Natural highs and lows

In recent times, one of the more interesting ways to encourage people to think about wildlife, and so help protect it, is the No Mow May campaign. In essence, you choose a part of your garden (can be a tiny bit of it, can be all of it) and don't mow it during the month of May, allowing more wildflowers to bloom and attracting more pollinating insects. Here at Burnbank,  I am not sure that the local insects have completely understood the concept of No Mow May. Although, to be fair, neither have the wildflowers. Or perhaps it's me? Our chosen area which made the cut to be spared the cut was in the back garden, behind the garage and to one side of the drying green. It measures about 15 x 5 metres and we knew from last year, having found evidence of orchid seed heads, that there might be something interesting in there. The remainder of the back 'lawn' was mowed as normal, so that we don't need to worry about being attacked by large carnivorous beasties when bringing in ...

What. A. Weekend. I had hoped to complete my working day on Friday before the gale force winds arrived, but they showed up early. So, rather than run the risk of having the van doors ripped out of my hands and my equipment and stock distributed downwind in a rapid manner, I shut up shop (figuratively, I don't have a shop), apologised to customers and rebooked visits for this week. The afternoon was spent hunkering down as cosily as possible and trying to ignore the horizontal weather outside. Happily, there was a Zoom talk arranged for that evening, when one of the local amateur naturalists was giving a presentation about two Summers spent watching Common Carder bees in her garden. At the allotted time, we all logged on and were grandly entertained with photos and film footage of wee bees busily building nests, collecting pollen and making bee bread. It's not the same as having a live social event, but then again, with the storm, we would've had to cancel the whole thing an...

Friday was so peachy that it could've only been peachier with the addition of raspberry sauce and vanilla ice cream. The weather was easily the most pleasant of the year so far, with blue skies and warm sunshine. In fact, it was so Spring-like, that I cleared my diary and offski'd to the beach at Churchill Barrier 4. The footpaths through the dunes were liberally edged with Dandelions and Coltsfoot, with plenty of bumblebees making the most of the pollen and nectar bonanza. This is likely a Common Carder. Nearer the tide line, a colourful fragment of urchin shell and a pearlescent periwinkle (?) caught my eye. Further up the beach, there were several species of bird foraging for insects, including this Pied Wagtail and Wheatear, but much excitement ensued when a Little Tern flew by. This tiny sea urchin shell is only about an inch across, it's pastel green colour making it stand out against the shell sand. Towards the South Ronaldsay end of the beach were about half a dozen...