keeppoemsalive: a selection of poems about 'Time'

...

My Tercet Ghazal, 'The Ocean's Tears', features in the relatively new keeppoemsalive site this week. The site is described as 'a space for poems you like to read again and again.'

Other poets with work featured this week are Kevin Cadwallender, Neil Leadbeater, Alexander Hutchison and Vivien Jones.

All the poems on the site were published for the first time at least three years ago. Do click the link above and take a look.

• The Tercet Ghazal on The Ghazal Page

Assynt Poem in Reach Poetry

 Fin Whale's jawbone

My poem, 'Notes from the Netting Station', has just been published in the February issue of Reach Poetry. The inspiration came from the windswept beach at Clachtoll in Assynt in the north of Scotland, where there is a salmon bothy dating from 1846, and a netting station. Clachtoll was once a crofting township, with a large population of sheep. The abandoned netting station is strange place. Salmon fishing was carried out in the past by a process known as 'bag-netting'. The netted fish were kept cool in a nearby ice house. A jawbone and part of the skull of a Fin Whale can be seen outside the bothy, and it was the sad sight of these 'bare bones' that sparked my poem.

The beach at Clachtoll (Clach = rock; toll = hole)

Net-drying Poles at Clachtoll for bag-net fishing

The Netting Station (complete with large drops of Assynt rain!)

ZSL 2014 Poetry Competition Win

I have just been sent a link to the Results Page of the 2014 ZSL Poetry Competition on 'Conservation' ...

Rule 15. The competition will be judged by members of ZSL Discovery & Learning department, ZSL Resident poet Ahren Warner and Poet and ZSL council member Ruth Padel.

Overall winner: Caroline Gill - Raft Race

My poem is about the plight of the Fen Raft Spider. 

One of the few locations in Suffolk where the Red Listed Fen Raft Spider still resides

Creature Feature ~ Rhino Poem in Reach Poetry

There has been much in the news recently about the plight of the Rhino. Even dead rhinos have not been exempt from the poaching of their horns, a sad fact that is particularly pertinent here in Suffolk. The new issue of Reach Poetry (#182) is just out from Indigo Dreams Publishing Ltd, and contains my rhino poem, 'Letter from the Bush'.

Rhinos on the Web ...

• Fight for Rhinos
• Small Steps Rhino Poems by Children
• Elvis the Orphan Rhino with Sir David Attenborough

Stop Press ... just today Juliet Wilson (aka Crafty Green Poet) has posted a book review on Rhinoceros Summer by Jamie Thornton. 

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...

Beautiful Birds (20): On a Wing and a Prayer...

Owl-Eyed
(This is a Long-Eared Owl - I have yet to capture a Barn Owl on film...)

You may well have read A Gull on the Roof by Derek Tangye or Beasts in my Belfry by Gerald Durrell, but I wonder whether you have seen these statuesque juvenile Barn Owls in the stone quatrefoil. Do take a look here at the amazing shot by photographer, Richard Brooks. The church is Christ Church, Fulmodeston in Norfolk, the beautiful county where I lived during my teenage years.

P.S. I was browsing through the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust site for this post, when I came across a curious feature on the Mountain Chicken. How much do you know about this threatened creature? You can read about it here.

P.P.S. On the subject of wildlife conservation and literature, do read about Wildlife Poetry and the Born Free Foundation Poet-in-Residence, Richard Bonfield. Many of us have followed Richard's work over the years in magazines like Reach Poetry (Indigo Dreams Press).

Creature Feature (13): Homer the Turtle flies into the UK

Cadgwith, Cornwall
where I once saw a large Leatherback Turtle on the beach.

You can read about Homer, the blind Loggerhead Turtle here, and about plans for rehabilitation his new home in Newquay, Cornwall.

Do look at the similar turtle features on Professor P. Brain's ecology blog, here, here and here.

