Natural highs and lows

The Haunted Garden, a ghostly tale of a bewitching annual ritual. The setting for this orrery story is the eerie twilight of June 21st 2026, the Summer Solstice, rather than the eldritch dark of an All Hallows Eve. The ghostly goings-on portrayed below were filmed in the hour before midnight so, yes, I had to stay up especially late 🥱. Inexplicably, this snippet didn't make it into the blog back in the Summer but it is, to date, the most ethereal thing that has happen around here this year. Sadly, the accompanying sound hasn't transferred well from phone to computer, as it features a mournful Curlew call and a slightly more chipper Blackbird song (also, thankfully, none of my yawns). These are male Ghost Moths, lekking to attract and impress a female. At dusk, in June, they appear from the grassy sward and perform this swaying flight. Whilst the males are a ghostly white, the females are a pale orange and yellow. Their caterpillars feed on the roots of Docks, for which they ha...

Another pleasant day prompted me to stop work at lunchtime, ostensibly to spend the afternoon invoicing customers, ordering more stock and settling bills. But I was running out of time and nice weather to carry out October's Beewalk. To be fair, this is a month too far for Orkney's bumblebees, there's been precious few in the garden let alone out on the windswept moors.  However, the lure of fresh air and exercise proved sufficient and off I went to Stromness waterworks. I have been meaning to photograph the whole transect for some time, but always seem to forget. This time, although I had remembered, the sun was shining directly down the first section, so here's the view back to the start (at the base of the dam). There are very few flowers in bloom now, I noted four species: a single Dandelion, a single Creeping Buttercup, the occasional bit of Bell Heather and some Cat's-ear. At the height of Summer I regularly clocked over forty species. No wonder there's no...

This morning I was working at a property near the RSPB's Loons reserve. As I was a little early for the appointment, I briefly stopped off at the Listening Wall, a curved structure set above the wetlands which concentrates the sounds of nature for those seated and listening. Sadly, all I managed was an indignant female Mallard. I had better luck at my next port of call, the main (and only) hide on the reserve. As I opened one of the shutters, I spotted a very distant Hen Harrier quartering the far side of the reed bed. Probably due to the attentions of this raptor, it seemed as though every Snipe in Orkney was in the air, as small flocks whooshed by the hide. The back wall of the hide is decorated with a mural by talented local artist Anne Bignall. With a few wisps of Snipe visible top left Then, whilst I was working at the customer's properrty, even more Snipe and several flocks of Golden Plover went over my head, their calls ringing out through the pleasant Autumnal morning....

Quite a pleasant day, truth be told. Sunny periods and showers, with much gentler breezes than of late. As I rose from bed, I peeked out of the bedroom curtains but the sky didn't look too promising. Halfway through emptying the dish washer, I noticed that there was a pinkish tinge developing, so kitchen duties ground to halt whilst I captured the moment. Mid-morning, I took a wander around the garden, to see if there was anything about. The Sedum which had been keeping all the nectaring insects in a good mood was in a sorry state. It looked like a mini version of the Tunguska event from 1908, where an atmospheric air burst of a comet or meteoroid flattened  2,150 km 2  of Siberian forest. I couldn't find any bees, however, I did manage to spot a hoverfly, perched in a sunny spot on the front door frame. I think this is a male Eristalis pertinax . Until I downloaded the photos to my computer, I didn't realise that in the second photo, he was answering a call of nature. The...

It seems as though I may have been slightly premature with my talk of Storm Chloe. That's not to say that there isn't a yellow warning in place for most of Scotland, or it isn't blowing an absolute hoolie outside (60+mph during daylight hours in Orkney, higher elsewhere), but this bit of weather is, as yet, officially unnamed. We are a long way from Exeter, home of the Met Office. However, at breakfast time, the sun was shining and Mocha was quite keen to go outdoors. I chose the most sheltered portal for the conditions, which happened to be the front door, and cautiously opened it. Mocha took in the air, without ever setting a paw over the threshold and, after a brief deliberation with herself, decided "Nah, thanks anyway."  Sensible choice. Today was household waste collection day.  Our local council are currently trialling a new type of refuse truck, it's called a RotoPress and looks like the lovechild of a conventional bin lorry and a cement mixer (if that...

