A miscellany of moments

Most of my recent wildlife watching moments have all been rather brief and haven't leant themselves to being photographable by dint of lack of a camera or an excess of wind speed. For instance, this morning we were sat on the sofa still in PJs and dressing gowns when we saw a male Hen Harrier hunting over the field behind our house. Excellent bird, excellent light, excellent view, no camera to hand, and sub-optimal attire for nipping outside anyway.

However, there have been a few instances of good fortune

A couple of Saturdays ago, we wandered down the hill into the town, headed for the local deli to browse their shelves for provender and maybe order a coffee to go. En route, I noticed a moth on the side of a vehicle, but only had my phone camera to capture an image. I was fairly sure I had never seen this insect before, but equally, I was quite sure that I knew what it was. 

A male Vapourer moth (the female is flightless, he has to find her, hence the impressive antennae)

The following day I had a work trip to the island of Sanday. Megan came along, as she still wanted to see the long-staying Long-billed Dowitcher, the American wader which I had seen back in April. The bird was some distance away and the wind was very gusty, which made using a telescope rather difficult. Even resting my camera on a beanbag on a wall, didn't give great results. However, here's the best I could manage.

Yesterday, walking back up the hill from town, after collecting a parcel for work, we noticed several wasps on the pavement. With a scrap of paper, I managed to persuade one of them onto a wall for its safety and my photographic convenience. Again, I only had my phone to snap a picture and this was the best of an out-of-focus bunch. I suspect that I haven't captured enough features in enough detail to allow for a positive ID. A photograph of the face always helps, at least up to a point, but even the face markings can be quite variable between individuals of the same species. I think it's likely to be be either a Tree wasp or a German wasp.

For most of yesterday, there was a Brown Hare hunkered down in the field to the front of the house. It didn't seem to be too bothered by me going to and fro to my van, or by folk walking dogs along the track, or even vehicles driving to our neighbour's house. By late afternoon, the temptation to try and take a photograph was overwhelming, despite the gusty wind, so I assembled a tripod, fitted an adaptor plate to my camera, clicked the camera into place and carried the whole shebang out to the garage. By quietly opening the garage door and manoeuvring the tripod so I could see between my car and van, it was possible to see the hare through the lens. It was still a long way off, so the resulting photo had to be severely cropped, but at least by using the tripod, the camera was much steadier than if it was hand-held. Interestingly, the only time the hare really hunkered down, making itself so flat it was almost invisible, was when a Hooded Crow flew over.

During the course of this post, you may have detected that the Orcadian weather has reverted to type after a blissful Summer. Around the Autumn equinox, the archipelago always seems to remember that it's supposed to be windy, and I take a while to get used to the prevailing conditions once more.