Natural highs and lows

Recently, out of the blue, I received a request from a friend, RB, to help with some photography for a book. Mercifully, no camera skills were required on my part as I was simply to be the Odonata consultant: pond dipping for damselfly and dragonfly larvae, identifying the species and monitoring their health during the shoot.  A trip to a local hardware store to buy supplies for pond-dipping saw me as the proud owner of a new colander and washing-up bowl, whilst rifling through the bathroom cabinet turned up some plastic spoons and small measuring cups for moving around individual larvae. I suggested a water body near home, the pond at Brinkies Guest House, which contains three species of damsel and one species of dragon. Thankfully, there were still larvae in the pond which had not yet decided to leave their aquatic lifestyle and emerge as adult insects.  The guest house owner, YH, kindly allowed my friend to set up his equipment on a picnic bench in the lee of the property (...

You may recall, dear reader, the frisson of excitement at our discovery of a caterpillar of the Elephant Hawkmoth in our garden, chomping its way through willowherb leaves. Then began the "Where is it?", "Here it is!" game as we lost and found it umpteen times over several days. In an effort to track its movements, I found some short bamboo canes and marked the places that it had been seen. These traced a gentle curve across the rockery and all then seemed calm once more. That is until two days ago when we discovered that there were actually two caterpillars, one by Stick 2 and one by Stick 3. Double the fun, double the willowherb chomping. Yesterday, they were both in the vicinity of Stick 3, and we wondered if there might be a territorial dispute over a particular willowherb stem. Thankfully there was not. Both caterpillars are growing quickly, at least half as long again as when we found the first one 12 days ago, so they may be quite close to pupating. Gauging t...

Last weekend, on a whim, we decided to head to Yesnaby on the west coast to see if we could find a Frog Orchid. These small orchids are not as showy as their blousier cousins, and can be difficult to spot on the coastal heaths which are regularly blasted by gales and the Atlantic Ocean, keeping the vegetation lower than more sheltered environments. Having parked the car, we set off northwards into what was quite a significant breeze and diligently searched the Hill of Borwick to no avail. We did, however, find a few Scottish Primroses still in flower as well as some other nice things... Primula scotica with phone for scale A Stocky Mason Wasp Ancistrocerus scoticus nectaring on some Water Mint A Great Yellow Bumblebee nectaring on Devil's-bit Scabious We wandered back towards the car park to continue our search for orchids further south. After much crawling about on the ground and plenty of general chuntering of a needles and haystacks variety, we eventually managed to find one F...

In our wildlife garden, weeding isn't a task that I usually worry about too much, save for the occasional bout of removing seedheads from the pernicious species like docks and ragwort. Indeed, at the moment, the ragwort flowers are serving up nectar for many insects such as hoverflies and moths, as well as providing a hunting ground for harvestmen. However, lately, both Megan and I have commented that the rockery needs a bit of a tidy-up, prompted by many of the geraniums going over, the bed not looking as glorious as in the Spring and some of the generalist wildflowers getting a bit big for their boots roots. One recent afternoon, I rounded up a trug, a kneeling pad, gloves and a pair of secateurs from the garage and set to the "W" word along the edge of the rockery by the path to the front door. The usual rule applied, I had to identify each individual removee before I yanked it from the soil, both to exercise my ID skills and to ensure that I wasn't too gung-ho wi...

Whilst carrying out July's bumblebee survey near Stromness waterworks, we came across a small pale moth. It wasn't a species with which we were familiar, but ObsIdentify was certain that it was a Smoky Wainscot. We did check the area for any panelling which was smouldering away, as these days one can't be too careful on dry moorland. Smoky Wainscot, Mythimna impura Upon returning home, before we had even made it through the front door, we discovered another small moth on the house wall. This one turned out to be Scoparia subfusca . Scoparia subfusca Over the next few days, a steady stream of other leps made an appearance at Burnbank as we pottered to and fro around home and garden. Large Yellow Underwing, Noctua pronuba Larch Tortrix, Zeiraphera griseana Dotted Clay, Xestia baja Common Rustic,  Mesapamea secalis. .. or is it? Yes, it wouldn't be a moth blogpost without a bit of controversy, would it? Another moth which fits the description is Lesser Common Rustic, Mesap...

Awake early to catch a ferry to the island of Westray, I blearily scanned our bookshelves for some favourite words to read on the boat. My hand settled upon The Screaming Sky , Charles Foster's intensely personal view of the lives of Swifts. Perhaps it was because I haven't seen a Swift for over three years, or maybe it's that I am running out of time to see one this year too, as the birds will soon be heading back to Africa. The journey passed with the swiftness of soaring sentences and sojourns across Sahel and sea. Despite the continued decline in the Swift population, a situation laid firmly at humanity's door, I do enjoy reading this book. Following the installation of a replacement dish and a guided tour of my host's wildlife garden, my thoughts turned to another bird who will shortly be leaving our shores at the end of its breeding season, the Puffin. I drove to the small car park by the ruined cornmill beside the bay of Rack Wick, finding space despite the p...