At about peak Boelo yesterday afternoon, I received an email from a customer asking me to pop by at my convenience to fix a broken tv aerial. What's that saying? "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good". Here at Burnbank, we seem to have survived relatively unscathed, which is quite surprising considering the noises that the house was making last night. And talking of noises, I don't know whether it was because it was a full moon, but Mocha was very vocal and very awake during the hours of darkness. I even got up at 2am to sit in the lounge with her for a while. That cat loves attention at any time of day. My actual planned work this morning was cancelled by the customer (and rebooked for next week) so off I went to sort out the afore-mentioned aerial. Not long after leaving Stromness, I rounded a bend and spotted a group of Whooper Swans in a roadside field. I wondered whether they might have flown south from Iceland on the back of the storm.  Driving throug...

06:20 Up early this morning, mainly due to the change to GMT, but also because I could hear a bird singing. In my semi-somnolent state I couldn't identify the songster, but big respect to whomsoever it was. Mocha was pleased to see me though, at least up until the point that she realised the thrushes were going to be fed before she was. As I sliced up some apples, I tried to explain to her that the Blackbirds were out in the awful weather and probably needed a bit of pampering much more than a cat did. She remained wholly unconvinced. 07:10 Mocha has now been given her meds, heavily disguised in a cat yoghurt treat. From the kitchen window, I count 17 Blackbirds and a single Redwing. The wind and rain are increasing in intensity, and now hitting the rear of the house, meaning that the front garden is a little more sheltered. As if to prove my reasoning, a pair of Dunnocks appear from under the kitchen window. 07:30 Mocha fed (Cat edit: "finally fed"). 08:45 Megan's up...

A late start this morning, the sun was already well above the horizon when I finally stirred. It is Saturday, I guess, but it meant that I missed an opportunity to photograph dawn. As soon as I had fed Mocha, I put an apple out for the thrushes and a couple of Blackbirds immediately materialised out of nowhere. Photo: M Taylor Indeed, there were a few more species around than usual. A pair of Dunnocks hopped along the garden wall and into the undergrowth, the local House Sparrow flock put in an appearance (perhaps someone's feeders hadn't been filled) and a Collared Dove investigated what the Blackbirds were up to. Brief sightings of a Robin, a Wren and a pair of Pied Wagtails were then overshadowed by the first appearance this Autumn of a Blackcap. It was a male, with the eponymous headgear, and Megan immediately sliced up another apple in the hope of tempting it down onto the ground to feed. Alas, it seemed content to search the few remaining Sycamore leaves for insects rathe...

It has been so calm in Orkney today, in stark contrast to the weather farther south and what is due for here at the weekend. We  were up early, me to catch up with one of the jobs postponed from yesterday, and Megan to head to Burwick in South Ronaldsay to guide some tourists along the clifftops above the Grey Seal pupping beaches. Here's a few photos taken around dawn, including a very faint sun dog in the 3rd shot (just to the left of the flying bird). Working outdoors was much more pleasant this morning, with the repair completed in weak sunshine. Back home, there was a cable to run from the lounge, through the loft, and into a corridor, so that the broadband router can return to its usual place in the centre of the house following the installation of full fibre. Fortunately, I was able to use an old aerial cable as a pull-through from the lounge and then the now-redundant phone cable as another pull-through into the corridor. It only remains for me to terminate the ethernet cab...

It's rather a blustery day, with driving rain, not ideal for working outside with power tools. I rescheduled the day's visits, returned home and settled down to some admin tasks. The Winter thrushes are still moving through, still mainly Redwings, and one eventually deigned to hop about our garden. After lunch, Megan counted at least 150 in the field across the track, with more flocks arriving all the time. As Storm Boelo is bringing 70+mph winds on Sunday, we took the opportunity, during a break in the showers, to move our garden furniture into the garage. Hopefully the garage will be ok! Other storms are available for folk farther south. So the weekend will likely be spent indoors, keeping cosy and warm, probably with my nose in a book and fortified by a conveyor belt of tea mugs. The to-be-read pile is simmering nicely. Unsurprisingly, it's heavy on natural history. The George Monbiot book is my unfinished holiday reading, having sat in the pile for years. I don't kn...

For a couple of weeks now, thrushes have been arriving in the UK from their Scandinavian breeding grounds, hoping for better weather here during the Winter. Birders in Orkney have been studiously counting flock sizes, which have occasionally been in the thousands, but this mainly happens on the east side of the archipelago rather than on the west where we live. However, today we noticed the first few Redwings of the Autumn in the field over the track, and a couple of different Blackbirds in the garden. Apples were immediately deployed, halved and deposited in plain sight, just a short glide from our neighbour's trees.  By lunchtime, it was only the Blackbirds which were confident (or hungry) enough to hop about the front garden. My understanding is that the all-dark individuals are from Scandinavia The resident Blackbird The flocks continued to arrive though, now with a few Fieldfares among them, but no sign of any Song Thrushes yet, or the Holy Grail of Thrushdom, a Ring Ouzel. Re...

