Wintry ramblings

As I write this, snowflakes are gently falling out of a sombre sky, carpeting the ground in fluffy mounds and making the garden look like it is having a duvet day. Eponymously, there are highs and lows to this state of affairs:

• vertically-falling snowflakes are much preferable to the horizontal hailstones we've been having for days now;
• whilst main roads are passable with care, side roads and tracks are treacherous;
• I am working from home today, so don't have to drive anywhere;
• because my car refused to start and is awaiting recovery to a local garage;
• for once, our garden looks as pretty as everyone else's.

Instead, there's been some serious work admin-ing going on: invoices issued; bills paid; website updated; email folder looking slimmer than it has for ages (unlike me, after the feasting of the festive season); and, the navigation of an RAC online procedure that isn't really geared up for reporting a breakdown on a small Scottish island without a dedicated patrolperson. Thankfully, a local garage, which has an arrangement with the national breakdown organisations, has been in touch and a recovery truck is en route.

[Pauses to go and clear snow off the car... and curses inwardly when, job complete, it begins snowing again]

Another task that has been completed is the collation of dragonfly and damselfly records for Orkney for 2024. Despite the poor start to last Summer, I received nearly 200 records of sightings from folk, the best year since 2017. The various emails, lists, texts, personal conversations and Facebook posts have been distilled into a single spreadsheet and uploaded to iRecord for the British Dragonfly Society and also sent to the local Orkney Wildlife Recording Group.

A screen grab from iRecord of a map of Odonata sightings in 2024

So now there's a couple of reports to write in my small capacity as county recorder (I shudder to think about the amount of data that the recorders for birds and moths have to work through). The BDS like a short round-up of county news for their website, and the Orkney Field Club like an annual summary for their Orkney Naturalist bulletin.

[Meanwhile...]

There are two gulls and two corvids in this photo 🤣

Gah! Now the wintry showers have returned to hailstones again, but at least they're still falling vertically, not propelled along in the horizontal by 50mph gusts of wind.