To the beeches!

Contrary to all expectation, there have continued to be a few occasional balmy (for Orkney) days at the beginning of November. Here are some photos from three walks of varying distance and location.

There's a comfortable three mile loop close to home, along single track roads which allow us to circumnavigate the Stromness Loons. I should say that 'loons' refers to marshland, rather than to any opinion of local mental stability.

In the shelter of a bridge over a small burn, a Beech tree was hanging onto its leaves as only a Beech tree can.

By one of the many ditches running through The Loons was a Grey Heron

A couple of Hen Harriers seemingly uncomfortable sharing the same bit of sky

A Fieldfare in a roadside garden

November wouldn't be November without a trip across the Churchill Barriers and down to the southern tip of South Ronaldsay to marvel at the wonder that is Grey Seal pupping time. We set off from the car park at Burwick in a rain shower, but thankfully this soon gave way to bright sunshine and the cuteness overload of nearly 90 fluffy pups.

After their pups are weaned, the mums come into season, and this bull was wasting no time in courting a receptive female.

The pupping beaches at Burwick are small rocky coves

An unexpectedly calm scene, as mums with pups tolerated a loafing bull

It's a picturesque spot

An old Angelica stem foreshadowing the fireworks to come that evening

But we ignored the firework display to watch the Aurora borealis

The easterly winds brought a whole swathe of migrating birds to Orkney, including some species which rarely venture to a small archipelago off the northern tip of mainland Scotland. And even the usual Scandinavian visitors arrived in unprecedented numbers, so it's been a bit of a bumper Autumn for twitchers. Things are settling down again now, with the majority of these birds having headed south on lighter winds. But for several days, you couldn't move for Redwings, Fieldfares, Bramblings and Waxwings. So our third walk was in the village of Finstown, up a lane between houses and bordered by a wooded valley. Here were such exotic delights as Hawfinch, Bullfinch, Coal Tit, Tree-creeper and Great Spotted Woodpecker, plus yet more Waxwings. There was even a very late Swallow.

Great Spotted Woodpecker

A Mahonia (I think) in Firth Park gardens

Another Beech tree

Droplets of water on a spider web

Back home to a lovely sunset

I think that tomorrow might have to be the day when I switch my wardrobe from Summer to Winter clothing, although that statement sounds a lot grander than what actually happens!