Natural highs and lows

After all the travails of December and early January, you may have some inkling, dear reader, just how wonderful it was to write the next sentence. A recent work trip to the island of Stronsay brought a little bit of time for wildlife-watching. Mind you, it was a struggle getting out of bed in the dark at 6am. Leaving the house just before 7am, we tiptoed along the icy path to the car and drove sedately to the ferry pier in Kirkwall. Mid-voyage, it became light enough to see out of the window, so we headed out onto deck, to be greeted by a sunrise and a wintry squall. Highs and lows, right there! There weren't many seabirds about, it rather felt as though the majority had taken the sensible decision to stay in bed a bit longer. Whilst I was working, Megan went bird-watching, then, after the job was done, we met up again to see what we could spot together.  The Sand of Rothiesholm was almost deserted of human life, we could see another couple at the opposite end, presumably the folk...

Whilst contemplating the reason for the recent lack of blog posting (a bloggage blockage, I suppose), the obvious conclusion was that a lack of wildlife watching (and therefore source material) was a major contributor to the problem. The causes of this were manifold: Weather - lots of it and all quite unpleasant; Work - when able (see below); Wellbeing - we picked up a cold bug at the end of November and it is taking some shifting; Wherewithal - our stamina has been hit for six. Let me clarify that statement about the lack of wildlife watching... there's been a lack of actively going outside with the intention of watching wildlife. Meanwhile, indoors, there's been much perusal of live webcams from at least four continents. I'm not complaining, mind, as I think we would have gone mad without the distraction from the previously-mentioned Four Double-ues of the Apocalypse.  Thankfully, there have been fleeting moments of Nature's magic to lift the spirits and gladden the h...

Jings, March has flown by in a flurry of... well, mainly snow. I have ventured outside occasionally, but half of the photos below were taken from indoors. It was so cold that even some Fieldfares were tempted from the surrounding fields into the garden to forage. They were very flighty, possibly due to the local Blackbirds not being so keen to share the apples we put out. The seed feeders were busy with House Sparrows, Greenfinches, Starlings, the occasional Robin, a Rook and these Goldfinches. Meanwhile, beneath the feeder, Dunnocks, Rock Doves, Blackbirds and an even more occasional mouse helped themselves to spillages. The Hoy Head departing Houton bound for Lyness as another snow shower rolls in. The Rock Doves are waiting for a few messy eaters to show up (yes, Starlings, I mean you). Venturing out along the bay between wintry showers, wrapped up warm against the bitter wind. I seem to have spent the month never far from a hot beverage. The Hoy Head again, this time approaching Ho...

Today is dreich, with driving rain being helped along by a gale force easterly wind. I am supposed to be working in Shetland, but yesterday afternoon I was informed that the return ferry sailing was under review with a likelihood of cancellation, and we all know how that game ends. I made my apologies to customers and rescheduled the visit for later in the month. So, what to do on a day when staying indoors is by far the best option? Well, there's always admin to wrangle, but I couldn't even make that last until lunchtime. This afternoon I have been drafting minutes for a meeting that was held weeks ago. Zoom recordings are useful in this regard, but it does mean that you have to re-live the meeting again, effectively doubling the sense of "There's two and a half hours I won't see again", although, duh, I did! Now I need a bit of light relief, so I thought I would share a few photos of naturey shenanigans since my previous post. An early morning trip across Sc...

One of the overwintering species of bird to be found in Orkney waters is the Great Northern Diver. This is a bird which breeds much further north in Iceland, Greenland and the north of North America, although occasionally a few non-breeding birds will remain here during the Summer. The Great Northern Diver has an eerie, haunting call, which gave rise to its original name, the Loon. In North America, the bird is still known by this name. So it is not a coincidence that the loon's call makes an appearance in a track by Canadian First Nations band Kashtin . The track is Akua Tuta (English: Take Care). Whilst I listen to quite a lot of music from Canada, it's mainly the rock genre from bands like Rush or Celtic folk stuff by the likes of Le Vent du Nord or De Temps Antan . I only know of Kashtin (in the Innu language this translates as 'tornado' but is also a cheeky pun of the English "cashed in" as a dig at those who thought they shouldn't play outside thei...

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 ...

Throughout much of the UK, the Easter weekend of 2021 was viewed in several ways, depending upon whether one was fed up with a year of global pandemic restrictions and hell-bent on hedonism or one had a care for one's fellow citizens, especially those in the NHS and local authority waste services. With restrictions easing slightly in England and Wales, there was much blatant disregard for the rules in places such as Newcastle, Bristol and Cardiff. Northern Ireland wasn't immune from this madness, with rioting in several places, and I'm sure there would also have been Covid transgressions in Scotland, but we're four weeks from an election for the Scottish Parliament, so news media is in full 'union or independence' mode. Meanwhile, I had to go to Shetland for work (travel allowed as the work is deemed essential and both archipelagos are in Tier 3), with a planned day of broadband repairs. One of these was cancelled last minute, so I found myself with a free hour ...

With the New Year, inevitably, comes a new bird list. The 2021 list had a slow and soggy start on the first of January, with an afternoon's trudge through the rain from Orphir village, down to Swanbister Bay, then back along the Gyre Road. Swanbister Bay... goodbye sunshine A small flock of Great Northern Divers Yesterday, the weather was much improved, well drier at least, and a trip to Marwick Head produced my first Stoat sighting in ages (ok, ok, a Stoat's not a bird, I know). Marwick Head and the Brough of Birsay From Marwick Head looking south to Hoy Stoat on the cliffs Hoy and the Old Man Marwick Choin and Head, with the Kitchener Memorial Today was just peachy, so a slight detour through Finstown was called for en route to the big city to twitch a rare duck and search the Community Garden for more common birds. The instruction for finding the rare duck was "Look in the bay, behind the bus shelter" and to be honest, driving by the bus stop at 30mph produced the ...