Publication Pointer ~ Glossy Ibis ... and Puffins

My previous post was about an anthology that will raise funds for WWT Welney, and, as it happens, my most recent poem to be published, 'Glossy Ibis near Welney', has just made The Box in the August edition of Reach Poetry, having been voted 4th in the readers' vote.

The Glossy Ibis is a bird that is still on my 'wish-list'. I had hoped to see one when we were on the lagoons near Pylos three years ago, but it was not to be.

Sunset: Yialova lagoons, near Pylos, Greece

Speaking of birds, my puffin poem, 'A Chink in the Sky', features in the August edition of FreeXpresSion from Australia. It seems a good excuse for a(nother) puffin picture ...

 ... or two!

Magazine Moment (27): Reach Poetry (and Puffin)

Reach Poetry issue 158 arrived this morning (thank you, Ronnie and Dawn at IDP). There are some great new poems in the magazine - not forgetting a fabulous cover of a certain Border Collie called Soxx.

It was great to find my name in 'The Box' for my 11-syllables per line Sonnet* on - you've guessed - those amazing Yorkshire Puffins. My poem was voted 4th out of those published in issue 157 - so thank you to all who chose it.

Many congratulations to Tina Negus, who took First Place with her brilliant poem, 'A Contradiction of Hoopoes'. 


* Shakespeare's Sonnet XX had 11 lines per line, which was unusual - but I like the rhythm.

Anthology Alert (6): Writelink and my Puffin poem, 'A Chink in the Sky'

Puffins: the Clowns of the Sea

I wonder whether other poets find it increasingly rare to be sent a proof these days. I am always pleased to be given the opportunity to check my work once it has been prepared for publication. I am grateful to Sue at Writelink for allowing the contributors to do this for the anthology arising out of the Spring Fever competition. We hope the collection will be out in time for Christmas orders. 

• A Chink in the Sky

Buried Treasure: Puffins!

Seth Apter's...

Welcome | Croeso to my Puffin Post, which I am re-posting as part of Seth Apter's Buried Treasure collaboration, in conjunction with Seth's inspirational art blog, The Altered Page. The brief was to 'excavate' an old post and give it a second life... so here goes. Enjoy!

Saturday, 3 October 2009

Puffin Quest 3: OAPS (Old Age Puffins)

Coastcard Puffin Design
© Caroline Gill 2009

Puffins at the RSPB Reserve,

Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire, UK

Those who follow my blog will know that puffins are probably my favourite bird. They float around in 'rafts' on the sea, looking like small jewels or beads in a necklace. They are often referred to as the 'clowns of the air' because they look so comical when they fly. I took a number of photographs, trying to capture their different poses: I hesitate to say their 'expressions' because this is a word I associate with humans. I hope you like the result!

Puffins seem to have been in the news a bit these past few months. I blogged about the rare sighting of the Tufted Puffin a couple of weeks ago.

[Ed.- you will find a link to that post from this one! You might also like to see my puffin bookmarks in this post].

I have now been given an unidentified newspaper clip about 'the oldest known puffin in Europe'. The bird was ringed back in 1975. Another puffin found in the same vicinity of Rough Island, part of the Shiant Isles, off Scotland had first been ringed in 1977.

• Wildlife Extra: apparently a puffin on Iceland may be even older!
• British Trust for Ornithology OA Puffin Report

-------------------------------------

By the way, if you enjoy exploring the natural world, you might like to hop over to my new 2010 blog, Wild and Wonderful.

Previous Comments:

4 October 2009 00:18

steven said...

hello caroline - i was astonished at the ages of the puffins!!! i had no idea!! by the way - the puffin card is really lovely!!! they've always been my favourite bird. have a peaceful day. steven

4 October 2009 14:02

Crafty Green Poet said...

I didn't know puffins lived so long!

Your puffin card is lovely, really captures their character...

Puffin Quest (5): THANK YOU to all who voted!

It's those puffins again!

My sincere thanks to all who voted for my puffin poem, 'A Chink in the Sky' in the Writelink Spring Fever poetry competition. I am pleased to report that it made the 'grade for publication' in the anthology in the judge's eyes by the skin of its teeth (or should that be by the tip of its bill?).

'A Chink in the Sky' came in at number 10 in judge, Magdalena Ball's shortlist.

