Sand Martins

This project started as a short video recorded of sand martin birds nesting in a cliff face on my local beach. I was struck by their speed and preciseness of plunging into crevices on the cliff face which housed their nests. I am interested in their organisation and instinctive protection of shelter for their offspring.

Afterward, I thought of using drawing as a method of mapping out their flight paths which are otherwise invisible to the eye. I projected the short video and freeze framed it, each time marking a point of the direction of their movements. In this instance, the act of the drawing process revealed new knowledge and documented traces of group behaviours and mapping of location and distance traveled of these migratory birds.