Skomer Day 11: Exercise Lines

View on emerging from the crevice

Today I decided to explore a part of Skomer I have never seen despite it being the number one destination for most visitors to the Island. Many come to the grassy cliff top plateau known as the Wick for close encounters with its particularly amiable colony of puffins, but I am more excited about the rocky ledges below the main attraction. For the last three days I have been drawing guillemots in clumps on flat wide ledges and in the week before that more clumps on steep broad scree slopes. The Wick cliffs are different; they are sheer and flat with straight narrow ledges that underline neatly formed strings of guillemots. Amazing, that this slightly new type of loomery formation should seem so exciting to me, but after days absorbed in the detail of one site it comes as a revelation. With barely time to smile at the puffins whirring in and out of burrows around my feet as I carefully tread the path shown to me previously that leads past the boulder and into a shoulder width head high crevice. Squeezing through I feel like a pot-holer bursting into a forgotten subterranean world, the water is sapphire blue in a cavernous inlet; a hidden sanctuary away from the mingling puffins and puffin-lovers above, their hubbub replaced by the bustling of breeding kittiwake and guillemot clinging to the shear rock face, cutting the squeezed airspace with their lung bursting calls.

Brush and ink - quick and fluid, possibly good for
dense groups later.

I have often thought of the rhythm of drawing guillemot over again as being like forming characters in calligraphy. Seeing the groups of guillemot punctuating the wick cliffs in neat lines left to right makes this idea even more legible to me. So I begin to write guillemot, copying one of the ledges nearest me over in neat lines as an exercise. Each line takes between 7-8 minutes and I realise that this is a way of recording the changing structure of guillemot groups. A recurring theme throughout this project has been the way loomeries fluctuate in density at this period in the season, first during re-establishment of territory and later the sharing of incubation between pairs. I try this method in both ink and as a line drawings. Ink is fantastic, fluid and fast but less legible for what I want to do here – the line drawing works better to record the behaviours more precisely.

The same ledge drawn repeatedly to record change.

Later I explore further along the inlet out to sea and find a continuous ledge of guillemot, several hundred metres long. Evening spent painting studies at the Amos.   

Skomer (Week 2) Day 8-10: Eggs and Colour Rings

Drawing at the Amos, with a puffin onlooker.

I returned to Skomer on the 16th and with calm weather took the opportunity to work at the more exposed South West facing Amos site. At the moment I am tackling a larger composition on a 3m scroll of the entire study plot that is the main focus of the monitoring programme run here by Tim Birkhead. The majority of the Amos's Guillemot pairs have laid during the time I have been away, so there will be lots of colourful eggs in this drawing when finished. The patterning of birds across the loomery is also turning out to be different, not just because the geology of the ledges they use are not like the steep scree of the Bull Hole site I focused on last week, but because their behaviour has changed with many birds taking on a sitting incubating posture. 

Pairs take it in turns to incubate eggs in 12 hour shifts and there are change over periods at around 5-8am and 4-6pm. During these times, the loomery grows in density as birds return, from foraging perhaps and long greeting, allopreening displays and behaviour occur as guillemots commence in the process of persuading often reluctant partners to leave the egg they have been on for 12 or so hours so they can incubate it. Tension is often high at these periods as returning birds often need to reassert their dominance and claim over both nesting site and partner. Fights are common, often to deal with imposters - guillemot fidelity is not as clear cut as I previously thought. 

One of the main groups within the study plot

The main study groups are rich in ringed birds, recorded on the
drawing with a letter and number e,g R (red) 210

The other focus of this drawing are the guillemots which Tim has ringed with coloured numbered rings which enable researchers to keep track of individual movements, breeding success and even social bonds amongst the loomery. Putting the number on their rings into Tim's database will return a wealth of information about individual lives, I plan to include this information so that single birds can be identified and learnt about. Before evemn looking at the database, the rings have already proofed useful; I am pleased to include in the drawing, two birds which Julie identified as two which had laid early and lost their egg in last week's storm. Today we saw the female return hopefully to lay another egg after the usual four day average period away from the colony feeding at sea. These are the kind of stories that make the whole experience I want to convey so fascinating - only possible because of the dedicated monitoring on this site.

