Tern At The Scottish Seabird Centre

This is Tern by Geoffrey Dashwood.

It's come to roost outside of the Scottish Seabird Centre in the picturesque town of North Berwick.

This bronze sculpture is now cobalt in colour with years of exposure to the Southern Scotland sea air. The copper in the bronze alloy mixes with the weather and reacts with moisture, developing a uniform blue about the bird's body. It looks smooth to the touch and was cold, even in the warmth of the sun.

Sitting outside the Scottish Seabird Centre, Dashwood's Tern was said to “eliminate all superficial detail to attain refined forms with smooth surfaces, enhanced by the application of multicoloured patinas.”

He's got some pretty high profile followers. Chris Packham with whom he has collaborated on an exhibition, said "Dashwood's technique developed through naturalism to the almost abstract. It is reductive. All but a few surface details are cast off to leave a simplicity, which purifies and emphatically strengthens each work,"

Dashwood was born in Hampshire in 1947 and aged 15, won a place to study fine art at Southampton College of Arts. He forwent this opportunity to spend a life outdoors amongst nature, working for the Forestry Commission in the New Forest where he sketched birds for nature guides.

After years of sketching, he moved on to sculpting, and after a long time focusing on the minutiae in nature, he moved to a more abstract and streamlined version, creating larger than life examples of his subjects. This enlargement changes the audience's perspective and accordingly our perception. This huge, escalated tern almost looks as though it could be made of soapstone.

Sitting on a rugged stone plinth overlooking the North Sea and Bass Rock, the tern's real-life counterparts have returned to UK shores after a staggering annual migration. Travelling between the Arctic and Antarctic and back, sometimes flying just under 5000 miles without stopping, and a round trip of 44,000 to 59,000 miles, they have one of the longest migrations of any bird. They migrate to follow the sun, experience more sunlight than any other animal and live up to thirty years, and being monogamous, they mate with the same partner throughout life. That's a true tern of romance.

In its life, an Arctic Tern flies the equivalent of three times around the moon...stick that in yer pipe Katie Perry.

Also known as the swallow of the sea, the Arctic Tern or Sterna Paradisaea is a welcome visitor to North East shores with impressive colonies at Coquet Island, The Long Nanny near Beadnell and the Farne Islands, as well as islands off Scotland. They are vociferous protectors of their nests, and once on a visit to the Farne Islands with a wig wearing colleague, he stepped too close to a nest, and his locks were lifted and took to the skies for a few seconds until he steered clear of the tern's nest. The encounter was literally hair raising!

Another summer migrant returning to North Berwick in 2008 was Ronnie Corbett shown in this old editorial photograph from BBC Scotland when unveiled the sculpture at The Scottish Seabird Centre. He and his wife Anne spent holidays visiting their second home in Gullane and they were avid supporters of the centre during later life. The piece was originally on loan but was paid for by public subscription and now lives permanently outside the Scottish Seabird Centre.

We loved the bold curves and strong colour, which stood out against the blue of the sky. The smooth lines, exaggerated size and lack of finer detail make this piece pop off the plinth.

The beak looks like it could draw blood, and after a close encounter with a much smaller version, I'm glad this one is flightless and stuck to the stone!