'The Migrant Waders' from Dunlin Press

This is the day on which The Migrant Waders will be launched in Colchester.

This beautiful book is lavishly and exquisitely illustrated by designer Ella Johnston. You can see some of her drawings on the accompanying poster here in the Dunlin Press shop. The book, beautifully produced and edited by MW Bewick and Ella Johnston of Dunlin Press, is 'a collection of illustration, evocative prose, poetry and reportage that follows the migration routes of wading and shore birds from the high arctic to the tropics.'

One of the contributors, Samantha Franks, is a Research Ecologist with the BTO. Martin Harper is the Conservation Director of the RSPB.

My Bittern poem has been included; and in a serendipitous way, I see the RSPB have just posted a piece by Rachael Murray about this elusive bird, known more often by sound than its sighting. The Bittern, as I recall, was one of the threatened species to feature in the RSPB 'Conservation' board game that we used to play in the mid 1970s. I saw my first Bittern some thirty years later at Minsmere, and have since seen - and heard - a few more on the reserve. 

P.S. You may have found the same post on both my main blogs today. Birds and poetry seem to cover and span two key points of my (blogworld) focus. I was going to throw a link here (or over at Wild and Wonderful), but I decided it made sense to me to re-post in full.

'Treasure' Poems at UCS

David (Gill) reading his Sorley MacLean tribute poem about Hallaig on the Hebridean island of Raasay

We had an excellent Open Mic Poetry Evening last night on the theme of 'Treasure', organised by Suffolk Poetry Society. David, pictured above, hosted the event at University Campus Suffolk (UCS) on behalf of UCS Heritage Futures. My poem, written for the occasion, concerned a tiny scrap of woven silk dating from Roman times, on display in Colchester Museum.

Raasay (birthplace of poet Sorley MacLean), looking across to Skye and the Cuillin

Poem about Turkey in Reach Poetry magazine

Çay - in tulip glasses

My poem, 'Turkish Tesselations', has been published in the April issue (#211) of Reach Poetry, one of three magazines from Indigo Dreams Publishing.

Reach Poetry is now in its seventeenth year and is a magazine I have always valued. You can find my reasons here. In the words of one of the readers of this blog, 'Hearing Reach Poetry drop through the letter box every month gives a lift to my heart!'

I have not visited Istanbul for over thirty years, but the vibrant colours and exotic flavours left a lasting impression. We made a couple of trips across the water to Uskudar, or Scutari as Florence Nightingale would have known it.

The waterfront at Dolmabahçe, Istanbul, 1984

We revisited Claydon House (National Trust) in Buckinghamshire over Easter, and discovered that Florence Nightingale had resided there for a time.

In Celebration of Wordsworth's Birthday

Outside Rydal Hall, next door to Rydal Mount ... some years ago

Today is William Wordsworth's birthday and the Wordsworth Trust have posted a selection of birthday tribute poems on their blog.

The Trust ran a competition on Twitter, which allows 140 characters per tweet, for poems of up to 140 words. My sonnet, 'A Forsaken Bird's-Nest' (named after a phrase in one of Wordsworth's sonnets), can be found here.