Happy New Weather

Apologies for all the existential weather angst which has been the flavour of this blog for a few weeks now. My excuse was an imminent guided walk which I was due to lead for the Orkney Field Club. One of my fellow club members usually takes the reins for the New Year Ramble, but for 2024 she was unable to do so, prompting an offer from me to do it instead.

I usually only volunteer to lead one walk a year, in Summer, to look for dragonflies and damselflies. As this is the nearest thing I have to a specialised subject, and the walk is very focussed on these species, it's ok, I don't feel too intimidated whilst leading a group. I do usually struggle with social interactions, but press my dragonfly button and it's a different world.

But in the middle of Winter? There's lots less of everything. Few flowers, very few insects and not much in the way of bird life. Nice light, though, as long as it's not raining or blowing a hoolie.

So, as storm after storm barrelled across Britain, and the ground became more and more water-logged, I was a little tense to say the least. Choosing a route which was mainly on single track roads helped calm the nerves a little, as did knowing that the chances were reasonable of seeing owls, harriers and falcons hunting for voles. It all hinged upon the weather. Too wet or too windy and there wouldn't be any birds about (admittedly, this would be great news for the voles!).

Between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I nervously checked the forecast several times a day. As a way to raise one's stress levels, I can highly recommend this action. At best, an occasional forecast predicted New Year's Day to be dull, cloudy, sporadically dry and with winds at 30mph, but usually it was much more cataclysmic than that.

Thankfully, 2024 dawned calm, dry and sunny. More than a dozen folk turned up to enjoy the pleasantest day anyone had seen in a long while. We spotted birds, we found plants in flower (to report to the New Year Plant Hunt run by the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland), folk found insects, and from one particular hilltop, we saw a pod of Killer Whales in Hoy Sound. The Short-eared Owls, Hen Harriers and Kestrels duly obliged with their voling (apparently that's not a word), even having several mid-air battles between each other right above our heads.

A picnic lunch at Stromness Waterworks (half the group sat on a dry stone wall, the other half out on the moor sat on waterproof mats)

A Kestrel seeing off a Short-eared Owl

Post-walk, everyone was invited in to our home for hot drinks (there may have been mulled wine), mince pies and stollen, and I even remembered to hand over a beetle to an entomological colleague for identification. Said beetle has been in our fridge for 3 months, so Megan was rather glad to see the back of it. I had found the beetle on a paving slab back in September, whilst we were sat having lunch on the patio. It didn't take AF many days to examine the insect, take excellent close-up photos and ID the beastie as Leiodes obesa, only the second record of the species for Orkney.

Many thanks to AF for the ID and to everyone who came along to make the day so special.