I'm writing from Montrose where I'm sitting outside my mum's caravan as terns cry their creaky calls over my head. I won't mention the low drone of engines, commentary and crowds that's travelling through the air from a summer motorbike stunt show a mile along the links.

We're here on a family holiday before my brother Roan heads to Australia for a year, but it's also a sketching trip for me. If you're inspired by long sweeping beaches of sand or of pebbles and geodes, by craggy coastal paths, by woodland walking, by cafes galore and by birds birds birds, then Montrose and surrounds is a place to visit. This time I came with my bike on the train - regular service throughout the day from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and intermediate stations. From Edinburgh or Stirling it takes only an hour and a half and much of the route is alongside beautiful coastal scenery. Be sure to book bike spaces in advance by calling at a staffed station or by phoning 08457 550 033. More info - http://www.scotrail.co.uk/cycling


Birds in the fog:
In the morning, pre-breakfast, I headed out to see what was around and to sketch. The fog was thick -'a real pea-souper'- and as I walked along the beach I could imagine how easily one might get lost at sea, or among the hills and moors of the Highlands. Gulls and terns broke the soggy muggy silence but I could only ever make out the vague shapes of their gatherings before they sighted me and flew away. I did get close to a small flock of knot, still wearing the rust-red underbellies of their breeding plumage. A solitary turnstone accompanied the group.

As I got to the river mouth (the River South Esk) and walked a few hundred metres upstream towards harbour and Basin the fog was lifting a little to reveal eiders, oystercatchers, some gulls, and a grouping of 25 or more red-breasted mergansers all floating on the water. I stopped and painted; a half hour watercolour of a black-headed gull that stayed for most (well, some...) of the time that I hoped it would.

St Cyrus Nature Reserve:
A long, late, relaxed outdoor breakfast for the four of us before cycling the five miles to St Cyrus village; cafe stop in bright sunshine then down onto the pebbly part of the Nature Reserve to look for geodes and lots of butterflies; return cycle through the fog (now back with reinforcements); tea in the caravan and back outside to write this.

Common blue, St Cyrus

Two days later:
The above was written on Wednesday. Now it's Friday 26th July (my 29th birthday) and we've had more walking and cycling, and plenty of time for me to work. Hours of rain yesterday allowed me to start and complete a Staffa watercolour from my Mull sketchbook.

Staffa

eiders preening, seal yawning

Foxes in the garden - good or bad?

 


An amazing thing yesterday evening about 8pm. In dad's garden whilst doing pre-Islay bike maintenance... looked up and there, only 3 or 4 feet from me, up on the lawn was a young fox.

Foxes are controversial, lots of people think they're real pests, or worse - think they're dangerous to humans. I knew I didn't agree with that but I also knew I wasn't terribly well versed on the facts, so I decided to read up on the subject. If you 'know' something strongly and want to tell people about it then you have to make sure you're aware of the facts. Surely the more educated that people are about nature the more they will come to love and want to protect it. My feeling is that any wildlife experience is something to be made the most of.






 



So, foxes in our gardens?:

It was very tame, I certainly could have got it to take food from my hand. But you MUSTN'T HAND FEED FOXES - foxes are wild animals and if you try to that's when you may get nipped. It's okay to feed foxes but only IF you wish to encourage them to your garden.

In an interview for BBC News, Chris Packham, Patron of The Fox Project ( registered charity dedicated to the Red Fox) said, “These animals shouldn’t be hand fed, they shouldn’t be encouraged to be close to people... If you are going to feed them, feed them from a distance and then watch them through binoculars.”

This young fox stayed around me in the garden for half an hour. I did lots of quick drawings, knowing I might not get the opportunity again. It was beautiful, so slender, so sleek. An absolute treat to see a fox so close. It seemed young to be without its parent. It may be one of the cubs that I saw during my recent canal count, landscapeartnaturebirds.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/2013-june-bto-waterbird-count.html .







