Blogtober Thirty

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 bees, insufficient food to sustain a new queen, let alone maintain a colony.

The second section of the transect is an undulating track along the edge of the moor.

Then it is onto the moor proper, a short climb uphill following an old wall, then taking a track which contours back to the start.

Near to where I parked my car, a Stonechat was preening at the top of a storm-blasted Fuchsia twig, patiently waiting whilst I fumbled with my camera.

 Happy with that.

Well, one more day of Blogtober to go. Honestly, at the start, I wasn't sure that I would be able to keep it up for a whole month on the first attempt. Looking back through the NaHaL archive, there's been the occasional eight posts a month, but nothing on this scale. My thanks to B from Coastal Ripples for all her encouragement.