Around this time of year I get to thinking: 1. Jeez, still two months to go before dragonfly season; 2. Will Winter never end?; 3. I haven't seen any Coltsfoot yet. There's not much I can do about the first two items on that list, other than moving south. Whilst in another time and place, I regularly used to confuse myself with Coltsfoot flowering dates, seemingly always presuming it to be sooner than it actually is. In fact, one year, I sat down and looked back through that particular blog and made a spreadsheet of the first flowering dates I had recorded for Coltsfoot in Orkney. The trend was clearly mid-March, so here I am, bang on cue. Having moved into a new home only last Summer, and this being our first Spring here, we weren't sure where we would find any Coltsfoot in flower. The setting is more urban, fringing on the rural, but Megan did find some at the beginning of March whilst recceing a walk along the coast about three miles from home. Meantime I had seen the gr
This is so very Orkney. Yesterday was sunny enough to make it pleasantly feasible to sit outside and eat lunch. The camping chairs were found, shaken for any overwintering spiderage and then deployed to the patio. OK, I was still wearing fleecy layers, but a little heat from the sun was definitely detectable. The bulbs in our containers also took the opportunity to partake of the rays. This was only temporarily a good thing, because as I type (this afternoon) the wind speed is ramping up and it will be gusting storm force from the south west by tea time. Oh, those poor flowers. However, it is still sunny enough to provide sufficiently good lighting to capture the occasional spontaneous wildlife moment. This is possibly the best photo of a male Hen Harrier I will ever manage. And it's from the kitchen window, although heavily-cropped. Brown Hares are still visibly active during the day, maybe more so first thing and late afternoon. But this one ran by at lunchtime. Sadly, by the ti