Today is International Sloth Day, and as I'm feeling a bit under the weather, I think I can appreciate the sentiment. Funnily enough, one of the recent cards I received did feature this somewhat less than energetic creature. I can't think why. One evening at the end of September, I completely forgot about a Zoom meeting for the staff and area coordinators of the British Dragonfly Society Scotland. I was mortified, despite not having many species of dragon and not much to add at such meetings. I mention this because one of the actions to come out of the evening was to look at 10km (hectad) squares with few or no records to understand why this should be. I must point out that the world of biological recording relies heavily on squares of varying sizes to understand the distributions of plants and animals, which then informs conservation actions. For instance, before I moved to Orkney, I helped the Buckinghamshire Dragonfly recorder (aka Alan) with 10km square data for the BDS Atl...

Sunday was a peach of a day, worthy of sitting outside with a morning cuppa. A few hardy bumblebees, wasps and honey bees busied about the flowers which remained in bloom. There weren't many leaves left on the trees when I took a wander around the garden. I popped down the hill to post a card and it seemed as though the whole population of Stromness was mowing or weeding or generally tidying up, making the most of the lovely weather. We still have quite a lot of cobbles left from our pond project. Megan's dad has been helping to reduce the pile as he reclaims one end of his pond from encroaching vegetation and creates a pebble beach. After lunch, I dropped off another load for him.    This morning, as I went to and fro between the utility room and kitchen with Mocha's meds and then breakfast, I couldn't help but notice the dawn. So here are some more gratuitous sky photos. The early start was because Openreach were due shortly after 8am to connect us to full fibre, a jo...

Before our holiday in Rutland, I had browsed through the iRecord website and a couple of ID guides to see which species of dragonfly and damselfly might still be on the wing in mid-October. There were four possibilities, the most likely of which was Common Darter. We saw these small dragonflies at most sites we visited, including Rutland Water, Stanwick Lakes, Fineshade Wood and the RSPB's The Lodge. A female on the wall of a hide at Rutland Water Another late season dragon is Migrant Hawker, and we were very fortunate to find a male and a female roosting together near a pond at Rutland Water. He is showier in his blue finery, whilst she is camouflaged in brown and yellow, more to avoid unwanted attention than anything else. Clearly, in this instance, she was tolerating the male's presence. A couple of males even put in an appearance outside the log cabin on my birthday. Damselflies are scarcer towards the back end of the flight season, but we did manage to find a few Willow Em...

Today we're starting with a gratuitous fluffy mammal image from a few days ago, mainly so that the banner isn't a shock to the unwary. You'll thank me later. Grey Squirrel seen from our log cabin After arriving home late evening yesterday, this morning was all about unpacking and putting everything back where it should be. Megan nipped out for a bit of shopping and I cracked on with chores. Despite a forecast for showers all day, we risked putting out two loads of washing to dry, and they are now successfully squirrelled away in the airing cupboard. The list of missed phone calls and emails has been dredged for names and details, because as always happens when you go on holiday, the work floods in. Monday morning will be busy with scheduling of appointments whilst I wait for Openreach to install fibre to the property (or so they assure me).  This afternoon I have spent a good while going through Blogger, catching up on what folk have been up to and answering the comments wh...

Homeward bound. Quite a relaxed start to the day as we were already at the airport. My last transit through Birmingham had been a nightmare: the place was rammed, there were folk everywhere; the carrier did not have a check-in desk open; and queues to get into the queue for the lift to take everyone to Security. This time we were taking no chances and headed to check-in a full three hours before our flight. Consequently, there were no queues, we breezed through everywhere and had a v-e-r-y lazy breakfast. This past week has been our Summer. Orkney had not been this warm for this many consecutive days all year, so as we boarded our plane to Inverness, I took a snap of the blue skies. Once back in the Highlands, we had a brief visit to Dunelm to pick up some cutlery that couldn't be shipped to Orkney (because... knives) and then it was a couple of hours drive through Autumn to the port of Scrabster. The sea crossing to Stromness was a little lumpy, courtesy of the gale which hit the ...