Natural highs and lows

Last weekend, on a whim, we decided to head to Yesnaby on the west coast to see if we could find a Frog Orchid. These small orchids are not as showy as their blousier cousins, and can be difficult to spot on the coastal heaths which are regularly blasted by gales and the Atlantic Ocean, keeping the vegetation lower than more sheltered environments. Having parked the car, we set off northwards into what was quite a significant breeze and diligently searched the Hill of Borwick to no avail. We did, however, find a few Scottish Primroses still in flower as well as some other nice things... Primula scotica with phone for scale A Stocky Mason Wasp Ancistrocerus scoticus nectaring on some Water Mint A Great Yellow Bumblebee nectaring on Devil's-bit Scabious We wandered back towards the car park to continue our search for orchids further south. After much crawling about on the ground and plenty of general chuntering of a needles and haystacks variety, we eventually managed to find one F...

In our wildlife garden, weeding isn't a task that I usually worry about too much, save for the occasional bout of removing seedheads from the pernicious species like docks and ragwort. Indeed, at the moment, the ragwort flowers are serving up nectar for many insects such as hoverflies and moths, as well as providing a hunting ground for harvestmen. However, lately, both Megan and I have commented that the rockery needs a bit of a tidy-up, prompted by many of the geraniums going over, the bed not looking as glorious as in the Spring and some of the generalist wildflowers getting a bit big for their boots roots. One recent afternoon, I rounded up a trug, a kneeling pad, gloves and a pair of secateurs from the garage and set to the "W" word along the edge of the rockery by the path to the front door. The usual rule applied, I had to identify each individual removee before I yanked it from the soil, both to exercise my ID skills and to ensure that I wasn't too gung-ho wi...