Natural highs and lows

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,...

On the wildlife front, things have been quite low key this past week, perhaps we've reached that mellow point of Summer when it is noticeable that the year is turning. Until I moved to Orkney, I had never considered which species of wildflower was the last to come into bloom in Summer - it's Devil's-bit Scabious, here - and that feels like more of a slippery slope to mid-Winter than the departing of Puffins or other auks. Yes, it is also much quieter bird-wise, with an end to the frantic feathered fecundity for our breeding species, little in the way of birdsong and a steady trickle of migrants heading back south. Looking at the images I have taken during the last week or so, there's a preponderance of insects, beginning with a moth discovered on the rear bumper of my van whilst visiting Stronsay. I think this is a Dark Arches. Whether I took it with me from Mainland, picked up a stowaway on the ferry or it was a Stronsay resident, I will never know. A late afternoon wa...