Our Coastal Birds

We feel very blessed to live 2-3 minutes walk from the beach and once a week we meet up with one of our good friends to walk along the shoreline, she is a keen photographer and specialises in bird and wildlife photography. We have seen many coastal birds on our walks over the winter months so I thought I would share some of them with you.

The background textures and colours represent the sand, sea and pebbles of our shoreline. First, I applied Sea Green and Desert Spectrum Aqua Markers to an acrylic block, spritzed the ink with water and pressed it onto the page. I then stamped a Sketchy stamp by Kaisercraft using Tea Dye Distress Ink and a Serpentine Background stamp using Cracked Pistachio Distress Ink. Then I repeated the same process by applying Hickory Smoke and Blueprint Sketch Distress Ink to an acrylic block, spritzing it with water and dripping the ink or pressing the block onto the page. I stenciled dots using a Creative Expressions Mask and the Hickory Smoke ink with a blending tool. Next I secondary stamped (in order to give a lighter image) a compass stamp from the Steampunk stamp set by Docrafts, a feather stamp by Craft Sensations  and a binoculars stamp by Royal & Langnickel using Jet Black Archival Ink. This is to represent the North West coastline, the fact that some of the birds migrate to our shores, the feathers you find on the beach and the binoculars we use to see the birds up close. The bird images are fussy cut from an old AA travel book and show some of the different birds we have seen on our walks; they are stuck to the page using a UHU Stic. I also cut the Oyster Catcher image and information from the same book, as well as the blue paper square which I stamped with the names of some other birds that we have seen and also decorated it with a tag stamp using Archival Ink, and the same compass and feather stamps using the Hickory Smoke ink and the Desert Aqua marker. Both these pieces are stuck to the page using double-sided foam tape. I stamped the words “discover” and “explore” using Archival Ink and then I used rub-on transfers for the rest of the wording. To finish I added three pretty white and blue seashell beads using Glossy Accents to adhere them.

As we are “Out and About” exploring the shoreline and watching the birds, I’m pleased to be able to join Yvonne from Meggy’s Way over at Art Journal Journey.

Our walks along the beach are made even more magical by the wide variety of birds that we see. Here’s a view from the top of one of the many sand dunes, it shows the area of the beach and mudflats where we see many of the birds, especially when the tide is coming in.

We always have fun spotting the different birds especially those that over-winter here or stop to feed during their migration. Here I am all wrapped up at the foot of the dunes, looking for birds because I am normally allocated chief bird spotter and given the binoculars. We often see what is known as a LBJ (little brown job) which we think is a sparrow but turns out to be a Linnet or a Reed Bunting or even a special visitor to our shores – a Wheatear. My hubby and our friend are the photographers as they have the zoom lenses needed to capture the flying birds and those on the shoreline. As you will see from the following photos they have captured some wonderful birds on our walks. I’d like to say a special thank you to both of them for contributing their fabulous photos to my blog today!

This Turnstone was watching us and waiting to resume feeding on the muddy shoreline, it is well suited to our coast as although we have sandy beaches there are pebbles and stony areas too.

It was amazing to see the Curlews for the first time this year, aren’t they magnificent! I was surprised about how big they are, until my friend told me they are one of the biggest wading birds in Europe. They also have a very distinct call which gives them their name.

The Little Egrets have joined our shoreline over the winter months, they take refuge in the mud flats at low tide and tend to disappear at high tide. They are so elegant and as you can see look spectacular when in flight.

The Oyster Catchers stay along our shoreline all year round and are very noisy birds. They come closer to shore as the tide comes in and here they are on the mud flats at high tide. They are so beautiful with their black and white plumage and red beak and legs.

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Sea Green, Desert)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Hickory Smoke, Blueprint Sketch)
• Ranger Archival (Jet Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist Pen (Cold Grey IV 233)
• Kaisercraft clear stamp (Sketchy CS878)
• Art Impressions wood mounted stamp (Serpentine Background T-2773)
• Royal & Langnickel Clear Choice Stamps (Journey MIN-CCS104)
• Papermania Urban Stamps (All Aboard – Tags PMA907178)
• Craft Sensations Clear Stamps (CRO274/16R1)
• Docrafts Creativity Essstials A5 clear stamp set (Steampunk DCE907125)
• Creative Expressions That Touch of Mica Masks (Distressed Dots)
• Discover Britain AA Book
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Sentiments (Summer #ROY505 Rub-on)
• The Works (Seashore Beads)
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape