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...

We've been busy trying to choose colour schemes and soft furnishings for the lounge and the guest bedroom: bright red, grey, dark red and orange for the former, giving a Summer turning into Autumn feel; whilst for the latter, blue, grey, green and a  wildflower pattern which, now that I've written those words, sounds bizarre but I think it's probably a landscape thing... A mid-August evening This rainbow was weird A walk on the west coast on the following day Grass of Parnassus Frog Orchid Scottish Primrose Wheatears A walk around the old Stromness Waterworks Oddments from home A young Pied Wagtail Mist on the Orphir Hills Since the last photograph was taken, the weather has been unremittingly dreich, but it's not just rain we've been soaking up.

Since our holiday in early June, there's not been much opportunity to string together several days of wildlife watching, but with the commencement of July that all changed. Even better, Alan, a friend from my days in Milton Keynes was currently on holiday in Orkney, so we met up on Friday morning for a drookit wander around Orphir Bay and the Gyre Wood, catching up on things and generally setting the world to rights. Swallow fledglings contemplating the weather After lunch, we were joined by Megan and the three of us set off to try and see some of the things that Alan hadn’t yet spotted on his holiday. First, we parked at the top of the Scorradale Road, and ambled about the low hills, taking in the views and the flora and fauna. A sawfly preying upon a Red-thighed St Mark's Fly Then we drove across to Yesnaby on the west coast, which is just a wildflower heaven at the moment. We pottered about the coastal heath habitat, marvelling at the abundant and colourful display. Prim...

It's a word which was used often in another blog, but I don't think that I have previously used it on Natural Highs and Lows. However, it is a very suitable title to this post. We were going to walk from Sandwick to Burwick in South Ronaldsay, along the west coast of the island, but it would mean using two cars, and that's quite a long commute (and a lot of fuel) in Orcadian terms. So then we considered a tromp over the hills of Russadale and Scorradale, but the day dawned windless, which meant midges. And one midge is too many. Scrabbling around for last-minute ideas of another walk, we hit upon Stromness to Yesnaby on the west coast of the mainland. And I am rather glad we did. This particular stretch of clifftop path was unfamiliar to me, the only part of the west coast that I hadn't previously walked. It's not a long distance, but we reckoned too long for a day's wildlife watching in both directions, so we parked a car at Yesnaby and drove to Stromness reser...