Natural highs and lows

It’s been a while, huh? Life has been busy in unexpected ways, and blogging just wasn’t on the radar. 16 th February At Burnbank, 2025 has been designated The Year of Sorting Out the Garden. A good friend was cutting back some Tea-leaved Willow at her allotment and kindly donated 50 or so trimmed sticks for us to begin some hedging. Now, folk close to me have a view on my level of dedication to a task, as a recent text exchange with my daughters demonstrated. However, in a flurry of activity, Megan and I managed to begin the transformation of the rear gar den. Next up is the long-delayed pond, but the cunning plan is to employ a local gardening business to provide the necessary impetus. Photo courtesy of Megan 20 th February I am most of the way back to Orkney, sat in a departure lounge at Aberdeen Airport, awaiting a connecting flight to Kirkwall, longing for the space and sanity of a windswept island. I’ll be rather pleased to see Megan too, he added hurriedly. After a whir...

Crivens! We've been back from holiday for more than three weeks and I still haven't finished my round-up of goings-on. The month of May is impatiently drumming its fingers on the table top of life and exasperatedly wondering just when it will have its moment in the spotlight. So let's sum up the last few days of our sojourn to the Cairngorm area and the trip home. Although there was an abundance of wildlife around our rented cottage, for the final day of our holiday, we decided to go further afield, and drove via Tomintoul and the Lecht Road to the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve. En route, we stopped off for breakfast at an excellent roadside cafe near Corgarff, and we can recommend the black pudding and egg rolls. The Nature.scot website has this to say about the Muir of Dinnet reserve: " The sheer variety of habitats and landforms makes this an amazing place for wildlife and people alike." Which is good enough for us, we needed no further encouragement....

It is said that whilst on holiday there's the chance to do things differently, maybe staying up late and sleeping all morning, or skydiving, or eating and drinking oneself into an absolute stupor. We may have had the odd lie-in, and the occasional meal out, but the one thing we had less of on holiday was sky. No, we didn't go caving or exploring a nuclear bunker, our 'different' is habitat, rather than habit. At home, there are not, as yet, any trees in our garden, so the views are quite unrestricted, less for buildings and neighbours' planting. Consequently, the birds we see in, or from, our garden are not the usual garden birds. In fact, as I've been typing this paragraph, a Great Skua flew by, pursued by an irate Curlew. So our holiday indulgence is trees, and if possible a river. The cottage we were staying in is very much in the category of 'can't see the wood for the trees', mainly Scots Pine and Birch, and the birdage is so very different from...

Sunday afternoon saw us pottering out and about, armed with binoculars (Megan) and camera (me). Despite a chilly northeasterly breeze, a brief sunny spell tempted us to walk across the brae to the other end of town in the hope of seeing a few migrating birds. As it turned out, we only managed a brief view of a female Blackcap, which I helpfully failed to photograph. Leaving the narrow lanes behind, we ambled downhill through flagstone alleys until we reached Alfred Street, then headed homeward along the main street with its cobbled strip. In Victoria Street, we were pleasantly surprised to find the delicatessen open on a Sunday afternoon, so we popped in for a cup of hot chocolate to warm ourselves up, as well as a couple of pistachio cannoli. It's important to support local businesses.  Stepping back outside, we sat down on a helpfully-provided bench to drink our hot chocolate, listen to small flocks of Waxwings trilling overhead, and gaze across the street at an art gallery. Cert...

On my return visit to Aberdeen for a planned city break (as opposed to the previous unfortunate re-routing of a ferry), the weather was rather calm and almost dry. Whilst the point of the weekend was to catch up with family, this is a wildlife blog, so although binoculars were left at home, I did take along a small camera. My companion had a 'twitch' list which included such intoxicatingly exotic species as Carrion Crow, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Magpie, these birds being difficult or impossible to see in Orkney. The crow was easy, spotted from the plane window as we taxied from the runway to the terminal at Aberdeen Airport.  The other three species were encountered in Duthie Park, to the south of the city. View from the Mound in Duthie Park, with the Winter Gardens on the left The Winter Gardens had plenty of actual exotic! I'm not sure whether the ants were exotic or Doric Another walk, this time eastwards towards the beach, brought a plethora of waders, all feeding unconc...

A short break on the Scottish mainland was made possible by the fact that Orkney and the Highlands were both (at time of travelling) in Scottish Tier 1 of the Covid regulations. And in this neck of the woods, the travel restrictions are backed up by the full force of the law. Woods, as well as rivers, were on the agenda, and some calm dry weather helped too. But definitely fleecy trews temperatures. Not long past dawn, the mist is still lifting from the valley of the River Helmsdale Loch Fleet, a rest halt brought about due to a rolling road closure for the transportation of wind turbine blades. Three v-e-r-y long vehicles indeed. Frost on Bramble leaves, near Skelbo Frost on a frond, near Skelbo Tarbat Ness and lighthouse There was much excitement upon spotting this exotic creature. Not many Blue Tits in Orkney Crested Tit. It was very mobile and difficult to photograph... Coal Tit The crispest shot I managed of a Crested Tit. If only it had been looking the other way Another Coal Tit...