Summer deigns to show up

Whilst it has not seen such high temperatures as places further south, the recent warm spell in Orkney has been plenty hot enough for me. Outside work was carried out prudently with only short stints of exposure to the sun, although sitting out in the garden for every meal of the day was pretty special. Lack of rainfall is now the main concern, and from a personal perspective it is worrying how many dragonfly pools are very low or have already disappeared. But let's appreciate a week's lovely weather before we become too gloomy at the prospect of climate change.

A relaxing day spent in and around the garden was notable for the number of insects gathering on a Cotoneaster bush: honey bees; bumblebees (White-tailed, Common Carder, Gypsy Cuckoo); hoverflies (Rhingia campestris, Leucozona lucorum, Helophilus pendulus, Sericomyia silentis, several Eristalis spp); at least one species of social wasp (Red wasp); and a couple of mason wasps (Ancistrocerus oviventris and A. scoticus). And that's just the largish stuff we could identify, there were many more smaller creatures that were beyond our ken. The place was a-buzz.

Helophilus pendulus

The following day, we caught the morning ferry across to Hoy, to explore some dragonfly habitat. Although we visited six different sites, we only managed to find Large Red and Blue-tailed Damselfly, likely a consequence of a cool Spring, but as long as pools don't dry out, there'll be other opportunities for dragons later in the Summer. There was plenty else though!

Mountain Hare

And some more

Butterwort flower

Large Red Damselflies in tandem

A very white orchid of unknown species

Northern Eggar moth

Northern Eggar moth

Green Tiger Beetle

Moonwort (which is actually a fern)

Blue-tailed Damselfly

And the day after that, the Orkney Field Club held an evening event in a wildflower meadow above Finstown. We spent a mindful two hours in the company of other naturalists (pretty much all of whom knew more about flowers than we did) appreciating the thousands of orchids and other floral delights of a traditionally-grazed pasture. The event was part of the Big Meadow Search project.

Common Twayblade

Heath Milkwort, I think

Eyebright species

A veritable forest of Butterwort

On another evening, later that week, Megan came bounding in from the garden to report an adult Poplar Hawk-moth! For the last few years, in late Summer, we have been finding the large caterpillars of this species feeding on the willows, but we had never seen the adult moths (they're night flying and we don't put out a moth trap). It's an absolute stunner!

Poplar Hawk-moth

So after more than a week of blue skies and sunshine, today clouds have begun building up, and tomorrow there will finally be some rain. But I will leave you for now with a bit of footage of a Mountain Hare.