Natural highs and lows

As we reached that time of year known as Mid-Summer's Day, it almost felt like the beginning of a period of pleasant and warm weather. We've been here before though, mesmerised by May and then frozen by February June. As seems to be the way of late, the Met Office struggle with guessing our weather, at least I hope they're just guessing because the resultant predictions aren't worth the price of a mains cable for their super computer. It could be said, this isn't the Met Office's finest hour. Still, come hail or shine, it is flight season for the winged jewels which so entrance me. A trip to a nearby pool (hmmm, still not dug your pond then, NaHaL?), brought the happy sight of dozens of damselflies: many energetic and mature adult Large Reds and a similar number of  pale-coloured wraith-like Blue-tails making their maiden flights.  The Large Reds must have been approaching their peak, the males defending small patches of vegetation at the water's edge and b...

Earlier this month, Orkney Field Club was invited by Pride in Orkney to help out with a wildlife event at Arcadia Park in Kirkwall. I happily volunteered as the park is a recently-created nature site in an urban environment, and although I have received records of damselflies being present during the last few Summers, I hadn't actually visited the place myself. A recce during May encouraged me that this will be a brilliant place to highlight wildlife, as the site matures and is developed with wildflower planting, tree planting and the creation of umpteen pools. One of the species of damselfly which had been reported from the park already this year was Blue-tailed Damselfly, and bearing in mind the organisation running the event, I thought this was a suitably interesting insect to promote on the day. Blue-tailed Damselflies Ischnura elegans  have, as their name suggests, blue tails. Most of the abdomen (tail) is black, but segment 8 is a bright neon blue. In fact, when the damselfly...

We had planned a Sunday trip to Hoy, not work-related, not wildlife survey-related, just Megan and I losing ourselves in Nature. Because it was mid-June, the obvious hope was for dragonflies, but the temperature was barely into double figures Celsius, with low cloud, rain showers and a chilly northerly breeze. As we drove off the ferry, most of the other passengers were either headed for the Scapa Flow Museum and its naval memorabilia or to Rackwick Bay and the scenic path to the Old Man of Hoy. This was our cue to take the quieter road in the opposite direction for a circumnavigation of South Walls, birding from the car whilst the weather did its worst. An hour and a picnic stop later, we finally headed back north with the bird list on 40 species and a pleasant Coronation Chicken aroma in the car. Despite the meteorological evidence to the contrary, we thought we would have a look at the pools near to Rackwick, just in case any damselflies were braving the conditions. They weren't...

May was such a wonderful month this year. Traditionally, it's our driest period of the year, but often with that lingering chill from a tenacious Winter before its grip is gently prised loose by a resurgent Summer. This one was warmer and sunnier than I can recall in my short time here, which is perhaps why June has been a bit of a shock. In fact, I have stopped calling it June, it's February all over again, being wet, windy and flippin' cold. But Summer is not so easily put off, and yesterday we had a glimpse of what could be, with a warm, sunny day where everyone in the county who was able to do so was either hanging out washing to dry or mowing the lawn. Or both! Today we have returned to the utmost dreich weather, so if you'll allow me the indulgence to cheer myself up, here's some photos from the garden yesterday. A hybrid Marsh Orchid, Northern x ???? Orchid in the drying green An area we're slowly filling with wildflowers from locally-foraged seed  Fox an...

In recent times, one of the more interesting ways to encourage people to think about wildlife, and so help protect it, is the No Mow May campaign. In essence, you choose a part of your garden (can be a tiny bit of it, can be all of it) and don't mow it during the month of May, allowing more wildflowers to bloom and attracting more pollinating insects. Here at Burnbank,  I am not sure that the local insects have completely understood the concept of No Mow May. Although, to be fair, neither have the wildflowers. Or perhaps it's me? Our chosen area which made the cut to be spared the cut was in the back garden, behind the garage and to one side of the drying green. It measures about 15 x 5 metres and we knew from last year, having found evidence of orchid seed heads, that there might be something interesting in there. The remainder of the back 'lawn' was mowed as normal, so that we don't need to worry about being attacked by large carnivorous beasties when bringing in ...

The lease contract for my van came to an end in March, and not having yet made a decision about its replacement, I was in a bit of a panic about how I was going to carry all my work gear around. I visited a local mechanic for advice and was tipped off about an old Volvo estate car which was for sale in a nearby village. The intention was that I wouldn't need it for long, so the fact that it was fifteen years old, had 130,000 miles on the clock and needed some TLC, wasn't that much of a problem.  When I say that it handled like a tank, that's not a reference to its size, but the fact that it was full of water from a leak in the roof. On hills and around corners, water sloshed about the footwells unnervingly. I had hoped that a bead of silicone sealant along the top of the windscreen would do the trick but, no, more drastic measures were needed. Before the car went off to have its windscreen replaced, I removed some of the carpets, the better to bail out the water and also so...