Back in the 'hood

Well, there you go... or at least here's where I went. It's a week since I last posted, but that post only covered up to June 19th, so a bit of a catch up is required, methinks.

The bridge at Kylesku (am I the only person to pronounce that Kyle-esk-yew?)

The return journey to Orkney allowed for an afternoon's visit to a nature reserve at Invernaver on the north coast of Sutherland to look at flora on the site's dune systems. A couple of the highlights from the visit included the gorgeous Purple Oxytropis and some Six-spotted Burnet Moths (plus their cocoons).

Several days after returning to Orkney, an evening walk at Yesnaby was a gentle slide back into local wildlife. Grass of Parnassus, Scottish Primrose and Sea Milkwort were in flower, Common Blue butterflies were on the wing (as were the midges), some Puffins were seen on a distant cliff ledge, and the subdued light engendered a mellow feeling of contentment after a fortnight's full-on wildlife watching through the Highlands.

Following a successful event in 2020, last weekend saw the Orkney Field Club organise another virtual garden bioblitz, 24 hours from noon Saturday to noon Sunday, to find and name all manner of wildlife on our respective doorsteps. Here's a few of my highlights, although I wasn't able to photograph the lekking Ghost Moth just before midnight! Plus some slo-mo of a White-tailed Bumblebee.

Dagger Fly, possibly Empis tessellata

Leucozona lucorum hoverfly on Orange Hawkweed

Common Fumitory

These spiders aren't snogging, apparently he's holding her jaws open so that she doesn't eat him!

Much of my time since the holiday has been taken up with work trips to the various islands in the archipelago. Whilst on Sanday on Monday this past week, I managed a quick survey of a lochan behind the sand dunes of Whitemill Bay, where I was pleased to find 14 Blue-tailed Damselflies hunkered down amongst the flag irises.

Similarly, and bringing us up to date, a work trip to South Walls yesterday allowed for surveys of the pools on Wee Fea. Water levels were low, but there were plenty of Large Red and Common Blue Damselflies on the pool up the hill, whilst the pool lower down held many Blue-tailed Damselflies and my first Emerald Damselfly of the year. I also managed to photograph a Large Heath butterfly (the sub species scotica) which rarely seem to land for such opportunities.

Phew, all caught up, but slightly regretting that I didn't manage to grab an image of the male Hen Harrier which flew through the garden at close quarters twice last evening. Still, it's in the mind's eye, and all that.