Scurvy grass and White-winged Gulls

For the last three weeks there has been a well-trodden path to Orkney's finest wildlife spectacle. The violent northwesterly gales of December 2011 and January 2012 played their part in bringing a large influx of arctic gulls into the county in the shape of Iceland Gulls and Glaucous Gulls. The phenomenon isn't just restricted to Orkney - similar numbers of white-winged gulls arrived in Faroe, Shetland and the Outer Hebrides. Each winter we would expect to see a handful of these gulls from the northern latitudes but the numbers of gulls in 2012 are unprecedented. If you visit Marwick you are likely to see at least 50 Iceland Gulls and ten Glaucous Gulls. Among them have been recorded up to four Iceland Gulls of the race Kumlien - that's the race that comes from Canada. 

When the gulls first arrived they were looking battered and dishevelled after the rigours of the winter. In fact a few corpses were found on the beaches of Marwick and Skaill to the south. But providentially, the gulls' arrival coincided with the appearance of a whale carcase in Sand Geo - it seems to have been the gulls' saviour - blubber in abundance. Now the gulls look relaxed and well fed - their spirits and well being have soared.



The cliff top path to the spectacle is wet and muddy thanks to the foot traffic and the wet winter - apparently it rained for 54 consecutive days in November and December 2011. The grass is yellow but liberally sprinkled amongst it are the deep green leaves of Scurvy Grass - you can't fail to see it. After flowering the leaves seem to grow bigger and bigger and occasionally you may find some as large as digestive biscuits. Of course when I went out to find monster leaves they played hard to get and the biggest I found last Sunday were the size of Ritz crackers. You can see the size in comparison to a rather shiny 1 pound coin.

Freshwater 2

Here's the next freshwater plate.  This painting has been enjoyable to do, with some interesting backgrounds. You'll note two very similar plants in this one, tufted and water forget-me-not.  We'd decided early on that we would not meticulously paint each flower as is perhaps more common in botanical books, but instead show the plants slightly more 'loosely' in a recognisable Orkney location where you can find them (for those that are familiar with Tim's bird book, you'll see it follows the same format).  Anyway, this usually works well, but with very similar species like the forget-me-nots, it's important to show the smaller differences that separate them and sometimes these risk being lost in less detailed pictures.  In the case of the forget-me-nots, the sepals have slightly different shapes, with those of tufted forget-me-not forming more narrow and long triangles than water forget-me-not.  I hope this shows up enough in the original painting, although I think here the resolution is too low to see clearly.

The other flowers in the painting are from top left:  marsh willowherb, marsh pennywort, bogbean. bottom row from left: bog pimpernel, tufted forget-me-not, water forget-me-not.

The next plate is on its way.....

54Marsh Wilowherb	Sabiston Mill, Birsay	0848, 0849
55Marsh Pennywort	Tor Ness Light, Hoy	1887
56Tufted Forget-me-not	Tuquoy, Westray	0009,0016,0017
57Water Forget-me-not	Graemeshall, Holm	0713, 0720, 0721
58Bogbean	Grugar, Egilsay	181 - 188
59 Bog Pimernel	Loch of Moan, Rousay	904, 907, 909

 Marsh Willowherb at Sabiston Mill, Birsay

Marsh Pennywort at Torness Light, Hoy

Tufted Forget-me-not at Tuquoy, Westray

Water Forget-me-not, Graemeshall, Holm

Bogbean, Grugar, Egilsay

Bog Pimpernel, Loch of Moan, Rousay

Winter rosettes

If you look hard in sheltered locations you can still see a few flowers out - Daisies and Dandelions can be seen in all months and on Tuesday 13th Dec, I heard of Snowdrops in bloom in a St Ola garden. But even if the plant is not flowering there is plenty still to see. At the weekend I was out on the north shore of Burray which is washed by the waters of Weddell Sound. Plenty of birds including Long-tailed Ducks and a single female Common Scoter. In a geo near the broch I came upon a great gathering of large rosettes of Buck's-horn Plantain and the more I looked at them the more I was transfixed by their seemingly perfect symmetry.

North shore of Burray

The sandy geo packed with Buck's-horn Plantains

And here's the draft text for this underrated and understated plant:

Buck’s-horn Plantain (Plantago coronopus) 

Plantain family

Height to 10cm; flowers May to July. Easy to find.

Very widespread and abundant in Orkney (26/28) and in Britain (1272/2852) although absent from high ground.

In very exposed conditions the circular rosettes of leaves are often strikingly conspicuous on bare earth or in short grassland near the coast. They are the tiny spokes of a tiny cartwheel or J.C.Loudon’s ‘star of the earth’ in his mid-Victorian Encyclopaedia of Gardening. Those plants closest to the harshest of the elements are the most hairy and take on a sheen of silver. This biennial is the only Plantain in which the leaves are divided into toothed leaflets; plants in less exposed locations are bigger and more upright and the antler-like leaves resemble the horns of a buck. The flowers are yellow-brown and sit in short greenish spikes on top of an unfurrowed stalk.

Its distribution in Orkney and Britain is chiefly coastal but in the south and southeast of England it ventures quite far inland and as with some oher halophytes, it is increasing beside salt-treated roads.

Plantains were valued as healing herbs chiefly because of their ability to withstand trampling. Sympathetically this would mean that they could remedy bruising, crushing, tearing, burns and sores. It is however likely that other members of the Plantain family were utilised rather than the small and at times insignificant Buck’s-horn Plantain.



Anne's last plate

My apologies for not describing the finer points of Anne's last plate - the first of the Freshwater/wetland section.

Top left is Marsh Marigold at the northern end of the Loch of Swanney.
Top middle is Ragged Robin on Swona.
Top right is Water Mint on the Loch of Harray looking to the Stenness kirk.
Bottom left is Meadowsweet on the Wideford Burn in St Ola.
Bottom middle is Great Willowherb at Brodgar.
Bottom right is Cuckooflower/Lady's Smock at St Andrew's Mill.

The Orkney Book of Birds - pocket edition

The Orkney Book of Birds is now available as a pocket edition. Nothing from the original book has been left out, indeed Orkney's world of birds changes constantly and we have been able to include a species list, thanks to Paul Higson, that is current up to 31st July 2011.

Signed copies are available from myself (Tim) or from Tracy Hall's website priced at 9.99 sterling
www.watercolour-artist.co.uk/bookofbirds.htm

Wetland flowers

Here's the first wetland or freshwater plate.  I've enjoyed painting this one, although once again it has taken a little longer than expected.  I find the plants growing in this habitat to be particularly characterful - often with quite striking flowers and/or leaves.  Some, like the Marsh Marigold, shown below, have quite architectural leaves and seem very robust whilst others like the Ragged Robin, also featured in this plate, appear very fragile and delicate. 

Some of these flowers have been unfamiliar to me.  I found this a little surprising because although I'm not a botanist I find it hard to believe I could have walked past the flamboyant blooms of the Great Willowherb without acknowledging their existence! (Great or Greater Tim? - you'll need to correct me).  Perhaps the somewhat inaccessible nature of the habitat means that some of the species are less frequently seen unless you go out looking for them?  Whatever the reason, I look forward to the next plate which includes one of my favourite flowers of wetter environs, Marsh Cinquefoil.