On the nature of time

I'm a bit out of sync with my posts, having blogged in the wrong order, which had seemed like a good idea at the time. I will attempt to rectify the error here with a catch-up post for the month of August to date.

There was some dragonfly excitement a few weeks ago, when a good friend reported an Emerald Damselfly from a sheltered path near her home in Stromness. Whilst this species has been in Orkney since 2010, this was the first confirmed record for West Mainland. Separately and several days later, the owner of a large pond requested help with identifying the wildlife present in and around her pond. Said pond happened to be adjacent to the afore-mentioned sheltered path and has long been thought of as the source of many dragonfly records from Stromness. So now we could answer that particular question. With a small group of local (and equally intrigued) experts, a pleasant morning was spent investigating the pond and its surroundings. The place was teeming with Black Darter dragonflies, Emerald Damselflies (a-ha!) and Blue-tailed Damselflies. 

A male Black Darter soaking up some heat from the sun

A pair of Black Darters mating

Back at home, we're beginning to understand where's best to perch.

A young Starling on one of our recently-installed clothes line poles

On one particular lunchtime, I was amazed to see the visitors to a telegraph pole at the bottom of the plot behind us. Whist I only managed to photograph some of the action, in the space of half an hour as we enjoyed a leisurely al fresco lunch, no fewer than 4 pairs of birds chose this spot to perch in turn: Rooks, Collared Doves, Swallows and Goldfinches.

A pair of Rooks

A pair of Goldfinches

A return trip to the Stromness pond was hastily arranged for a belated Dragonfly Walk, in fact it was over a month behind National Dragonfly Week, but hey ho.

A final instar caterpillar of the Emperor Moth

A male Emerald Damselfly attempting to mate with a recently-emerged male Black Darter. Whilst long-held social norms have rightly been consigned to the past, it's likely that the Black Darter did not give enthusiastic consent

A reed beetle, Plateumaris discolor

Whisper it quietly, but the reasonable weather continues. It's been over two months now! This is probably the warmest Summer we have had in a long while.

A recent sunset view

The painted pebble-dashed walls of our house are becoming quite a good place to spot insects, with the particular facade in favour changing through the day as the sun tracks east to west.  A few Large White butterfly caterpillars have already found suitable sites to pupate and we are attempting to identify other characters as and when they turn up.

A caterpillar of the Bright-line Brown-eye Moth

A hoverfly, Scaeva pyrastri

Well, that's me up to date. Have a great weekend, folks. And please remember that time spent watching wildlife is not wasted, it's contemplative and mindful.