Natural highs and lows

Fear not, gentle reader, for despite the interconnectedness of all things, this is not a continuation of the recent rabbit-inspired blogpost.  In the last week or so, there have been numerous trips to some of the smaller islands of Orkney, all work-related, but with the occasional opportunity for a bit of wildlife watching. My first port of call was Westray, on a cold, rainy and windy day. I recall eating my lunch in the car, parked by a pool and reedbed near the shore of the Bay of Tuquoy Bay. No photos from the day, but I did manage to add Moorhen and Coot to my year list. Next up was Sanday for a couple of satellite tv repairs. Once these were completed, I drove to the eastern end of the island and wandered along a track towards Start Point lighthouse.  I remember having driven along this track in previous years to reach another customer, so I suspect that the route to the cottage is now by a different route. None of my previous visits to Sanday have ever been at low tide t...

Under half an hour away from the holiday cottage was the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Welney reserve. A brief look at the sightings from previous days revealed that there were several species that would make the trip worthwhile for us, even without the thought of Sunday lunch in the cafe. At this time of year, the Winter flooding of the reserve has not yet subsided, so a few of the paths were inaccessible, but not to worry, we met lots of friendly birders who were only too glad to help with identifying strange-plumaged birds and pointing out fly-over rarities. I should point out, the birds weren't actually strange-plumaged, they were just species we're used to seeing in Orkney in Winter plumage, and here they were changing into their Summer finery. Great White Egret, we managed this ID on our own Avocets, I knew this one from my recent Sanday sighting! During the afore-mentioned lunch, with breaks between courses to twitch Tree Sparrow on the neighbouring feeders, we were...