Fresh air!

Yesterday, with a weekend of calm and dry weather forecast, we took the opportunity to hide the tv remote control and head outdoors. Whilst we weren't quite up to the challenge of walking to the Warebeth shore from home, we felt that we could manage driving to Ness Point at the southern end of the town and pottering along the coast to Warebeth and back.

The tide was quite high, so there were plenty of waders (Redshanks, Turnstones, Purple Sandpipers, Ringed Plovers, Oystercatchers and Curlews) foraging at the top of the rocky shore. In the piles of wrack along the strandline, Pied Wagtails, Rock Pipits and Starlings were busy looking for invertebrates.

Purple Sandpiper

Before we set off along the coastal path, I took a moment to capture a panorama of Stromness from Ness Point, later adding the arrow which indicates roughly the bit of the northern horizon where we bide.

Across the sound, the tops of Ward Hill and Cuilags in Hoy were under cloud, with only occasional shafts of sunlight making it through the gloom.

This morning, the Orkney Field Club had an outdoor event at Binscarth Woods in Finstown. Even at 10am, the valley where this woodland was created was still in shadow and small pockets of frost lingered in the hollows. AG, our walk leader, guided us through identifying trees from their bare branches, bark and buds, then showed us innumerable fungi and lichens. Occasionally we would stop to listen to birdsong, as Goldcrests searched the conifer foliage for tasty morsels or when a flock of Fieldfares flew overhead. A few Lesser Celandine were in flower and, in one corner of the wood, a wonderful spread of Snowdrops had been planted.

A particular highlight of the walk was being shown Door Snails, tiny (3mm long) narrow and highly spired snails which feed on lichen. Their Genus name is Clausilia, as they possess a clausilium, a "door" which they can close to prevent their soft tissues being attacked by predators such as carnivorous beetle larvae.

As well as the afore-mentioned Goldcrests and Fieldfares, the wood also offered up Wren and Buzzard for my year list, along with a Shelduck on a nearby ouse and a Chaffinch close to where we had parked the car. I now "only" trail Megan by 9 species, rather than the 15 it was last week.