Natural highs and lows

Today was mainly about volunteering for Species on the Edge, carrying out March's wildlife surveys. In the morning, Megan and I went to the old Stromness Waterworks site to look for bumblebees, then in the afternoon, I went to Yesnaby on the west coast to search for Sea Plantain Leaf Beetles. The previous two days had been absolutely gorgeous, the warmest and sunniest of the year so far, leading to the appearance of two Small Tortoiseshell butterflies and a Buff-tailed Bumblebee queen in our garden. Today was cooler and cloudier, so hopes weren't high for either survey. At the old Stromness Waterworks site, some of the verges had a few Coltsfoot in flower, the reservoir dam head was liberally sprinkled with Primroses, whilst a few Daisies and a Gorse bush managed to push the nectar-providing count towards four species. Even the feral Daffodils which inhabit so many Orcadian verges weren't yet convinced of Spring's arrival. It was all meagre fare for a foraging bee, and ...

OK, this weather's just weird. After weeks of gales and storms, some of which had cute names (as long as they were affecting the folks south too) ((and the severest ones here didn't have names... apart from "weather"))... where was I? Oh yeah, it's been rather pleasant the last few days. No wind, no rain, occasional sunshine... is this still Orkney?! Meteorologists will tell you it's because there's a high pressure area out to the north west in the Atlantic Ocean, leading to settled conditions and lots of blanket cloud. The rest of us know that's a load of baloney, some god (insert deity of choice) just wants to p*ss off the aurora chasers, because whilst there's been amazing scenes down in mainland Scotland, Orkney has pretty much missed out on a really spectacular show. Oops. Not to worry, with a house move in the offing, we've been busy decluttering, cleaning, gardening and, mainly, carting stuff to the tip to be recycled. But yesterday, cha...

Firstly, a Happy New Year to one and all. Yesterday was a bit of an education, and not just because I kept referring to it as New Year's Eve and being exasperatedly corrected to "Hogmanay!" As a person born outwith Scotland, it has always been a bit of a puzzle why Hogmanay is a bigger thing here than Christmas. However, I now know that this is due in large part to the Reformation in 1560 and Presbyterianism. From the mid 16th Century until well into the 20th Century, Christmas celebrations were banned. In fact, in Scotland, Christmas Day did not become a public holiday until 1958, and Boxing Day wasn't an official holiday until 1974. Scots being the canny folk they are, they transferred their celebrations to New Year's Eve (sorry, Hogmanay) and New Year's Day, which were secular occasions and not governed by the Church. Right then, what did I get up to on New Y... 🙄 ... Hogmanay? The weather forecast looked much better than for New Year's Day, so a gentl...

Autumn has opened her colour palette and begun painting the landscape, the weather has abruptly become more blustery and showery, and birds are on the move - some to warmer climes south, others to... well, here is warmer climes for them. T he dry Spring and Summer have been replaced with days of persistent rain, initially and fortunately of the vertical kind, which spent time slowly soaking into the parched ground. Today the showers have been sharp and horizontal, spurred on by a strong to gale force westerly.  I tried outdoors, at least for the first two squalls, so can confirm that sitting on the sofa writing a blogpost instead is eminently preferable. Here's a photo I retrieved from my phone, taken at the end of last month whilst working in Hoy. I was on my way back to Lyness to catch the ferry home, and encountered some sheep being moved between pastures. It was a fraught few minutes, wondering whether I would make the sailing, or be stuck on the island all night. And I believe...

A walk from the outskirts of Kirkwall into the centre of town allowed an appreciation of the low sun on a Winter's day in Orkney. The walk, which began in the early afternoon, was about four and a half miles and ended after sunset. This suggests that the pace was very slow, but although there were frequent tops for photography, the real reason was the limited daylight at 59 degrees North. Gorse all aglow At the Peedie Sea, there were several Long-tailed Ducks, a Winter speciality in these parts This one's a male And this is a female A male Red-breasted Merganser in Kirkwall Bay More Long-tailed Ducks The Peedie Sea is effectively the town duck pond Kirkwall Marina The return trip was much gloomier, so consequently there weren't any photos of the walk home.