Natural highs and lows

Here we are... July. How did that happen? So we had better have a June round-up of wildlifey happenings since our last blog outing. It is another insect-laden post, but with a few other things thrown in for good measure. Nearing the end of the month, we welcomed Alan, an old friend of mine from the Milton Keynes days (aka The Admiral, for those of you with good memories), who arrived for a three week holiday. Just before he drove up to the house, Megan discovered a female Blue-tailed Damselfly egg-laying in our pond. Our second Odonata species, and already ensuring that there may be more next year. In the evening, we took Alan on a wander around Stromness Loons to stretch his legs after his long drive from Englandshire. We managed to hear a Corncrake and enjoyed the light from the setting sun giving a golden glow to the wet meadows. A couple of days later, I took Alan along on my monthly Sea Plantain Leaf Beetle survey. June isn't a time of year which produces many records for the ...

A recent work trip to Shetland was almost more noteworthy for what I didn't see than what I did. During the course of a week, travelling around the archipelago from Unst in the north, to Bigton in the south, across to Bressay in the east and Walls in the west, I saw precisely no Great Skuas. Not one. That is a sobering statistic, highlighting the devastating effect of avian flu on this particular species in its breeding stronghold. A Bonxie, as the Great Skua is known in the north, is not a glamorous bird, it's a hulking great thug and a fearsome predator. However, its global  population size is about the same as that of the Polar Bear and is therefore extremely vulnerable to some catastrophic event decimating its numbers even further. Thankfully, there were a few wonderful moments to lighten my mood: a pair of Swifts which hammered eastward in Northmavine; a dread of Arctic Terns which drew my attention to an Otter hunting near the pier in Bressay; and whilst I was on a video ...

The past week has seen me on a bit of a thrash around the isles, with work on Eday, Stronsay and Westray. Only Stronsay provided any time for nature-watching, although my 'office' for the day on Eday had calling Red-throated Divers flying overhead. Arctic Tern, Stronsay Green-veined White butterfly, Stronsay Swallow, Stronsay By way of relaxation, on Saturday I helped out at an event for the Orkney Nature Festival, as the Orkney Field Club had organised a walk through Russadale. We had Hen Harriers and Redpolls to watch, whilst the air was filled with the sounds of Cuckoo, Willow Warbler, Wren, Blackbird and Stonechat.   Common Heath moth, Russadale Redpoll of some stripe, Russadale Dog violet, Russadale Millipede, Russadale Red Admiral butterfly, Russadale Sunday's meteorology wasn't particularly conducive to going outdoors, but we made the most of a short weather window (too short, as it turned out) to walk a little of the west coast of West Mainland. There are many m...

On Sunday I helped out with a recce of a walk near the Bay of Skaill. This area is famous as the location of Skara Brae, the 5000 year old Neolithic village, but we were more interested in the current flora and fauna along and around the clifftops. The coastline is cleft with many geos (pronounced with a hard 'G'), which offer nesting sites for all manner of birdlife, principally auks and Fulmars, but with the occasional corvid like this Hooded Crow. For instance, this is Yettna Geo, facing out towards the Atlantic Ocean, and brutal testimony to the erosive force of wave power. There are myriad circular structures in the Orcadian landscape, dating from many time periods, be their origins Neolithic, Bronze Age, Viking, Georgian or wartime 20th Century.  Whilst sat on a clifftop, I noticed a faint outline on a nearby headland, which didn't take too much imagination to be viewed as circular. Closer investigation revealed that it wasn't some previously-undiscovered Neolithi...