jet lag

This is Sonam in Bhutan, who was waylaid by drawing a bird for our Big Draw Flock on the way home from school.  His bird and others made in Bhutan followed an unusual migration route east to west to join the rest of our birds in Scotland. 

We haven't managed to calculate their airmiles yet - does anyone want to have a go?  What with who knows how many time zones, and the fact that here the clocks go back tonight, these birds can be expected to be the most disorientated of them all.  Come and see them, and others from elsewhere in the world, on display in An Lanntair, Stornoway, for the next two weeks.

corncrake crazy

Our Big Draw Flock is gathering its last few birds as it comes to settle on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, its northernmost destination.  Primary school pupils from Balallan (above), Laxdale, Carloway and Stornoway have been learning about corncrakes with the help of the RSPB and An Lanntair Art Centre, and drawing pictures of them.  The pupils mapped the migration route of corncrakes from Lewis to North Africa, and made origami corncrakes from the maps. 

The corncrake is hard to see in real life - 50% of the UK's breeding pairs nest in the Western Isles but they are shy birds.  Never before have so many been seen in the primary schools of Lewis!  See the Stornoway page for more pictures.

onwards and upwards

Today the piles of stamped and addressed bird cards that have gathered so far from Africa, Spain, Bhutan, London and Ullapool were posted north to the Hebrides.  Isn't it nice to think of them all out there in the air somewhere - a great squawking feathery conglomerate gaggle of them? 

long haul flight

Iona is drawing an owl in flight: she has carefully traced and transferred it and has yet to turn her fingers blue with felt-tip sky. 

Today An Talla Solais held the Ullapool leg of the Flock migration, creating a fabulous range of birds to send on their way.  We mapped our own local migrations, made our own constellations to steer by, discovered incredible bird facts (do swallows really spend the winter in South Africa?) and created weird and very wonderful birds to fly north.  There are pictures of some of the birds - including Iona's finished owl - on the Ullapool page. 

The Flock is nearing the end of its migration after a long haul flight of several weeks and thousands of miles.  Next stop Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides!

Small artists from Ullapool Primary School in the Scottish highlands have started adding to the Flock by creating beautifully observed cards like this one.  An Talla Solais (Ullapool Visual Arts) is hosting the next Flock workshop, on Saturday 15th from 11am - 2pm.  Please come and join us for all or some of it, and help us make more birds using coloured paper, maps and your own migration patterns!

In the meantime other birds are arriving by post from the south every day.  The Flock so far will be on display alongside the workshop - come and have a look!  See the Ullapool page for more info about the workshop.

birds of London

Today over 100 people flocked to Art in the Park in Camberwell to make migrating birds for the London phase of the project.  Using the birds of Burgess Park as inspiration (swans, woodpeckers, herons, pigeons and possibly a pterodactyl), visitors drew and cut out birds which they then painted with Art in the Park's two spectacular painting machines.  They were indeed a spectacle to watch: one of them involved shooting bright paint at a moving picture, and the other was a demanding wood and string contraption which got people levering paint onto their pictures at a safe distance of 6 feet.  At the same time others were making a series of clay pots and imprinting them with bird patterns.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and the workshop was much enjoyed - see the Camberwell page for more pictures of the day.  The birds made today will now be posted up to Ullapool, flying northwards on their migration to the Hebrides.

the eagle has landed!

This week the first bird cards have started to fly in from the south.  These ones set off from Morocco, Bhutan and Spain, covering incalculable air miles between them, and have arrived in London for a well-earned rest before travelling north again later this week.