Carnival Time (3): The Festival of the Trees (FOTT)

Caught on Camera!
(through the car window)

The Festival of the Trees is up and running. Do follow the link here for an amazing rollercoaster of an arboreal adventure! My contribution to the festival concerns the New Forest in Hampshire.

Beautiful Birds (19): RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch ii

Welcome to my post for the carnival, 'I and the Bird'
hosted by Duncan at 'Ben Cruachan'

This is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch Weekend.

Dawn broke over Swansea Bay.
It was a cold, snowy morning.

The first birds arrived.

We noticed a flock of Starlings,

then a Blackbird...


... and a Robin.
(Notice those small bud signs of Spring!).

Other birds began to perch on the roof and the larch,
forming flocks of mixed species.

We sat at our window for the specified hour,
with the RSPB bird form to hand,
a pair of binoculars each
and mugs of hot coffee.

We recorded the highest number of a single species seen at a time.
Birds were only recorded if they landed.
Birds who passed over our garden in flight were excluded from the survey.
Each species could only appear once in the list.

We were quite surprised at the range of birds.
These were are results:

1. 26 Starlings
2. 4 Chaffinches
3. 4 House Sparrows
   
4. 3 Blackbirds
5. 2 Bluetits
6. 2 Magpies
7. 1 Blackheaded Gull
8. 1 Dunnock
9. 1 Feral Pigeon
   
10. 1 Goldfinch
    
11. 1 Great Tit
    
12. 1 Herring Gull
13. 1 Robin
14. 1 unidentified bird, slight, a long tail, cream-pink chest, slender bill. This bird perched in a tree.
    

The RSPB will collate the statistics that have been submitted, and will publish the final results of the Big Garden Birdwatch survey 2010 in March. The survey will include the sightings of half a million people in the UK, representing 28,000 gardens surveyed. The results will give a 'snapshot' picture of bird numbers in each region, alerting the RSPB to species with declining numbers. I was surprised to find that Starlings, the most numerous birds on our form, are listed as 'Red Status' on the conservation list. The mixed flock syndrome we witnessed may have been largely due to the cold weather.

I wonder if you took part? Do leave a link or a comment if you have posted your results.

See also:

• Paul at Little Brown Job - don't miss the Meerkat!
• The Guardian
• The Interrupted Gardener
• Midmarsh Jottings

P.S. Tuesday 2 February is World Wetlands Day!

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! 

Beautiful Birds (17): Round Redwing*

White Wigwam?

We were very inspired by the BBC Snow Watch programme last night to look out for something unusual in the snow. Well, we didn't have to look very far, as a Redwing came almost up to our back door, where there is some leafy (and snow-free) undergrowth at the foot of our Hydrangea bush.

Redwings may be quite common at this time of year, but it was a FIRST for us because we have not seen them in the garden before. When I blogged about the species a year ago (almost to the day), I posted a Redwing photograph, taken in the Mumbles area of Swansea by Mary Roberts - here. I love the distinctive white stripe on the head.

Matt Merritt of Polyolbion left the following informative comment on my post:
'They're pretty much Song Thrush sized.Very few breed in the UK, but large numbers arrive, along with Fieldfares (which are more like Mistle Thrush sized), from Scandinavia every winter. They're very fond of berry trees and windfall apples.'

I wonder what avian or 4-legged unexpected visitors have turned up in your garden...

Incidentally, while I am on the subject of wildlife, do take a look at Seabrooke's AMAZING résumé of her 2009 posts on The Marvelous in Nature from the wilds of eastern Ontario. Her photography is wonderful and her natural world stars are often extraordinary!

On the subject of snow, do remember to visit the new Polar Poets blog, hosted by Susan Richardson (from South Wales) and Siobhan Logan. Today's post is about Siobhan's fascination with and studies of the Northern Lights.

*And finally, talking of Round Robins (quite a controversial blog topic in the run up to Christmas), my thanks go to the 'Snow Watch' team for explaining in basic scientific terms the reason why it is beneficial for a bird to fluff up its feathers in the cold, making itself look more rotund than normal...