At the half way point by the end of day 2

Skomer Guillemots Under Threat

The work I am carrying out on Skomer covered in the previous few posts has given me an insight into the value of long term research. In this case, data from forty years of uninterrupted monitoring of guillemots on Skomer provides a massively important and rare long term study on which to soundly base research,developing knowledge and conservation decisions. It would be counter-intuitive and irresponsible to end such a long term study as this, especially when its modest annual cost far out ways the long term investment of research over forty years or the damage caused by breaking the data set. Not to mention that the current need (and promises) to understand a natural environment under increasing pressure, should make long term studies of marine life including Guillemots one of the more priceless resources available to the environmental bodies who have the responsibility of protecting such important environments. However.....

Natural Resources Wales have cut the £12,000 annual funding they provide for the ongoing Guillemot monitoring study on Skomer Island. This is a hugely important study, and gives valuable insights into seabird life and what affects their populations. Not only is it a shame to end such a long-running (and therefore valuable) data set, but the cut couldn't have come at a worse time, considering the huge impact the recent storms have had on seabird populations (current death toll 25,000 and rising).

This is a very bad decision on the part of Natural Resources Wales, and we'd like to see it amended.

Please sign the petition to reinstate funding for Skomer Islands guillemot research here:

SIGN PETITION

Skomer Day 7: Bull Hole for a Triptych

Photo of Bull hole section taken at left, 08.15 and right 18.30 

When I arrived at Bull Hole this morning the loomery was extremely sparse, illustrated by the photo on the left. By 4pm however, the number of birds was higher than I had seen all week, with many new ledges occupied and familiar ones heaving with birds. As well as guillemot returning to claimed ledges I noticed groups in flight approaching the colony in sync but landing in different areas, usually being chased off only to regroup and try again. I began a third scroll around this time, of a section stage left of the second scroll that incorporates research groups B and C. Again I used the faster method of line drawing to capture most of group C before 6pm.

One bird attacks another and 
appears to couple with its mate

This third Scroll, makes up a triptych of vertically hanging scrolls partly inspired by groups of hanging scrolls made in the Chinese tradition (e.g Wang Jian 1598-1677) but necessitated by the formation of steep cascading colony ledges at Bull Hole. Developing the drawings has been a learning curve first to establish what is achievable in this environment, secondly to work as economically as possible and thirdly to practice patient observation so that reacting to capture every movement and posture becomes more and more intuitive. The drawings I made towards the end of this week are minimal almost diagrammatic in the way they describe the essence of each individual behaviour. However the view they present is an insight of the colony on an individual, pair or small group level of detail restricted by the speed I can draw one to a few birds. Next time I visit Skomer in a few days, I will be looking at how to describe mass or synchronised behaviour over much larger groups or the entire loomery, using rapid marks or symbols that can be later deciphered into a recognisable drawing - visual ethograms. Weather permitting I hope to carry this work out at the Amos, so I can aim for a series of drawings covering a range of study sites used by Tim and at the same time follow the progress of G907.

Bull Hole

Sea Studies at Bull Hole, auks on the water, razorbill
'butterfly flight'.

Skomer Day 6: Storm on a Cliff

The forecasted storm has hit Skomer over night, 40 knot winds and massive swell pound into the narrow inlet at Bull Hole, it is just as well that the guillemots have not yet laid as the biggest waves scatter the kittiwakes lower on the cliff and spray begins to lash even the tops where the guillemot are. Looking in detail through the telescope life in the colony goes on unperturbed, the guilemots as usual seem consumed in a storm of their own whipped up by strong internal urges, released through bouts of behaviour contrasting either aggression or pair bonding. For me though the raging storm heightens the experience.

