Natural highs and lows

Under half an hour away from the holiday cottage was the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Welney reserve. A brief look at the sightings from previous days revealed that there were several species that would make the trip worthwhile for us, even without the thought of Sunday lunch in the cafe. At this time of year, the Winter flooding of the reserve has not yet subsided, so a few of the paths were inaccessible, but not to worry, we met lots of friendly birders who were only too glad to help with identifying strange-plumaged birds and pointing out fly-over rarities. I should point out, the birds weren't actually strange-plumaged, they were just species we're used to seeing in Orkney in Winter plumage, and here they were changing into their Summer finery. Great White Egret, we managed this ID on our own Avocets, I knew this one from my recent Sanday sighting! During the afore-mentioned lunch, with breaks between courses to twitch Tree Sparrow on the neighbouring feeders, we were

Don't worry, this isn't one of those ranty blogposts bemoaning the threat to wildlife from domestic pets. The weather for the past wee while has been a mixture of sunshine and showers with a bitingly cold northerly breeze, so thermal clothing is still very much in order. After last weekend's year list shenanigans, this week was a bit of an eye opener. Tuesday Reports of a Great White Egret on the Loch of Sabiston prompted a swift perusal of the local map to see where the heck Sabiston was. After heading north through West Mainland, and finding a suitable place to safely park the car out of the way of farm traffic, we headed up a track which gave a view across the small loch.  We were a long way away from the Egret, as predictably it was on the far shore, but I managed a photo of sorts. Honest, this isn't a swan! Whilst watching the Egret, another birder mentioned that there was a Common Crane in a ploughed field not very far away, so we thought we had better try to see