Natural highs and lows

I'm not big on plans, or perhaps more accurately, I am quite big on plans but even bigger on continuously re-assessing the situation with each new snippet of information, so that the initial plan morphs into something completely different. I am told that this is intensely annoying to any prospective plan-ee. So, last weekend, I did have a plan, a fairly simple plan, but it was a secret as the planned thing was a surprise. However, I had done a bit of groundwork mid-week, suggesting an outing once the Monday to Friday grind was over and I was now on the point of enacting said plan to synchronise people, place, time and space. Megan: "My friend S has just messaged, her and I are going to go for a walk on Saturday morning, just into town, over the brae, popping by the new cafe and then the deli. OK?" Me: [Inwardly] Aarghh! [Out loud] "Yeah, no worries... maybe we could have our walk tomorrow morning?" Also me: [Hastily checks weather forecast for Sunday] And so it ...

Hard on the heels of Storm Floris, another whirlwind made landfall in Orkney, as younger daughter and grandson came to visit for a week. Little Louis is not quite three years old and we had to take certain measures to keep him in the garden, but out of the pond. Fortunately, despite exploring absolutely everything else, he ignored the temporary fencing altogether. Phew. Everywhere we went, his faithful companions Duck and Lamby came too... At the play park On the beach (Lamby on the left, Duck on the right) Duck and Lamby are not to be confused with Scottish curling sweepers Hammy and Lammie... Hamilton (Hammy) McMillan on the left, Bobby Lammie on the right The beach was Louis' favourite place to go, digging holes in the sand, building  destroying sandcastles, exploring rock pools and paddling in the sea. A Hermit Crab. Birsay Rackwick, Hoy (with some mountains on the Scottish mainland just visible) Rackwick, Hoy Luckily, Louis didn't spot this shoe encrusted with Goose Barnac...

In a world generally full of doom and gloom, this week I discovered a wonderful snippet of good news which had dropped into my inbox. It was an email from Sam, the people engagement officer for the local Species on the Edge team, and concerned one of the rare species which we help to monitor here in Orkney. The Sea Plantain Leaf Beetle is found in only three places within Scotland: Orkney, Shetland and Loch Etive (a sea loch near Oban). As Sam explained, this latter site only had an historical record, so this year Buglife members in Argyll were keen to see if the species was still present. Happily, they found seven beetles at the very top of the loch, in habitat not dissimilar to that here in Orkney, though at sea level not at the top of a windswept cliff. The population distribution across the country is very disjointed, so the project's next step is to sample beetle DNA to see how genetically different the colonies are. Next month, Megan and I are travelling south to Edinburgh ...

About a month ago, I received two separate reports from reputable observers of a small dragonfly which was red in colour. The Orkney list of resident Odonata does not include any size of red dragonfly (although we do have Large Red Damselfly). These reports came from two different islands, which lessened but didn't totally discount the possibility that what was seen was the same insect. With only brief views and no photographs to go on, an identification could not be given. For context, at that time throughout the UK, there were various species of dispersive dragonfly being reported, some possibly of UK origin, many more likely to have been migrants from Europe or North Africa. One of these species was Red-veined Darter. Meanwhile, slightly closer to home across the Pentland Firth, Caithness and Sutherland (like much of the UK) do have a resident species of red dragonfly, the Common Darter, but none have ever been reported from Orkney. I chalked this experience up to "Gah!...

The past week or so has seen some fairly wild weather for Summer, with Storm Floris bringing winds gusting up to 75mph, followed by a few days of localised heavy downpours flattening any garden vegetation still standing and the spirits of every gardener. Some wildlife can cope with this sort of weather, some can't, so it was with some trepidation that, yesterday, we carried out August's monitoring survey of a nearby pond at a private site on the edge of town. Usually, and for no specific reason other than convenience, any site photographs are taken from the water's edge, effectively looking across the pond. I tend not to have the owner's property in the frame as a matter of privacy, so that you, dear reader, normally have a view of Brinkies Brae, the hill behind the site. For a change, and purely because after the survey we were looking for more insects in the lee of a tumbled-down wall, here's a different view, looking across the small plateau where the pond is sit...

This weekend saw the second of two trips this Summer by the Orkney Field Club to the island of Hoy in search of dragonflies and hairy caterpillars. The weather was much kinder to us than a month ago, with plenty of sunshine and a pleasant breeze, which kept the midges at bay. Speaking of bays, here's where we began the walk after a boat journey from Stromness and the community bus from Moaness to Rackwick. Rackwick Bay, Hoy From the car park, we walked along the back of the dunes, finding Fox Moth caterpillars, my first ever (although they're common enough) Shaded Broad-bar moth and a new site for Six-spotted Burnet moths (indeed only the second site for the county). Shaded Broad-bar moth A Red Ant on a Grass of Parnassus flower Six-spotted Burnet moth Fox Moth caterpillar After second breakfast (or first lunch), our intrepid group wandered into the dunes where we found dozens of mining  plasterer bees and three Black Darter dragonflies. Mining  Plasterer Bee (later edit: BR h...