Some links:

The Fox Project - http://www.foxproject.org.uk/

..................................................................
Dispelling some of the many fox myths -

http://www.thefoxwebsite.org/urbanfoxes/urbandiet.html#q1
http://www.thefoxwebsite.org/urbanfoxes/urbanconflict.html
http://www.waverley.gov.uk/info/431/pest_control/1244/nuisance_foxes/2

- Foxes are not a significant source of disease either for humans or domestic animals.

- Not in the UK do not carry rabies.

- Foxes are not killers, out to get us - the risks of people being attacked by a fox are negligible compared to the risks of being attacked by a domestic dog or cat.



My very quick sketches:

2013 - June BTO waterbird count, Linlithgow - Philpstoun

My monthly BTO WeBS count along the Union Canal, Linlithgow to Philpstoun.

Tuesday 25th June 2013.

Start time - 7.50am
Turnaround - 10am
End time - 11.10am

A warmish day despite being fairly overcast. A light breeze, no rain.



foxes:

The most exciting sighting - foxes! A while out of Linlithgow, in a field on the left, I thought I spied hares; I raised my binoculars and found that it was foxes. Four of them. A parent and three young I think. They were far away but my view was clear. They young were mock-fighting, rolling and tumbling together. One carried a bright orange ball in its mouth, exactly as a dog might.
Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust write: 

"Foxes love to play, particularly with things that smell good – old shoes, dog chews, balls and gardening gloves are favourite items."
Lots more fascinating info by clicking the link above.

Young birds everywhere too. And this white-nosed foal:

hidden treasure:

At my turnaround point in the shadow of the Philpstoun shalebings I suddenly, unexpectedly, spotted a geocache. I've never gone looking for one but have found a few in the past. If you spend lots of time outdoors and observing you're probably going to find one every so often. There are lots around, all over the world, but I hadn't realised quite how many - have a look at the map here to get an idea of the scale. I recently found a really small one - in a black 35mm film cannister - but I can't now remember where that was! Possibly it was during my recent painting week on the Isle of May? Today's cache was a small plastic drinks tumbler, covered with camouflage fabric. I signed the notebook inside and put my blog address. If you haven't heard of geocaching and have no idea what I'm on about, have a look at www.geocaching.com to reassure yourself that I'm not going loopy.

Philpstoun bing geocache

flood-field:

The flood-field is no longer a flood field. As you'd expect, it tends to lessen in size as summer progresses; today there was no water evident at all, only two large patches of drying and cattle-churned mud. A hazy yellow blanket of buttercups flowered across the grasses. At first the field seemed empty of all birds but quickly I saw starlings, a house martin, woodpigeons and crows.  
And eligible for my count of water birds:

Lapwing - 17    
Oystercatcher - 1    
Pied wagtail - unsure of the number but less than 10 and more than 1. Some were young, lacking the full black-white markings of their parents.

flood-field - no flood!

flood-field buttercups

 

canal buttercups

All non-flood-field water birds eligible for WeBS count:

Mallard - 9    
Moorhen - 2 (plus 3 chicks, small enough to have only recently begun swimming)
Tufted duck - 2    
Black-headed gull - 1    
Lesser Black-backed gull - 1    
Grey wagtail - 2

The lesser black-back was floundering in the canal, attempting to lift a dead fish clear of the water to carry it away. It gave in and departedwith its meal. I smelled the fish as I passed it. 


All birds seen:

Black-headed gull                
Blackbird                
Blackcap                
Blue tit                
Bullfinch                
Buzzard                
Carrion crow                
Chaffinch                
Chiffchaff                
Collared dove                
Dunnock
Feral pigeon
Goldfinch                
Great tit                
Greenfinch                
Grey wagtail                
House sparrow                
Jackdaw                
Lapwing                
Lesser black-backed gull
Magpie                
Mallard                
Moorhen                
Oystercatcher                
Pied wagtail                
Robin                
Sand martin                
Sedge warbler                
Song thrush                
Starling                
Swallow                
Swift                
Tree sparrow                
Tufted duck                
Whitethroat                
Willow warbler                
Woodpigeon
Wren                
Yellowhammer

