Natural highs and lows

Today was mainly about volunteering for Species on the Edge, carrying out March's wildlife surveys. In the morning, Megan and I went to the old Stromness Waterworks site to look for bumblebees, then in the afternoon, I went to Yesnaby on the west coast to search for Sea Plantain Leaf Beetles. The previous two days had been absolutely gorgeous, the warmest and sunniest of the year so far, leading to the appearance of two Small Tortoiseshell butterflies and a Buff-tailed Bumblebee queen in our garden. Today was cooler and cloudier, so hopes weren't high for either survey. At the old Stromness Waterworks site, some of the verges had a few Coltsfoot in flower, the reservoir dam head was liberally sprinkled with Primroses, whilst a few Daisies and a Gorse bush managed to push the nectar-providing count towards four species. Even the feral Daffodils which inhabit so many Orcadian verges weren't yet convinced of Spring's arrival. It was all meagre fare for a foraging bee, and ...

One of the beautiful things about Orkney is that the weather is borderline neurodivergent, which may go some way to explaining why it is difficult to get an accurate diagnosis forecast. Currently*, we're back to experiencing wildly different weather on consecutive days, such that the worryingly neurotypical consistent weather of late January and early February seems but a distant memory. On Wednesday last, it was more dreich than a waterfall shower after all the hot water's gone, so I was pleasantly surprised, upon returning home for lunch, to learn that Megan had been watching a Buzzard all morning. Raptors do not usually hunt during heavy rain, but the bird in question had been sat on various fence posts in the valley below, staring intently at the ground for worms and, possibly, frogs. Before changing out of my wet weather gear, I wandered down the hill, a little closer to the bird, for a grainy photo.  This particular buzzard was part of a local wing-tagging project, and w...

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...

Currently, we're away on holiday, but before we left Orkney for a trip to the east of England, there was an outing to Yesnaby on the west coast of West Mainland to look for some strikingly marked red and black beetles. This is a bit of an annual pilgrimage in April, but well worth scrabbling around on hands and knees to see some glossy black shinyness with bold red stripes. No! Wrong type of Beetle Yesnaby Castle The foot of Yesnaby Castle Before we found what we were looking for, I noticed a well-camouflaged micro-moth. The photo below shows the tip of my index finger for scale. Those that know about these sorts of things, identified the moth as Philedonides lunana. Eventually, we began finding our target species, Chrysolina latecincta ssp intermedia , and Megan set about photographing them. Meanwhile, I had found a slightly larger beetle, which was carrying off a small slug or snail. This time those who know identified it as Carabus arvensis .   Pleasingly, during this trip, we a...

Today is dreich, with driving rain being helped along by a gale force easterly wind. I am supposed to be working in Shetland, but yesterday afternoon I was informed that the return ferry sailing was under review with a likelihood of cancellation, and we all know how that game ends. I made my apologies to customers and rescheduled the visit for later in the month. So, what to do on a day when staying indoors is by far the best option? Well, there's always admin to wrangle, but I couldn't even make that last until lunchtime. This afternoon I have been drafting minutes for a meeting that was held weeks ago. Zoom recordings are useful in this regard, but it does mean that you have to re-live the meeting again, effectively doubling the sense of "There's two and a half hours I won't see again", although, duh, I did! Now I need a bit of light relief, so I thought I would share a few photos of naturey shenanigans since my previous post. An early morning trip across Sc...

The arrival of Spring is, if you were to believe its name, heralded by the Primrose, although around here it isn't so much in prime place as about fourth or fifth on the blooming list. However, late March is also the time to go looking for the Sea Plantain Leaf Beetle (or if that's too much of a mouthful, you could try  Chrysolina latecincta spp. intermedia ). This smartly-suited beetle is rare in the UK, limited to only a few locations in Scotland which happily, includes the west coast of Orkney. So here's an example of the habitat (above) and below are three beetles basking on a rock so that you can get your eye in (human shown for scale).  If you're having trouble, there's one low on the left, with the other two being just above centre on the right. Here's a mating pair being photographed. Ok, ok, let's zoom in a bit closer so that we can see these wee beasties in all their finery. In less than half an hour, we found more than 60 beetles, the sunny weathe...

Most of the Easter weekend was lost to gales, snow and hail showers, with little in the way of wildlife watching to show for it. However, one jigsaw was completed and another started. By mid week, things had improved a bit, in as much as the wind had eased off to "flippin' breezy" (technical meteorological term), although the wind chill still kept temperatures below freezing. One evening, whilst eating our evening meal, a Short-eared Owl made a brief visit to the rough grassland beyond our neighbour's garden, so apologies for this hastily-shot photo of a moving target taken through a filthy window. Today dawned with yet another covering of snow, but with the lightest winds for some while. The view across to the hills on island of Hoy highlighted the difference in altitude of the viewer and the view. The sunny morning encouraged the local male Stonechat into song and he even let me approach a bit closer than normal for a photo. In the afternoon, there was a trip to Yes...