Dawn Chorus

Curlew

Flanders Moss on the Carse of Stirling isthe largest raised bog in the UK. It’s adamp peaty oasis amidst intensively farmed fields.The Mossprovides a haven for birds such as meadow pipits, skylarks, stonechats, willow warblers, cuckoos, curlews and snipe.

David Pickett, Scottish Natural Heritage reserve manager, invited a group of pupils from Wallace High School, Stirling to visit the Moss for the first time, to hear the dawn chorus. They had the novel experience of silently sitting on the board walk in the middle of a bog in the early morning, blind folded, listening. No earphones, no screens, no phones. Just listening.

They were rewarded with skylarks singing their way up into the sky, stonechats ‘tapping’, willow warblers warbling and in the distance the call of a curlew and whirr of snipe. The students recorded bird song and sketched the landscape.

When hands were too cold to draw, we left for a welcome warm-up breakfast at West Moss-side Centre prepared by Kate Sankey. The students spent the day doing a variety of activities: weaving Caroline, a largewillow curlew with Kate, watching a rare pair of curlews through the telescope with Dave and developing their landscape drawings with artist Jessica Langford. They also created a soundscapeat schoolusing the bird songs they had recorded with Molly Schutten.The result of their Dawn Chorus experience was part of Artbeat,ForthValley Open Studios week in June.

The artwork was exhibited at Flanders Moss in frames around the boardwalk over summer 2019 with an exhibition at Callander’s Summerfest in July and at the McRoberts Arts Centre in Stirling. It also formed part of the Under the Microscope botanical art project 2018.

For more information:https://www.nature.scot/visit-flanders-moss-national-nature-reserve