Cliff Hanger, Puffins & More

When I do laundry, I am first a washer, then a hanger of clothes. If I was named Cliff, then I could be called Cliff Hanger or Cliff the Hanger, which sounds like an everyday object in one’s wardrobe or some medieval public executioner. I discovered that interestingly, as executions didn’t happen that often in medieval times (5th – late 15th centuries), a hangman such as our imaginary Cliff made his wage doing additional dirty jobs such as a knacker who removed dead animals from public roads and farms, a tax collector particularly of lepers and prostitutes and the beloved latrine cleaner which definitely was sloppy business in those days! Our Cliff would have most likely lived on the outskirts of town, on the fringe of society, providing services that were deemed undesirable. He would have been living on the edge.

Many of our feathered friends also live on the edge, hanging about on cliffs. The puffin is one such bird, strikingly handsome. There are four different types; the Rhinoceros Auklet, the Tufted Puffin, the Horned Puffin and the Atlantic Puffin, with approximately 580,000 pairs of Atlantic Puffins residing in colonies around the UK.

Atlantic Puffins
(Image credit: Christine Cassanell)

For safety, particularly on the mainland, puffins make burrows into cliffs where they can be protected and raise their young, one puffling/chick per pair. The cliffs with their sheer jagged faces make a perfect launching pad for seabirds such as the puffins to take off, soar - then dive into the ocean below to catch their next meal; sand eels being one of the puffins’ favourite morsels on the menu.

Atlantic Puffin and Sand Eels
(Image credit: Christine Cassanell)

And what exactly are Sand Eels? They are slender, long, and eel-like but are actually a number of species of fish. According to Teaching Through Nature, adult puffins that have a puffling to feed need to catch 400 sand eels a day! Puffins depend on these fish to survive and are being put into a vulnerable position as sand eels numbers have dwindled due to human fishing activity and climate change.

To raise awareness about puffins, climate change, and environmental issues along the East Riding of Yorkshire coast, the Puffins Galore! Art Trail was hatched. This project came to fruition earlier this year when there was a national callout for artists to submit designs to decorate a 1.5 metre puffin sculpture, which if selected would be installed somewhere along the East Riding Coast from July – October 2022.

I was one of 70 artists that had their designs shortlisted with 42 of these sponsored. Nest Builders Well Spotted was kindly taken under its wing by Active Withernsea and this puffin is now located near the RNLI Lifeboat Station in Withernsea. The artworks will eventually be sold to their sponsors or auctioned off with all monies going to four different charities.

Nest Builders Well Spotted

(Image credit: Kate Eggleston-Wirtz)

This artwork explores nature (symbolised by the puffin) and humans sharing one collective nest, one home, our planet Earth which the giant bird is keeping a close eye on. The puffin is well spotted to symbolise bird watching/spotting, spots from disease and or spots/locations where one might build smaller individual homes. This bird hopes for a healthy future represented by the newly hatched puffling safe in its burrow, where humans take to heart the impact of their own nest building, represented by the houses on the puffin’s back. All species have a right to nest safely, to thrive and fly.

Here’s a poem in response to Nest Builders Well Spotted, affectionately named Spot.

Spot the Puffin
A perfect spot, Spot stands by sea
keeping watch on you and me
building our nests side by side,
some on cliffs above the tide,
some with windows, made of stone
or brick or wood, these are our homes
for big, for little, no matter how small,
one planet Earth - one house for all.

And an additional fun little ditty in response to the Cliffhanger theme.

Cliffhanger
Hang up your clothes, get ‘em off the floor
use Cliff the Hanger that’s what he’s for.
A hanger named Cliff, a wiry fella
twisted with a hook and painted bright yella.

Hang up your clothes, get ‘em off the floor.
Open your wardrobe, open its door.
Cliff is calling, a Narnian shout,
Pick up those clothes, hang ‘em right side out!

I looked at the floor at the pile of clothes.
I opened the wardrobe, stuck in my nose.
It was dark, it was dank, it smelled funny and then…

Thank you for reading. 

KEW 😃

For further information about real live puffins:
http://www.teachingthroughnature.co.uk/puffin-season-2020/puffins-bring-back-fish/
https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/puffin/

For further information about the Puffins Galore! Art Trail: http://puffinsgalore.co.uk