[Searches through the "Pictures" folder on my computer...] Hmm, not a single photo since my last blogpost nearly two weeks ago. September has been much busier than the previous two months, which is good news from the point of view of keeping Mocha in Dreamies, Megan in Shiraz and a very old Volvo in diesel. Although maybe less so from a natural history perspective.
[Considers that thought...] However, if I look back through my diary, I'm sure I could probably unearth some precious jewels from the nuts and bolts of a working life.
Oddly, the simple act of driving to and fro between home and wherever I am working that day does generate more raptor sightings than if I had to choose a particular location to spot a bird of prey. Most of the Hen Harriers I see are from behind the wheel, as I pootle along the archipelago's roads. Other drive-by raptors include Sparrowhawk, Kestrel and Buzzard, as the birds hunt along verges and in roadside fields.
Whilst actually at work, if I am outdoors as opposed to in a loft, my ears are ever alert to the sounds of wildlife, be it a bird call or the buzz of an insect. For instance, family groups of Pied Wagtails, small flocks of Meadow Pipits, and skeins of Pink-footed Geese are all readily identifiable without looking up from terminating a cable or aligning an antenna. At a recent Starlink installation, the client's garden was mainly ornamental shrubs and lawn, but near where I was working, the flowers of a single Ragwort plant were sustaining a Common Carder and a White-tailed Bumblebee through a cold, breezy morning. Several days later, in Westray, in the midst of a satellite dish replacement, I heard my first Redwing of the Autumn, a thin tseep call which heralds the arrival of winter thrushes from further north.
We have also experienced an equinoctial gale, a couple of days of 50+mph winds and horizontal showers from the west, which probably won't bode well for the local dragonfly population.
The "Photos" library on my phone reminds me that there have been a couple of bumblebee surveys this week, although these were much less fruitful than the highs of August. At Stromness Waterworks, I managed three bees in 45 minutes, not too surprising really, as the number of species of plants in flower was less than half of the height of Summer, and none of them were in abundance. The highlight wasn't a bee at all, but a Ruby Tiger caterpillar basking on a rock.
Then at Skaill Bay, helping KH with her two bumblebee transects, here again numbers were much reduced with none at all at the first survey site and four at the second. Coincidentally, the highlight here was a Garden Tiger caterpillar sunning itself on a Ragwort leaf, sheltered from a chilly breeze. Upon returning home from Skaill, I discovered an unhappy bumblebee on the doorstep, so I transferred it from the cold, unforgiving stone to the most sheltered source of nectar I could find in the garden. This was a Sedum, where I was able to study the bee up close whilst it gorged on the flowers and, indeed, remained for several hours. ID'd as a male White-tailed Bumblebee, just look at that fuzzy yellow face!
Megan then discovered a couple of natural history documentaries we had not previously seen, Tiger Island, filmed in Nepal. So over recent evenings, we have all watched these on iPlayer.
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