Mudflats dominate the edges of the Upper Solway and the entrances to the estuaries and estuarine ports. The mudflats and the saltmarshes work together on the margins, they go hand in hand. But what is mud, and how does an organism live in or on this slippery, shifting substrate? But perhaps mud isn’t so malleable and shifting after all? I didn’t know. And I wanted to see mud as others saw it – artists and scientists. And to look at the life that was in or on it to see how it contributed to and was influenced by the characteristics of the neighbourhood.
In the chapter, artists Alison Critchlow and Lionel Playford – both artists well used to painting and sketching en plein air – joined me, at Port Carlisle and Grune Point, respectively, and explained to me what they saw and how they tried to represent it. We had some very interesting discussions, especially about ‘ways of seeing’. Lionel’s wet and muddy dog ‘helped’.
Alison Critchlow painting at Port Carlisle
Alison Critchlow painting at Port Carlisle
Incoming tide at Port Carlisle
Incoming tide at Port Carlisle
Muddy creeks, as 'wrinkled as elephants' legs'; Port Carlisle
Muddy creeks, as 'wrinkled as elephants' legs'; Port Carlisle
Lionel Playfair sketching with local mud, Grune Point 2019
Lionel Playfair sketching with local mud, Grune Point 2019
Mudflats at Grune Point, on the edge of Moricambe Bay
Mudflats at Grune Point, on the edge of Moricambe Bay
Mudflats of Moricambe Bay at Grune Point
Mudflats of Moricambe Bay at Grune Point
I visited the ‘Mud Lab’ (the Sediment Ecology Research Group) in St Andrews where Professor Dave Paterson explained about the microscopic diatoms and bacteria that live in and on mud, and their effects on the colours of mud: greenish-blue, golden-brown and black, in changing patterns and proportions.
The stability of mud or its erosion depends greatly on the life within it: the bioturbators and the bioengineers, stirring up the contents or changing its structure. Lugworms,ragworms, mudshrimps and mudsnails all contribute; there are some interesting and amusing research techniques to look at the 3D shapes of their burrows.
The colours of mud: low tide, Rough Island, Kippford
The colours of mud: low tide, Rough Island, Kippford
Mudsnails, Hydrobia, grazing
Mudsnails, Hydrobia, grazing
Lugworms, Arenicola, stir up the sediment; their coils of 'poo' are black
Lugworms, Arenicola, stir up the sediment; their coils of 'poo' are black
Lugworms, Arenicola; red with haemoglobin
Lugworms, Arenicola; red with haemoglobin
Bioturbators: mudshrimps, Corophium, in their burrows
Bioturbators: mudshrimps, Corophium, in their burrows
A spadeful of mudshrimp, Corophium, burrows; black is anoxic mud, ochre is oxygenated.
A spadeful of mudshrimp, Corophium, burrows; black is anoxic mud, ochre is oxygenated.
Mudflat inhabitants: mudshrimp, Corophium, burrows, and burrowing pink tellins
Mudflat inhabitants: mudshrimp, Corophium, burrows, and burrowing pink tellins
A gull's footprints and the 'juddering' trails of mudshrimps
A gull's footprints and the 'juddering' trails of mudshrimps
For years there were mussel and cockle fisheries along the shores and mudflats of the Upper Solway; they are currently closed, but surveys are carried out and collecting might be permitted again in the future. Mussels – ‘mussel-mud’, ‘sea silk’ and pearls; drifts of empty cockle shells at Kippford: to find these, there are strange and unexpected places to visit. Places to examine closely, where one can learn and wonder.
Surveying for mussels, on inner Ellison's Scaur, Allonby Bay
Surveying for mussels, on inner Ellison's Scaur, Allonby Bay
Mussel beds off Dubmill Point 2010
Mussel beds off Dubmill Point 2010
Starfish preying on the mussel beds at Ellison's Scaur 2009 (photo thanks to Dr Jane Lancaster)
Starfish preying on the mussel beds at Ellison's Scaur 2009 (photo thanks to Dr Jane Lancaster)