Dickin' of Dock Green

Last Friday was a warm and pleasant day in the county, but I wasn't well enough to make the most of it. In different circumstances, it would've been the perfect day for the first dragon hunt of the year. By Saturday, I was feeling better, and Megan dragged me out for some fresh air regardless. The day was cooler and cloudier, but nevertheless, we headed to Inganess and walked alongside Wideford Burn, taking in plenty of wildlife as we went.

In fact, as soon as we left the car park, the good vibes began. A male Hen Harrier was quartering across a nearby hillside, a Brown Hare warily skirted the edge of a bed of flags, Sedge Warblers and Reed Buntings were singing from the the rough pasture beside the burn, whilst a conservatively-estimated bazillion insects were thronging in every sheltered spot. [Spoiler alert: there were no dragons or damsels.]

A little inland, the burn runs through a small woodland, and this is where we concentrated our entomological efforts.

Pink Purslane

Brown Hare

On a clump of Marsh Marigolds, a metallic purple beetle drew my eye. As I composed a photograph, a Green Dock Beetle crawled into view and a hoverfly landed nearby. Now I had a trio of insects in a row! Local experts gave me IDs for the two unknowns: Bog Reed Beetle and a Syrphus hoverfly

This tiny fly looked weird, as if it had been put together from a kit of parts (on a certain level, I guess this is true, but I hope you know what I mean). Again, local experts helped with an ID, it is a Sepsis fly, or Lesser Dung Fly, an ant-mimic.

This photo of a pair of Green Dock Beetles mating on a snail's shell made me think of a scene from the 1987 Michael J Fox film, The Secret of My Success, where our hero is trying to sleep in a tiny rented room whilst a neighbouring couple are making love the other side of the bedroom wall. 

Yup, there was a lot of mating going on in Green Dock Beetle circles.

Then there was a lazy Sunday, where I baked a Rhubarb and Ginger cake and did a bit of weeding in the garden, though mainly I sat in the sun or watched the bumblebees and wasps on a Cotoneaster. Through the afternoon, the text updates from the local cetacean sightings group tracked a pod of Killer Whales as they cruised down the east coast of South Ronaldsay, around the southern tip of the island, then headed north into Scapa Flow. The pod milled about on the east side of the Flow for ages, so by teatime we had drifted away from the messages in favour of gin o'clock. Much later, I happened to glance at my phone to see that ten minutes previously the whales were now heading west and reportedly at Waulkmill Bay, which is about ten minutes away as the big fish swims. There then followed a number of expletive-laden utterances and much dashing about as optics were grabbed and outdoor clothing donned, before we bustled along to a vantage point which gave a reasonable view of the Flow.

The Killer Whales had been identified as the 65s pod, including the big male Busta, several females and a calf. We weren't alone in hoping for a cetacean sighting to round off a lovely weekend.

I estimate that the closest the pod came to our location was about 3 miles away, so the following shots are mostly sea and not very much whale. Still, when a one metre fin surfaces, it does grab your attention.

 

 Happy sigh.