Sprung!

In the middle of May, heralding the fact that Spring is getting into her stride, is the Orkney Nature Festival. The Orkney Field Club traditionally put on an event for this festival, so Megan and I volunteered to lead a circular walk in Orphir, taking in a variety of habitats and wildlife.

Setting off from The Bu, with its Norse and Medieval history, we headed down a grassy track to the shores of Orphir Bay, where waders were bathing and foraging at the water's edge. Heading east along the low clifftop, we looked at the many wildflowers by the path such as Bird's-Foot Trefoil, Spring Squill and Primrose, as well as the less obvious male and female blooms of Dwarf Willow. There were many insects on the wing, including Silver Y moths and a Painted Lady butterfly. 

Spring Squill

It was weeks later when I thought to try and identify this hoverfly, failed miserably and asked the lovely folk at UK Hoverflies Facebook group

Identified as a female Parasyrphus nigritarsis, not that common in Orkney

Leaving the coastal path, we headed inland at Breck, through a tiny swathe of moorland where several Emperor Moths were whizzing by as if their lives depended upon it. In a way, it was, as presumably these were males on the look out for a female and a bit of evolutionary romance.

As we ambled downhill on a tarmac road, a moth was found, which initially foxed the assembled group. This would be a better paragraph if had actually been a Fox Moth, but we knew enough to discount that. Eventually, an app was brought to bear, which ID'd it as a Knot Grass, although when spoken rather than typed, this tends to engender the response "Well, we can see it's not grass, but what is it?!" Oddly, we were all familiar with Knot Grass as a caterpillar, just not as a flying adult.

A little further along the verge was a Northern Marsh Orchid, just beginning to flower and the first I had seen this year.

We detoured off the Breck Road and through some woodland. A myriad of insects were gorging on the flowers of the Sycamore trees, with the air above us thrumming with a gentle and pleasing hum. Pink Purslane and non-native Bluebells carpeted the woodland floor, and these were in turn covered with Green-veined White butterflies, Common Carder Bumblebees and Silver Y moths. The burn trickled gently through the valley, Wrens and Willow Warblers sang of how great it was to be alive, and we were all captivated by the dappled light of a sunny, fresh-leaved wood in May.

Back out onto the road, the hedgerows were filled with glowing yellow Gorse, ferns were unrolling their fiddle-heads and a pair of Blackcaps scolded us for daring to have the temerity to wander by their territory. There aren't many hedgerows in Orkney, but thankfully this stretch of lanes around Gyre boasts quite a few, thanks mainly to an enlightened farmer.

By the time we arrived back at The Bu, it was agreed that this year's Nature Festival had benefitted from some of the warmest weather in its history. I'm not sure how the "all-new for 2024" organising committee arranged it, but hats off to them. I wasn't even wearing a coat, never mind a hat!