If my poem had been number 11, all your votes would in fact have saved my puffins from 'near-extinction' (as the final publication list comprised the judge's Top 10 poems plus the 10 poems with the most votes) - so thank you very much for your support.*

The poem will be published in the Writelink Spring Fever anthology in due course.


* Many of you will know that puffins are in the Amber category on the RSPB 'conservation' list...

Competition Corner (4): Spring Fever

March 2010: Sunset
Seeing out the last traces of winter?

Above: clumps of spawn underwater.
Clumps of spawn float to the surface in large round clumps
so that the eggs can be warmed by the sunshine.

Above and below: surface spawn
clumps so that the sun can warm the eggs.
The spawn floats to surface in large round clumps so that the sun can warm the eggs.

Below: Frog

I wonder which date marks the start of spring for you.

Here in Wales we often associate St David's Day on 1 March with the start of the new season. Midnight (more or less) on 20 March is considered the official first day of spring for 2010 in the Northern Hemisphere, as this corresponds with the Vernal Equinox when the sun will lie directly over the equator. The Southern Hemisphere will observe the Autumnal Equinox on that day. I understand that Australia and New Zealand designate the first day of September as their official first day of spring.

I wonder what signs you particularly associate with the new season. Here in Wales it could be the sight of new lambs or the first daffodil. We saw our first frog spawn (pictured above) at the weekend in Carmarthenshire. The frog photo was 'one I took earlier', but I thought it was encouraging to think that this handsome creature is the end product of the metamorphosis - not forgetting the tadpole stage in the middle.

There is still time to go over to the WriteLink Spring Fever Poetry Competition and cast a vote and/or leave a comment. The poll will close on 21 March, so there are only a few days to go.


You can read my puffin poem here (and the page gives access to all the other competing poems). Details of the contest can be found in my previous post here. A big thank you to those who have been along and left a mark already!

Competition Corner (3): Writelink Spring Fever

OVER TO YOU... (Spring is in the Air)

Along with a fair few others, I have entered a poem in the WriteLink 'Spring Fever' competition. The form in my case is a Rondeau Redoublé.

If we are members of forums or have our own blogs, we are encouraged to include a link to our poem (which also gives access to all the other contenders - so do look at these, too).

You will be able to cast a vote and/or leave a comment, if you would like to do so, up until the closing date of 21 March 2010. I suggest you do not use my name if you address a comment to me on the WriteLink site.

I am posting the link to my poem here. The organiser tells competitors that while 'lots of votes will get you on the Site Short List', the 'final judging will be by a human judge!'

The 10 poems with the most votes will be added to the judge's 10 favourites. The Top 20 poems will feature in an anthology. First, second and third prizes will be awarded by the judge. On behalf of those of us who are taking part, thank you very much for your interest and support!

P.S. For some wonderful definitions of poetry, you might like to follow this link. I wonder which works best for you...

P.P.S. Cathy of 'One Pink Goose' has a delightful puffin picture on her excellent site ... here. Don't miss it!

Puffin Quest (4): Winter Water Wings

Above: a single Puffin in a choppy sea off Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK, July 2009
We thought at first it was a castaway decoy (see below)...
... but then it dived.

Below: nesting Puffins, Spring 2009, Yorkshire, UK

'Water, water, every where'
Coleridge

Those who follow my blog will know by now that I have a particularly soft spot for the Puffin!

The BBC has published an amazing account of the winter 'Odyssey' undertaken by this amazing bird. The findings have been made thanks to the adoption of geolocator tags. I am so grateful to Steven of The Golden Fish for drawing my attention to the report. It makes fascinating reading.

The Puffin - or rather a particularly 'snowy-looking' Puffin photographed by Barbara Fryer off Scilly - features in the February 2010 issue of the RSPB magazine, Birds. This Puffin is not an albino, but rather a leucistic specimen, since its eyes and bill have the usual pigments, and its white feathers are edged in black. Albinism (when there is no melanin present) is a genetic mutation: leucism is the result of diluted pigmentation.

The magazine also refers to the story I mentioned on a previous occasion about those silent Sirens, the supposedly alluring Puffin decoys on Ramsey Island off Pembrokeshire, Wales.

Previous Puffin posts:

• OAPs aka Old Age Puffins
• Tufted ('Punk') Puffin *
• Transformative Moment
• A Post on Puffins

*This species reminds me of the rare and declining Northern Rockhopper Penguin. I am grateful to Crafty Green Poet, Juliet Wilson, for pointing me in the direction of the RSPB's Letter to the Future campaign (don't forget to click on the green leaf on CGP's blog).

