MIGRATION
http://www.birdguides.com/birdwatch Birdwatch•October 2017 47
THE FLIGHT LINES PROJECT
THE Flight Lines project, which is a
partnership between the BTO and the
Society of Wildlife Artists (SWLA), provides
a good example of how the creative arts
are being used to increase the resonance
of scienti c work carried out by research
staff and the thousands of volunteers whoproject that artists Esther Tyson and Harriet
Mead joined storyteller Malcolm Green
and Reed Warbler researcher Dr Dave
Leech in a Norfolk reedbed.
Dr Leech has been working on
Reed Warblers and Common Cuckoos
at his site for a number of years,
monitoring breeding attempts made in
a series of fringing reedbeds
surrounding ooded gravel
pits. The artists and
storyteller donned wetsuits
to visit active Reed Warbler
nests, some of which held
nestling Common Cuckoos, and
immersed themselves in the watery world of
these birds.
The artwork produced through the Flight
Lines project has been exhibited in London
and Cambridge, and will travel elsewhere
during 2018. It has also been used in
a new book, Flight Lines: Tracking the
Wonders of Bird Migration, which presents
the artwork alongside a narrative account
of our summer visitors, the journeys that
they make and the research being done
to understand what is happening to their
populations. ■project that artists Esther Tyson and Harriet
Mead joined storyteller Malcolm Green
and Reed Warbler researcher Dr Dave
Leech in a Norfolk reedbed.
Dr Leech has been working on
Reed Warblers and Common Cuckoos
at his site for a number of years,
monitoring breeding attempts made in
a series of fringing reedbeds
surrounding ooded gravel
pits. The artists and
storyteller donned wetsuits
to visit active Reed Warbler
nests, some of which held
nestling Common Cuckoos, and
immersed themselves in the watery world of
these birds.
The artwork produced through the Flight
Lines project has been exhibited in London
and Cambridge, and will travel elsewhere
during 2018. It has also been used in
a new book, Flight Lines: Tracking the
Wonders of Bird Migration
the artwork alongside a narrative account
of our summer visitors, the journeys that
they make and the research being done
to understand what is happening to their
populations. ■participate in BTO surveys. Over the last four
years, SWLA artists have visited West African
wintering grounds and southern European
stop-over sites in the company of scientists.
Their work, informed through conversation
with researchers and volunteers, provides
new insight into the stories of our summermigrants and the issues they face.
Much of the work has focused on Britain,
with artists, storytellers and photojournalists
accompanying volunteers to witness work
on European Nightjars, Sand Martins, Reed
Warblers, Common Cuckoos and much more
besides. It was through the Flight LinesThe Flight Lines project brings together
art and science to help deliver to a wider
audience the conservation work that is being
done to help Common Cuckoo, among many
other species. Richard Johnson’s watercolour
depicts a male Common Cuckoo (above),
while Harriet Mead’s metal-work Funnel shows
a Reed Warbler feeding a cuckoo chick (left).1710 p044-047 lines of flight FIN.indd 47 15/09/2017 14:39