Natural highs and lows

June, despite its mercurial weather, has been quite the lepidopteran feast. The past three weekends have featured some sunny weather, huge downpours and gale force winds. You may recall that we had to cancel a wildlife walk due to persistent showers. It should be noted that this postponement was purely for the benefit of humans, the wildlife was out in the weather whatever. There follows a brief round-up of some of the moths and butterflies seen since we last spoke. There has been a steady stream of sightings of Painted Ladies in the county. This one was nectaring on our front "lawn". Prior to one of the huge downpours, Megan spotted this moth on the garage wall. How, I do not know. Grey Dagger Sheltering from the weather, this time on the frame of the patio door, a Clouded-bordered Brindle. Meanwhile on the recess of the kitchen window, a Narrow-winged Pug And the fourth Megan-spotted moth was a Wormwood Pug on the increasingly-popular garage wall.  Yesterday saw us leading ...

This blog tends to concentrate on parochial environmental topics, rarely touching on global political affairs. For example, the changing roll call of birds seen through the year as the seasonal mass movement of feathered creatures wing their way around the planet, outrageously ignoring any lines drawn on a map. Or, even closer to my heart, the androgyny of dragonflies and damselflies as they seek a bit of peace, away from testosterone-fuelled madness. And yet, morning after morning, the news is full of another act of war by an aggressor state. I kid you not, as I typed those words, there were actual rumbles of thunder. I had to double check, but a real time lightning app confirmed it. But I digress, back to wildlife in and around an Orkney garden. This week, there was wondrous news in the Comments section when AF identified the smaller beetles which have turned up at the pond. He wasn't sure of the exact species, but the genus is Helophorus . To arrive at the specific name, I will ...

What's this, NaHaL, surely you should be pootling about in the wilderness looking for insects, not blogging? Sadly, after watching the roller coaster ride of a constantly changing weather forecast for a week, the decision was taken to postpone the walk until the end of the month. Hopefully, it will be warmer and drier by then. In contrast, yesterday was glorious, so here are some photos from our garden. I was talking about habitats to one of the builders from the site next door and he was showing me photos of his pond. The conversation moved on to butterfly banks and as I airily waved towards where we are thinking of creating one, this Common Blue appeared. Some sawfly larvae chomping away on our cuttings of Tea-leaved Willow. Using the internet, I managed to come up with the correct genus for them, Euura . However, the local recorder pointed me in the right direction of the species,  E. ferruginea or Rusty Willow Nematine. When Megan had finished work, she took a turn around the g...

Next weekend, Megan and I are leading a walk for the Orkney Field Club. During the Winter, we had blithely volunteered to put on some events looking for hairy caterpillars, and this will be the first one. This walk will be on the island of Hoy, between Lyness and Wee Fea, a gentle uphill climb with several different habitats en route.  Last weekend, we thought that we had better carry out a recce to see if there was any of our target species to be found.  Well, we did find a few caterpillars but, wow, we found a lot of everything else. Bees and Wasps A male Tormentil Mining Bee, Adrena tarsata (thanks to JW for the ID) Also a Tormentil Mining Bee, possibly a female A Spider-hunting wasp with prey A Mason Wasp Ancistrocerus oviventris busy building pots to house its larvae A Ruby-tailed Wasp which parasitises the larvae of Mason Bees Beetles A Green Tiger Beetle A small hole in the ground was the only clue that here is the burrow of a Green Tiger Beetle larva. Like its parents,...

We need very little excuse to enjoy the garden, rather than slaving away in it. So with the arrival of a warm, calm and sunny day, the ideal opportunity presented itself for a wander through the weeds. Megan has spent the last month or so planting up a rockery, which is the only bit of the garden that is designated as off limits to wildflowers. In the remainder of the garden, more often than not, we're removing cultivated flowers to make room for more wildness. One upshot of this is that occasionally there's a vista that is a blend of the formal and informal. Yellow Rattle in the "meadow" Red Hot Poker Primula in the rockery Geranium sp. in the rockery Oxalis sp. in the rockery Geranium sp. and Creeping Buttercup in a border Red Clover and Creeping Buttercup in the front lawn Mocha and friend (at the base of the right hand pot)... ... a Cabbage Moth A hoverfly on Armeria. ID'd by UK Hoverflies as Scaeva selenitica Back in the "meadow", these are the basa...