Natural highs and lows

The Haunted Garden, a ghostly tale of a bewitching annual ritual. The setting for this orrery story is the eerie twilight of June 21st 2026, the Summer Solstice, rather than the eldritch dark of an All Hallows Eve. The ghostly goings-on portrayed below were filmed in the hour before midnight so, yes, I had to stay up especially late 🥱. Inexplicably, this snippet didn't make it into the blog back in the Summer but it is, to date, the most ethereal thing that has happen around here this year. Sadly, the accompanying sound hasn't transferred well from phone to computer, as it features a mournful Curlew call and a slightly more chipper Blackbird song (also, thankfully, none of my yawns). These are male Ghost Moths, lekking to attract and impress a female. At dusk, in June, they appear from the grassy sward and perform this swaying flight. Whilst the males are a ghostly white, the females are a pale orange and yellow. Their caterpillars feed on the roots of Docks, for which they ha...

June, despite its mercurial weather, has been quite the lepidopteran feast. The past three weekends have featured some sunny weather, huge downpours and gale force winds. You may recall that we had to cancel a wildlife walk due to persistent showers. It should be noted that this postponement was purely for the benefit of humans, the wildlife was out in the weather whatever. There follows a brief round-up of some of the moths and butterflies seen since we last spoke. There has been a steady stream of sightings of Painted Ladies in the county. This one was nectaring on our front "lawn". Prior to one of the huge downpours, Megan spotted this moth on the garage wall. How, I do not know. Grey Dagger Sheltering from the weather, this time on the frame of the patio door, a Clouded-bordered Brindle. Meanwhile on the recess of the kitchen window, a Narrow-winged Pug And the fourth Megan-spotted moth was a Wormwood Pug on the increasingly-popular garage wall.  Yesterday saw us leading ...

What's this, NaHaL, surely you should be pootling about in the wilderness looking for insects, not blogging? Sadly, after watching the roller coaster ride of a constantly changing weather forecast for a week, the decision was taken to postpone the walk until the end of the month. Hopefully, it will be warmer and drier by then. In contrast, yesterday was glorious, so here are some photos from our garden. I was talking about habitats to one of the builders from the site next door and he was showing me photos of his pond. The conversation moved on to butterfly banks and as I airily waved towards where we are thinking of creating one, this Common Blue appeared. Some sawfly larvae chomping away on our cuttings of Tea-leaved Willow. Using the internet, I managed to come up with the correct genus for them, Euura . However, the local recorder pointed me in the right direction of the species,  E. ferruginea or Rusty Willow Nematine. When Megan had finished work, she took a turn around the g...

A day trip to Hoy is always a treat, and last Saturday was no exception. With no long walks planned between ferry sailings, just visiting sites around the island by car, I felt able to drag along my DSLR for a change. What a good job I did. The blustery conditions, and the subject (or photographer) constantly moving, meant that my little compact camera was not the preferred device of choice. We didn't find any big dragons but, oh my word, there was still plenty else to see. Red-throated Diver, snapped from the car whilst parked in a layby A male Common Blue Damselfly with prey A female Common Blue butterfly nectaring on Bell Heather A White-tailed Eagle which flew overhead... necessitating an emergency stop and a race for optics! Great Skuas (Bonxies) were congregating at Sandy Loch, with regular flybys over the dam head Bonxie Hoy hills panorama Another female Common Blue butterfly The wildflowers were stunning too, but difficult to photograph, so please excuse their absence. Sund...