Conservation Corner (2): Lundy Island

A Maritime Conservation Creature!

Mumbles Lighthouse,
snow on Exmoor beyond,
Lundy to the right (beyond the photograph)

Here in Swansea, I often find myself gazing out to the Mumbles Lighthouse, in the direction of Devon. There is a small island out there in the Bristol Channel called Lundy. I am delighted to read that it has just been designated England's first Maritime Conservation Zone.

Lundy and its waters are the home of seals, corals and lobsters. Take a look at some of the inhabitants in this BBC footage.

• Lundy Poems from an Exeter University Field Course
  

Creature Feature (11): A River Seal?

Photos: we watched these seals in Scotland in July, during a summer holiday.
They knew where they would find fish scraps from the local fishermen!

Yesterday morning we heard the exciting news that a rare bird, a Gyr Falcon, had been spotted in our part of South Wales. Well, yesterday evening we read that a seal had been sighted in the River Neath. It had actually been spotted at about 11am, yesterday morning, Monday 21 December.

It is not unusual to see the occasional seal around our Gower coast (designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), but I don't think I have ever encountered a seal in a local river before.

• The seal with its trout in the River Neath (BBC blog)
  
• Pinnipeds
  

Beautiful Birds (16): On the 'Gyr' Day of Christmas...

View across Swansea Bay,
with Mumbles Pier and Lifeboat Station in the foreground
and the snowy hills of Exmoor in Devon in the distance

Magpie: Snow Visitor in our Street

Forget the partridge and the pear tree! There is great excitement on the Gower Peninsula, here in South Wales, UK, as a Gyr Falcon has arrived. It has been sighted several times. I believe this is a first for the Glamorgan area.

Falco Rusticolus: what's in a name? The falco bit of the name refers to falcis or 'sickle', on account of the hooked talons. Rusticus means 'rural', and colore apparently means 'to dwell' in this context. The name in Welsh is Hebog y Gogledd.

Less than 200 sightings have been recorded for Britain as a whole, with figures for Ireland standing at less than 150. The Gyr Falcon is a Schedule 1 Part 1 bird.

It is only just under a year ago that there was such excitement over the arrival in Britain of a Snowy Owl (seen e.g. at Sperris Croft, Zennor, Cornwall on 28 December 2008). I wonder what Christmas visitors will accompany Santa in 2010. Presumably the icy weather is a strong factor in the arrival of these unusual creatures.

• Glamorgan Bird Sightings (with reference to the Gyr Falcon)
• The Gyr Falcon, details on the Bird Forum site
• British Trust for Ornithology: Gyr Falcon
  

Creature Feature (10): Mercedes the Polar Bear moves North

Ruins of Ruthven Barracks near Kingussie
(sorry - no Polar Bear pics!)

Mercedes, the only UK's Polar Bear, has just moved from Edinburgh Zoo to a The Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie (home of some of my ancestors!) in Scotland. You can read about Mercedes here. Soldiers from 75 Engineer Regiment and the Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers volunteered to build the enclosure with its viewing platform, road and its car park, reducing the cost from an estimated £300,000 to £75,000.

• Highland Wildlife Park site
• Mercedes in The Times
• Mercedes, her former life (2005) ... in The Times
• Edinburgh Zoo: Mercedes and the Centenary Appeal
• A polar cub hitches a ride...

Postscript: you might like to read Gillian Clarke's poignant 'breath and growl' poem, 'Polar', on p.10 of Roundyhouse 28.

Conservation Corner (1): Wild Flower Garden

My River of Wild Flowers

Back on 1 January 2009 I blogged about my New Year Resolution to have my own small river of wild flowers in my garden. My 'river' is more like a tiny trickle; but due to the cold weather, the rain and the slugs, my crop has not been as prolific as it might have been. Nonetheless the survivors have brought some lovely colours to my garden and have provided food for insect life. I would hope to plant a similar crop again next year, but wonder how I can stop the slugs without resorting to unorganic means.

