Spring round-up

Time for a bit of a round-up of the last month's nature watching since we returned from holiday. Our weather has continued to be rather mercurial, the occasional warm, sunny day in between dreich periods with chilly winds. For the season, some things are early, some things are late, the wildlife is not sure what to make of Spring 2026. Neither does it help an amateur naturalist with his sartorial decisions, so if in doubt it's four layers and a set of waterproofs.

A trip to Sanday saw me visiting a bit of the island which I not previously seen. After a walk along the beach at Backaskaill Bay, I detoured to investigate a large metal construction. It commemorated a sad event which happened more than 30 years ago.

Back at home, we're slowly adding more aquatic plants to the pond as friends donate things from their gardens. We now have our very first Bogbean flower!

The dragonfly season in Orkney started in mid-May, but it was only last week, as more sightings came in, that we ventured out to see some for ourselves. A short trip to the pond on Brinkies Brae rewarded us with Large Red Damselflies and Blue-tailed Damselflies, the latter unphotographable in the strong wind. However, the Bog Reed Beetles were very photogenic.

One recent day began sunny and warm, but clouds slowly built during the morning, the sky becoming darker and darker as it neared lunchtime. I noticed a couple of moths taking shelter on the leeward side of the house and garage (moths always seem to know when there's a sploosh imminent).

Pebble Prominent

A Pug moth, ID still to be ascertained 

At the weekend, migrant moths began appearing as warmer winds brought insects from further afield. I noticed a Silver Y moth fluttering around the geranium bed and several Painted Ladies visited the flowers and sunny walls.

Painted Lady

Yesterday morning, the weather was so nice that we decided to sit outside for our morning brew. What a good thing that we did! As we imbibed our beverages of choice, we noticed some hoverflies basking on the rocks in the... er... rockery. We didn't know what they were, but did know we had never seen them before. Several photos and a trip to Facebook later, we had a message from the county hoverfly recorder to say that he thought they were new for Orkney, so could we post them to the UK Hoverflies group for verification and recording.

We counted four of these furry little flies altogether, the county's first Merodon equestris or Narcissus Bulb Fly. They are bumblebee mimics and the more ginger ones certainly looked like the Common Carder Bumblebees which are around at the moment.

 

Here's some info from iRecord which suggests that the species is being seen more frequently, and (right) that sightings peak exactly on the day we first saw them.

And before yesterday, here was the geographical distribution of sightings, with Caithness and Shetland both having a record, but Orkney not so fortunate.

It's raining again now 🙄