Total bird species: 39 (same as last month)

WeBS count list, June 2013

Tesco oystercatcher:

As I passed through Tesco car park on the way to the start of my count were the oystercatchers that have been nesting on the roof there. Oystercatchers will nest on many flat, pebbly and gravely surfaces, they don't build a nest, just make a shallow 'scrape' in the ground. For at least the past three years a pair have successfully fledged young from above our local Tesco. Last year they had two chicks, this year they have one. It's now of a size where it can feed itself on worms and grubs from the grassy car park bankings, 'though its parents still watch it closely.

this year's oystercatcher, Tesco Linlithgow

Isle of May - day eight. Puffins and terns. The final hours.

Saturday 15th June 2013



Our final day. We had nearly until 4 on the island so treated it as normal until lunch then two hours to tidy and pack (thank you Keith, Hallgeir, James, Tim, Ruth!)

In the traps, 6.30-7am we caught a young rock pipit. These birds are all over the island; the phrase is 'lbj' (little brown job); they're often overlooked, like the dunnocks that are likely in your garden and on all of your walks. Every bird is intricate in plumage when seen really close-up. The pipit we caught was born this year, signs of its yellow fleshy 'gape' still showed where beak joins head.

I didn't paint today, just drawing: puffins at various spots and then the Arctic terns for an hour before the two tourist boats arrived. I hadn't yet drawn the terns and found them really difficult. They're very slender, with wings like sharp white rapiers. They twist and turn balletically in flight and their tails form a wide fan when they land or hover. The overall look is white, with a black skull-cap and a bright scarlet dagger bill that matches remarkably small scarlet feet. In time will evolution remove their feet completely? ("Not unless they never want to land or swim again!", points out Jennifer, sensibly.)

Arctic tern preening postures

The puffins on the island are interesting. Those seen are mostly juveniles, birds that are only a year or two (or three or four) old; they don't become sexually mature until they're 4 or 5. The ones that can't yet breed instead stand around on every available rock and roof and slope and wall. A few will be holding sand eels and small fish in their beaks in an attempt at impressing prospective partners. Puffins generally mate for life and ringing records show typical lifespan to be 18 years. The oldest known bird was recorded as 35 years, 11 months, 13 days, in 2010 - BTO puffin ringing recoveries.

 The puffin in the middle has its eye closed, yet the eye ring and leathery eye patch makes you think it might be open but squinting. In winter these adornments are shed completely, along with the puckered yellow 'lip' and part of the beak.

Breeding puffins will rarely be seen - they're either off fishing or are down in their burrows. Parent puffins fly in from the sea, food in beak, either flying directly into their burrow or landing immediately outside it and scampering in – to avoid gull predation. The burrows are often old rabbit holes, which the island is covered in.

I at last found time for a sketch inside the South Horn. I love it in there, perhaps my favourite place on the island. It's peaceful and quiet; the sounds of outside are deadened. Through a bendy-glassed window cut in the thick stone walls is a distorted view of rocks and sea and the East Lothian coast (weather dependent of course!) I hope to paint this same window scene one day in acrylics.

Leaving:

At quarter to four we were loaded up on the boat, sad but content after such a productive week. Luggage was well wrapped and tarpaulined to protect sketches. At the Kirk Haven harbour entrance were two turnstones on the rocks and on my final circuit of the island I'd seen three starlings - 2 new bird species for my stay, bringing me to...

a total of 34 bird species seen throughout the week.



The sea was choppy and the RIB Osprey bounced us up and down but luckily didn't make me feel more than just a little queasy. Salt water spray covered our faces and lips but my clothes were well waterproofed. It was almost fun.

Lifts were given to Leuchars thanks to Tim and Ruth, and Keith, then the train to Edinburgh for me and James and Hallgeir. Then we went our separate ways.