We now have a Wild Flower Centre on Gower: I shall have to go exploring...

Poetry Matters (10): Nature Poetry Group

I have just joined the new Nature Poetry group on ReadWritePoem. Thank you to Crafty Green Poet for setting this up. If you enjoy nature and eco-poetry, why not come and join in?

Poetic People (18): Richard Bonfield (& 'Born Free')

I have just heard from Richard Bonfield, known to many of us from his poems in Reach Poetry, that his poem, 'The Beautiful Alphabet' is now 'up' on the 'Born Free' website. You can listen to Virginia McKenna reading it here.

Richard has been invited to serve the Born Free Foundation as Poet-in-Residence. Many congratulations!

Travel (2): Fisherrow, Scotland

Fisherrow,
start of the John Muir Way, Scotland

One of our first ports of call on our recent Scottish expedition was the little harbour of Fisherrow - with its wonderfully evocative name - on the outskirts of Musselburgh, on the way to Longniddry. Fisherrow marks the western end of the coastal path on the John Muir Way in East Lothian. Fisherrow, on the mouth of the river Esk, is a wonderful place for oystercatchers: we enjoyed listening to their hauntingly beautiful call (mingled with that of the curlew) as we looked out across an atmospheric grey seascape. In days gone by the Fisherrow fishwives were renowned for their blue and white striped dresses and their wicker creels. In 1791 there were 90 of them in this small community. Many of these women were married to fishermen, who would have been away, up and down the east coast, fishing for weeks or months at a time. The women consequently were capable and independent. Some of them played golf, and this is certainly a rich stretch of coast for golf courses.

My reasons for visiting Fisherrow were two-fold. Not only did I want to visit the area where relations of mine played golf many years ago, but I particularly wanted to see the John Muir Way, named after the 'Scottish father' of ecological conservation. The notice board above had another board nailed to it (see off-white board at base of board photo above). I didn't like to post a photograph of it because it contained poems, which are almost certainly in the copyright of the authors. However, it was a brilliant board, decorated with pictures of an oystercatcher (of course), mussels, crab, gulls and herring. The poetry and artwork were created by pupils at Campie Primary School in Musselburgh. I applaud their ingenuity, and particularly liked a short poem called 'On being a Mussel': perish the thought!

Did you know that Muir has a glacier named after him in Alaska? Muir was born in Dunbar, and emigrated with his family to a farm in Winsconsin at the age of eleven. The Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks owe their existence in large part to this far-sighted man. Scotland's John Muir Country Park was set up in 1976.

At some point soon I hope to do a blog post on the Orcadian poet, Edwin Muir.

• The John Muir Trust
• John Muir Poetry Competition winners
  
• John Muir Estates - with recent sighting of rare Argent and Sable Moth (picture of moth here)
• Scottish Seabird Centre
  
• BBC Radio 4: John of the Mountains
  
• Edinburgh Natural History Society and its history (wonderful early photographs!)
• John Muir National Historic Site, California, USA and Muir Woods
  

Calendar Corner (5): World Ocean Day, 8 June 2009

Sea Scenes
for
World Ocean Day 2009

First of all, my apologies that this post is somewhat late; but when it comes to something like this, it must be a case of better late than never. You will find an informative blog post on the day here from Angela Recada. You might also like to read Crafty Green Poet's helpful post for the day here.

I hope you enjoy my assortment of sea scenes:

• Puffins at Bempton Cliffs RSPB reserve, Yorkshire, England, UK. (Yet another excuse for a puffin post!)
  
• Seal on the skerries, off the island of Skye, Hebrides, Scotland, UK
• Little Egret at the WWT Llanelli, opposite the Gower Peninsula (the first AONB), Wales, UK
• The beach at Rhossili, Gower, Wales, UK
• Worm's Head (a tidal peninsula), Rhossili, Gower, Wales, UK

On the subject of the Bempton Cliffs area (and south to the Humber), I have just found an article about events and activities in that region 'that won't leave you penniless'. I shall store these ideas away!