Bargain Birds

Thursday. A grey day where the sun may appear after lunch but probably not. The Good Old British Weather has its own plans when no two days are ever alike. Following the ringing session of Monday Sue and I sat out in the sun-filled garden throughout the rest of the day then ate an evening meal basking in the warmth of the slowly vanishing sun. Tuesday and Wednesday - a little mixed with showers and sunny intervals. 

Today I may be forced into a shopping trip, acceptable only because it’s for food and wine. Like most blokes of a certain age, I don’t shop; even more so nowadays when that wonderful British invention the Internet provides all the shopping a man desires. Where else could I stock up with spare Canon eyepieces when the originals mysteriously vanish into thin air ? Or where can I buy socks that fit size 9 rather than 6-11 that fit no one? 

I appreciate that ordered goods via the Internet have to be delivered by crazed White Van Man clogging up the roads and scaring timid drivers but surely this is preferable to a hundred cars with two occupants each setting out for a day at the shops? Home shoppers are doing their bit to save the planet. 

The Internet, especially Ebay, is a reliable source for finding bargains, birdy or otherwise, deals that others may miss whilst lulled into thinking that Amazon is the tops which it ain’t! Before Christmas Sue and I acquired a beautiful & early Lladro figurine, a retired piece that arrived in the original numbered box, all for the princely sum of £45. More recently, a stunning peint-de-main Limoges lidded tabac jar that cost all of £15. “Buy stuff you like” - Ebay in this case. 

Typing “bird art” or similar into a search engine delivers many strange results, very often incorrectly named birds, birds with no names, birds in completely the wrong colours or birds that resemble nothing known to science. I look for the quirky, unusual and collectable.

Ebay was the source of a recent watercolour painting, a one-off original that succinctly depicts birders in action rather than birds, a painting signed simply “Stuart” who I believe to be Stuart Peters but have yet to confirm. 

"Stuart"

Twitchers/Birders

 

This little gem of a painting that cost me £19 including postage accurately portrays a typical “twitch”, a bunch of morose and bored birders in uniform waiting for the bird to “show” on a typically grey morning somewhere on the East Coast of England. Already I have been offered a sum of money that would give a handsome profit but the painting is staying on the wall of the office. It needs more detective work to find Stuart who I suspect was/is a somewhat casual birder, an artist who derived great pleasure from this particular piece of work. 

The latest bargain bird is another original (1976) watercolour of the beautiful and often unloved Fulmar, a gull-like, a grey and white seabird related to albatrosses. Fulmars fly low over the sea on stiff wings, with shallow wingbeats, gliding and turning to show white underparts then grey upperparts. They defend their nests from intruders by spitting out a foul-smelling oil, an experience to which every birder should succumb so as to earn their own wings bars.  

Fulmars (1976) - Fraser Symonds

OK, for £1.99 and the slightly scruffy appearance without glass in place there's a little fettling required for Sharon over at Garstang Fine Arts but very soon I will be left with a lovely investment that fills a gap in the hallway walls. This very accurate and wholly sympathetic painting is by the well-known Sutherland artist and ornithologist Fraser Symonds, almost certainly whilst he sat yards away from the very subjects whilst covered in their spittle.

Sutherland Birdlife

 

“PAINTING BIRDS WITH FRASER SYMONDS. East Sutherland Art Society has some places available for this workshop on Saturday 26th January 2019 in the Masonic Hall Golspie OPEN TO MEMBERS (£20) & NON MEMBERS (£25)” 

Another auction in 2022 and my parting with £195 resulted in the acquisition of the Printer's Proof (P/P) lithograph by Bernard Cheese – Picnic On The Beach, a humorous, quirky work that depicts Sue and I on Knott End beach with our fish & chips, fighting off hungry and persistent gulls. Well it’s not really us two but it could well be. If, Dear Reader you can today find a good framed & original Cheese for less than £1000 then think about splashing out. Or tip me off.

Picnic on The Beach - Bernard Cheese

Works of Bernard Cheese (1925-2013) were acquired for many important collections, from the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Royal Collection (one of the largest and most important art collections in the world, and one of the last great European Royal Collections) to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and New York Public Library.

Maybe after today's missive I have inspired readers to invest in Bargain Birds? 

Let’s face it, your money in the bank will quickly depreciate as politicians print more and more notes that will debase our currency, simply to promote and finance their grandiose White Elephant schemes that no one voted for and not one person needs. 

You know it makes sense. Buy collector items, antiques and gold the precious metal, rather then Politician's Pie In The Sky. 

Tomorrow I shall be mostly birding. Join me then. 

A Fulmar

Someone phoned. A Fulmar found near Garstang after the recent gales was doing OK, eating food spontaneously and looking fairly perky. Could I take it and release it at Knott End near the sea where hopefully it would return to where it should be?

It’s good few years since I handled sea birds on Bardsey Island. Nights spent catching and ringing Manx Shearwaters near their burrows, deciphering worn and ancient ring numbers, or fitful naps in the tractor shed while waiting for periodic lighthouse attractions to deposit waves of birds on the ground where they might be rescued in one piece.

As soon as I saw the Fulmar and caught that unmistakable smell, that unique musty, oily but not unpleasant aroma that seabirds alone possess, it transported me back there to Bardsey and the Manxies, the Razorbills and the Gullemots.

Of course the name "Fulmar" comes from the Iclandic for a foul gull and refers to the smell that comes from the fishy oil in its stomach. The Fulmar is closely related to the Albatrosses in a group of birds sometimes referred to as "tube-noses". This name is derived from the tube that lies along the top ridge of the bill which contains the nostril and gives this group of birds a remarkably keen sense of smell used for finding food out at sea.

But this Fulmar wasn’t going anywhere, having taken a turn for the worse in just a few short hours. I took the obligatory photo before placing it in an overnight box.

This morning it was gone.