Blackbird Project

I used the award to visit the Headquarters of the Scottish Ornithological Society in Aberlady to access their archives. I also spent a day in the archives of Aberdeen University reading notebooks from Daisy Hamilton, one of the earliest female bird ringers. I spent a day with the Senior Curator of Birds Dr Martin Stervander at the storage facility for the National Museum of Scotland, studying their blackbird collection of skins, nests and eggs. I spent a morning with Mike Rutherford the curator of zoology for the Hunterian and their wet collection of species. I also spent time with Dr. Ruedi Nager of Glasgow University - School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, discussing bird migration. Finally, I took a trip to visit the Isle of May and the bird observatory and lighthouse that is historically linked to early bird ringing in the UK. The project went extremely well and was a great research trip.

The research trip has opened my mind to many more possibilities and has reminded me of the importance of networking and research. I feel my work has broadened out since the research trip.

The award made a huge difference as I meant I could afford to travel and be away from Orkney purely for research as the bursary covered the costs. The research and the contacts I made have opened a number of possibilities as to where the work will progress to next. I am keen at some point to look at a project featured around the collection in the National Museum of Scotland and exploring the whole idea of 'collecting' birds. As a result of my visit to the Scottish Ornithological Society Headquarters, I was awarded a solo exhibition of my work on Navigating by Blackbird in 2028 and asked to write an article for their quarterly magazine - Birds - coming out in June. The visit to Isle of May opened up another exhibition possibility in their gallery in the lighthouse - something I will pursue at a later date.