Signs

Following Easter's icy embrace and as April progressed, Winter began to ease its grip upon Orkney. At least, temporarily. A fortnight ago, the archipelago hummed to the tune of a legion of lawn mowers, hastily unearthed from dusty corners of sheds and garages. This past week has seen some pleasant sunny days, albeit with a cool breeze at times.

For a few days, there was a new visitor to the garden, a male Blackcap. Apples were quickly deployed as an enticement to hang around, but this fella was already in Summer mode and hunting insects through the bare bushes and trees. He was constantly on the move, which made photography difficult, and the salt-encrusted windows didn't help either.

This week also saw some volunteer training for the Orkney Native Wildlife Project, an initiative which aims to protect an endemic sub-species of rodent, the Orkney Vole, as well as all our ground-nesting birds (for the avoidance of doubt, that's most of them). Several years ago, I had signed up to help with monitoring vole numbers, a metric to gauge the progress of the project. As with most things, 2020 was a write-off for much of this work, so Spring 2021 was an opportunity to have a refresher on the basics of vole monitoring. I met up with a project officer in Deerness to walk two 1km transects, each with 25 waypoints to be checked for signs of voles. To be honest, sightings of these wee mammals are quite rare (as befits a species which is at the wrong end of the food chain for many a predator), so all we were looking for was evidence of presence in the form of their tunnels/runs through the grass, clippings of vegetation where they had been feeding and, rather inevitably, any droppings.

Whilst this may not sound the most exciting of tasks, it was a lovely day to be out, I saw my first Sand Martin and Arctic Skua for the year, and much more besides.

Dog Violet

Eider Ducks

Tussocky grassland between close-cropped pasture

A vole run

Many Golden Plovers

Pay dirt! Vole droppings!

Back in the garden, on another morning, the early sunlight persuaded these zingy Tulips to open, aligning like mini satellite dishes towards the warmth and energy.

As the daylight hours are lengthening, one evening saw a trip to the Gyre Wood in the hope of more photographs of Butterbur blooms. Unfortunately, they were past their best, but there were several pleasant compensations.

Fractal geometry reaching skywards

A singing Willow Warbler

Pink Purslane is beginning to flower