Readers familiar with Coleridge might also like to support the Save the Albatross campaign.

Postcript: my thanks to Matt Merritt of Polyolbion (see comments for this Polyolbion post) for teaching me a new name today. Matt told me that while the scientific name for 'Puffin is Fratercula arctica, confusingly, Puffinus puffinus is Manx Shearwater.'

PPS: On the subject of decoys and bird conservation, take a look at this! 

Coastcard Crafts (1): Bookmarks

Puffin bookmark

I have been making bookmarks for my Coastcard online shop. I use my own designs, which I print on photographic paper. I trim and laminate the bookmark, adding a tassel and beads. I am experimenting, and at the moment I thread one home-made bead between two spacer (bought) beads. I mould my beads from Polymer clay, which I then bake and varnish.

Some bookmarks will have short poems on them. I am making a few Christmas designs, and hope to put some of the bookmarks on my online shop site soon.

I designed the puffin picture from photographs taken at the Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve last Easter.

Work in progress: a selection of Coastcard bookmark designs
(Please click on image to enlarge)

Below: some of my beads...

P.S. Speaking of feathered friends (but not the Puffins, of course, who have left our shores), you might like to read about the RSPB Feed the Birds day on my Land&Lit blog here.

Puffin Quest 3: OAPS (Old Age Puffins)

Coastcard Puffin Design
© Caroline Gill 2009

Puffins at the RSPB Reserve,

Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire, UK

Those who follow my blog will know that puffins are probably my favourite bird. They float around in 'rafts' on the sea, looking like small jewels or beads in a necklace. They are often referred to as the 'clowns of the air' because they look so comical when they fly. I took a number of photographs, trying to capture their different poses: I hesitate to say their 'expressions' because this is a word I associate with humans. I hope you like the result!

Puffins seem to have been in the news a bit these past few months. I blogged about the rare sighting of the Tufted Puffin a couple of weeks ago.

[Ed.- you will find a link to that post from this one! You might also like to see my puffin bookmarks in this post].

I have now been given an unidentified newspaper clip about 'the oldest known puffin in Europe'. The bird was ringed back in 1975. Another puffin found in the same vicinity of Rough Island, part of the Shiant Isles, off Scotland had first been ringed in 1977.

• Wildlife Extra: apparently a puffin on Iceland may be even older!
• British Trust for Ornithology OA Puffin Report

Beautiful Birds (14): Tufted Puffin - UK Sighting

Those of you who visit my blog will already know that I have a soft spot for puffins!

The Guardian reported a first UK sighting on 16 September 2009 in Kent of a TUFTED PUFFIN (described on the Newstin site as a 'punk puffin'), a species usually associated with the Pacific. You can read about the puffin here. There is also a photograph of this delightful bird.

There are more records and photographs of the sighting on the Birdguides site (see here also).

Exciting!

Beautiful Birds (9): More Puffins for Pembrokeshire

These puffins were on Bempton Cliffs, Yorkshire (April 2009)
(Bempton gets a mention in the Mirror's best beach guide - under Filey)

Those who have read this blog before will know that I have a soft spot for puffins. I was delighted to discover that the folk who care for Ramsey Island off the Pembrokeshire coast report the arrival of 150 new birds.

This is a somewhat misleading statement on my part, for the new arrivals are plastic puffin decoys, positioned in a bid to lure 'proper' puffins to breed on the island. What a lovely idea!

• RSPB: Ramsey Island
• Puffins on Skomer
• BBC Springwatch 2009
  

Beautiful Birds (4): An Avian Equinox?

Do visit the Birdstack site to catch up on the 'Birds of the Equinox' contributions. I particularly enjoyed reading one of the linked blogs of Arctic musings. On the subject of wintry topics, we have just returned from Yorkshire and the Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve near Flamborough Head where a snow bunting had been spotted. We saw a surprising number of puffins building their nests: pictures to follow. They are such delightful birds.

Puffin Quest 2: hanging on for dear life?

I had another look at my puffin pictures from Bempton Cliffs, and couldn't resist this one.

Frets off Flamborough

I fulfilled a long ambition to see puffins in their natural habitat. Britain was basking in a heatwave, but it was a cool 12 degrees centigrade on Bempton Cliffs. We were shrouded in mist; but were told that thanks to what seemed adverse weather conditions, the puffins - well, a few at any rate - had been driven off the sea. Their amber feet were amazing!