Natural highs and lows

Hard on the heels of Storm Floris, another whirlwind made landfall in Orkney, as younger daughter and grandson came to visit for a week. Little Louis is not quite three years old and we had to take certain measures to keep him in the garden, but out of the pond. Fortunately, despite exploring absolutely everything else, he ignored the temporary fencing altogether. Phew. Everywhere we went, his faithful companions Duck and Lamby came too... At the play park On the beach (Lamby on the left, Duck on the right) Duck and Lamby are not to be confused with Scottish curling sweepers Hammy and Lammie... Hamilton (Hammy) McMillan on the left, Bobby Lammie on the right The beach was Louis' favourite place to go, digging holes in the sand, building  destroying sandcastles, exploring rock pools and paddling in the sea. A Hermit Crab. Birsay Rackwick, Hoy (with some mountains on the Scottish mainland just visible) Rackwick, Hoy Luckily, Louis didn't spot this shoe encrusted with Goose Barnac...

In the middle of May, heralding the fact that Spring is getting into her stride, is the Orkney Nature Festival.  The Orkney Field Club traditionally put on an event for this festival, so Megan and I volunteered to lead a circular walk in Orphir, taking in a variety of habitats and wildlife. Setting off from The Bu , with its Norse and Medieval history, we headed down a grassy track to the shores of Orphir Bay, where waders were bathing and foraging at the water's edge. Heading east along the low clifftop, we looked at the many wildflowers by the path such as Bird's-Foot Trefoil, Spring Squill and Primrose, as well as the less obvious male and female blooms of Dwarf Willow. There were many insects on the wing, including Silver Y moths and a Painted Lady butterfly.   Spring Squill It was weeks later when I thought to try and identify this hoverfly, failed miserably and asked the lovely folk at UK Hoverflies Facebook group Identified as a female Parasyrphus nigritarsis, not that ...

On a recent trip to Birsay to visit Megan's parents, we had a short clifftop walk from Skipi Geo to Whitaloo Point, frequently casting our gaze out to sea in case of fins. Whilst the calm conditions (yes, really!) were perfect for glimpsing any passing cetaceans, sadly our walk was woefully whale-free. However, there was plenty of other nature to capture our interest. In the below image, can you spot the Oystercatcher chick? In the distance, the Brough of Birsay was sporting a wonderfully blue hue, thanks to a squillion wildflowers, in this instance Spring Squills. Back on the clifftop path, we noticed another Oystercatcher slink away over the cliff edge, and through binoculars and zoom lenses, we discovered why. Can you spot (a) the adult Oystercatcher, and (b) its nest? Bird's-foot Trefoil is always particularly zingy at this time of year, and as one of its colloquial names is Eggs and Bacon, I inevitably feel peckish when swooning over the deep reds and chromium yellows. Ret...

When in need of some fresh air, I can breezily recommend a blustery trip to Yesnaby on the west coast of Orkney. At the weekend, there were plenty of wildflowers on display, but even at ground level the wind was making photography difficult. My Scottish Primrose pics were all blurry, same for the snaps of Sea Plantain Leaf Beetles, and I didn't even attempt a shot of the stunning pale phase Arctic Skua which gave us a close flyby. The afore-mentioned Primula scotica is having its interregnum between the Spring and Summer flowerings, so it was even more of a challenge than normal to find any of its diminutive blooms. Predictably, after ten minutes of fruitless searching which had only yielded either old seed heads or fresh leaf rosettes not yet in bud, I looked up to see Megan waving me over to a couple of flowers. Spring Squill, Tormentil and Bird's-foot Trefoil added their vibrant colours to the floral carpet, whilst the small patch of Oysterplant was just beginning to open it...

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...