Sooty shearwater on the wing

My memory of the sooty shearwater Puffinus griseus, Tītī, from my childhood was that of a giant dark streak low across the sky, close above Foveaux Straight in Te Wae Wae Bay. They were so numerous and so far stretching, that there was no horizon to be seen, just the dark streak, like a incredibly long and thin cloud. Returning in my late twenties, they were still there in spring, but more like a light scattering of icing sugar upon a cake, when you are being miserly on the sugar. Not too sweet. These amazing migratory seabirds have one of the greatest distances to travel on their annual route. Breading in Aotearoa, before travelling en masse, all the way up to Artic Circle in a 64,000km round trip. Their Range:

Most major oceans from the Southern Ocean north to the Arctic Circle, with breeding sites located in the South Pacific and South Atlantic. I have chosen to celebrate these amazing wayfarers and my memories by carving them in bass relief into this elegant vessel. The appliqué of metallic acrylic to enhance the ocean, a sunrise/ sunset affair to mark the long distances they fly before resting. V olcanic rock, acrylic. 230 x 190mm.

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