Fear not, gentle reader, for despite the interconnectedness of all things, this is not a continuation of the recent rabbit-inspired blogpost. In the last week or so, there have been numerous trips to some of the smaller islands of Orkney, all work-related, but with the occasional opportunity for a bit of wildlife watching. My first port of call was Westray, on a cold, rainy and windy day. I recall eating my lunch in the car, parked by a pool and reedbed near the shore of the Bay of Tuquoy Bay. No photos from the day, but I did manage to add Moorhen and Coot to my year list. Next up was Sanday for a couple of satellite tv repairs. Once these were completed, I drove to the eastern end of the island and wandered along a track towards Start Point lighthouse. I remember having driven along this track in previous years to reach another customer, so I suspect that the route to the cottage is now by a different route. None of my previous visits to Sanday have ever been at low tide t...
One of the beautiful things about Orkney is that the weather is borderline neurodivergent, which may go some way to explaining why it is difficult to get an accurate diagnosis forecast. Currently*, we're back to experiencing wildly different weather on consecutive days, such that the worryingly neurotypical consistent weather of late January and early February seems but a distant memory. On Wednesday last, it was more dreich than a waterfall shower after all the hot water's gone, so I was pleasantly surprised, upon returning home for lunch, to learn that Megan had been watching a Buzzard all morning. Raptors do not usually hunt during heavy rain, but the bird in question had been sat on various fence posts in the valley below, staring intently at the ground for worms and, possibly, frogs. Before changing out of my wet weather gear, I wandered down the hill, a little closer to the bird, for a grainy photo. This particular buzzard was part of a local wing-tagging project, and w...