Natural highs and lows

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...

Occasionally, in Winter, if I need to travel to Shetland for work, it pays to keep an eye on the weather forecast and the ferry company's operational news. If there's any possibility of the ferry not calling in at Kirkwall on the return journey, then I make my apologies to customers and re-arrange the trip for a more benign time. Up until last week, this approach has stood me in good stead. Are you detecting an iota of foreboding yet? This Winter has been rather stormy so far, and doesn't look like kicking the habit any time soon. So, whilst Pentland Firth sailings were being delayed or cancelled and the timings of freight sailings between Lerwick and Aberdeen juggled to miss the worst of the weather, the passenger service twixt Aberdeen, Kirkwall and Lerwick seemed to escape all of the red ink normally associated with an Atlantic gale. How very odd, thought I, but if the ferry operator thinks tide times, wave height and wind speed are ok, then who am I to argue? After all,...