A bath was nice.



New birds today:
starling
turnstone

 a razorbill composition, to be painted

Island oddities:

On the Isle of May you often see humans doing strange things; necks strung with cameras, lenses as long as your arm, large rucksack containing more. You see a lot of people doing this:

photo thanks to Silvana Grimaldi

And, when I was there, at least one doing this (look at the feet):

photo thanks to Silvana Grimaldi

I like walking barefoot. It feels natural and fresh and 'real', brings an extra dimension to being outdoors. And of course there are no dogs on the island. On one of the hotter days my shoes were off whilst painting so I decided to keep them off for my walk back to the Low Light. Over a kilometre of upslope, downslope; grass, earth, concrete, gravel. Gravel can jag but go slow and its fine. Grass is the best of all, walk barefoot over your lawn at home and you'll see what I mean.

Isle of May - day seven. An owl, a whale, a Scottish folk singer.

Friday 14th June



Owl:

Departed Low Light around 6.30am to check the traps. Due to two days of finding nothing, I'd just stated,  
'we're probably wasting our time',
when...  
'OWL OWL OWL!!'
from Keith,
and we began running forwards into the heligoland trap, waving arms and making noise... and the owl flew to the catching box... and Keith caught it. 7am in the Arnott Trap.

 

This was even better than the shrike and the puffin. Owls are my absolute favourites. Wonderful creatures. Ours was a female, ringing age code 5 (hatched during previous year). Wing length 293mm, weight 218 grams. Her eyes were like glass beads, orange and black, they pierced right through you. Her feathers were long and soft and in beautiful buffs, tans, browns and whites. Her legs and feet (to the very tips of her toes) were covered in a soft and fine tan-coloured down. Her talons were black and long and curved. Her 'ear' tufts stuck right up, perhaps an inch. These tufts that you see on some owls don't actually mark the ears; the ears are odd curve openings behind and below the eyes, only seen if you part the feathers there. The large facial discs around either eye of an owl are thought to help channel sound toward the ear holes, rather like a satellite dish.

As she was being ringed I made a few pages of ultra-quick sketches. The Fluke Street residents were roused and seven or eight scientists and staff actually left beds early to see her, and said it was worth the early wake-up. Apparently a long-eared owl on the island at this time of year is a very rare event – read more on warden Dave's blog here.

One of those who came out to see was the brilliant Karine Polwart, well-known Scottish folk singer whose music I listen to all the time. She and storyteller Claire McNeil were on the island for a couple of days prior to Sunday performances in the South Horn as part of the island's Seabird Open Day.


After the owl I went back to my Pilgrim's Haven spot and using ink and watercolour greatly improved yesterday's start:

For the rest of my time pre-breakfast I sketched puffins – it was my second last day on the island and there are few other places where you can find yourself surrounded by tens of thousands of them. When you start to look closely they're tricky; the facial and beak patterns and markings are complicated. And they seem very jumpy, heads constantly switching left to right, to forward, to left, to forward, to right, etc. Perhaps they do this more than other birds or perhaps I just noticed it more because of the extra large side-on surface area of face and beak.

Around noon, looking from outside Low Light over a flat calm sea, I saw... a whale! It was a minke, far out but seen well through binoculars.
From my sketchbook:
“Minke whale. Lunchtime. I spotted from Low Light. It was up and down on and off over several hours. Each time we saw it it would appear two or three times, coming up for air. Long dark back; long and backwards curving fin. Nose came up once or twice. Quite sharply pointed.”

Hallgeir, James and Keith were all around to watch. Karine was passing and joined us (plus chat and art-showing). There were porpoises too, though I'm not sure I saw them. It scuppered work plans for a couple of hours; we couldn't take our eyes of the sea. Once the resurfacings seemed to have stopped I continued with my shag painting of yesterday. It's still to be worked on:

After tea I again drew puffins, enjoying getting to know their shapes.




New birds seen:

female blackcap (top garden)
long-eared owl