I am determined to complete an entire scroll today and decide to work in the way I have developed, minimising the marks I make to capture each individual. I also start from the bottom of the scroll this time so always drawing the guillemot in front of the next. I mark out large areas of cliff for reference then individuals in a group using circles so I do not loose track of numbers and scale as the birds shuffle and reshuffle.

I complete the drawing by 6pm, having covered a large cascade of guillemot stage left of the Bull Hole 1 drawing. I am now familiar enough with the birds to be able to draw one after just one glance through the scope, meaning I have really been able to enjoy capturing the dramatic behaviour seen today, highlights below:



Guillemot with a fish greets it's partner, the interaction seems aggressive to start with then they settle into allopreening

Grappling rivals tumble down a steep ledge, one flings the other who, possibly caught in the wind falls approximately 60m to the ledge shown at the bottom of the main drawing. After knocking the birds breaking its fall off like skittles, it stands up and begins to preen.

Mating on the steepest ledges, requires a lot of frantic wing action

All the bridled bird in this section were found to be in the top left area of the drawing. One bridled bird B4 was possible to track, and I noticed it moving between two different birds, preening both.

The complete Bull Hole Scroll 2

Bull Hole Scroll 2, detail

Skomer Day 5: Scrolling On

Bull Hole Scroll Scroll 1, Detail

Bull Hole Scroll 1

With winds gusting around 40mph, I revert to working from inside the Bull Hole hide today, even inside I need to use six heavy duty clips to stop the paper lifting, but I'm grateful for the shelter.I draw solidly all day, finally complete the first Bull Hole Scroll at around 9pm. It has taken a long time, however making it I have learnt how to reduce my drawing to capturing the essence of each bird posture, so I am developing a way of drawing that allows me to move around the colony recording what I see accurately but quickly.

Skomer day 4: Squeezed on a Cliff

Detail of the Amos Loomery

A wet and misty morning with strengthening winds improving visibility enough that I can see the loomeries by 11am. I am forced however to abandon the first scroll I started at Bull Hole yesterday evening and take refuge in Elspeth's hide at the Amos. After what seemed like half an hour of human / equipment tetris I manage to compact myself into the tiny cliff top box and find a position I can draw in. My telescope is tilted at 90 degrees from the tripod so I can look down the angled eyepiece, worryingly my head takes on a similar concertinaed stance. However, there is no way I'm going to move anywhere as the rain hammers the hide head on and fills the plastic sheet I have used to block off the section of window, save for where my telescope peers out. Despite my slight discomfort, The world through its lens absorbs me for hours as I watch and draw the interactions within groups of guillemots jostling for position on an already densely populated flat ledge. 

In this period pre- egg laying I find the guillemots appear even more highly charged than I am used to seeing; jostling for position on ledges, shuffling and reshuffling with fights breaking out as birds lash out with sharp stabbing motions at new birds, often centred around pairing birds frequently coupling as rivals (presumably for mate and ledge) challenge and are fought off. Some apparent fights turn into tender allopreening (again courtship I have not noticed later in the season), other birds arrive with fish presumably as a courtship offering, but are mobbed by their neighbours. I imagine a sense of heightened awareness as birds always seem in tune with their neighbours and the network of social interactions threading throughout the loomery. Amidst this frenzy of activity, I discover colour ringed birds, but admit to having difficulty reading the numbers (usually three digits on left leg, T on right). One ring I can read, to the left of the drawing: Green 907. Later Julie looks up G907 on the database for me, it is a male presumably ringed as a chick in 2009 (check) with no subsequent data, which suggest that it is a young adult returned to the Amos for its first breeding season. If it was a bird that had bred previously, I would amongst other things be able to see where it nests on the cliff each year (normally pairs are faithful to the same square metre of ledge)and who it's neighbours are. 

Bull Hole Scroll at the end of the day.

The weather blows over and by late afternoon it is dry enough to continue work on the Bull Hole Scroll. The more I observe the more natural it becomes to draw and I feel the pace picking up after this morning's session at the Amos.