Natural highs and lows

Here's a bit of a round-up of natural history snippets from the first half of July. For 2025, I have added another bumblebee survey to my volunteering for the Species on the Edge project. The target species is the Great Yellow Bumblebee, although this Beewalk has yet to deliver one of those. The area is known as Stromness Waterworks, and I plotted a 1.7km route beginning at a track junction below the dam head. From there, a stony track leads west uphill onto heathland, then I turn northwards onto a rougher track which separates the heath from agricultural land. These two tracks have verges with plenty of wildflowers and the occasional garden escapee where soil has been dumped, all of which are good foraging for insects. Where a moorland track diverts to the north east, I follow it along a ruined stane dyke to the point where I took this photograph, behind me there is plenty of Wild Thyme and Bell Heather. The final section tracks south back across the heath, where the wildflowers h...

Here's a quick round-up of the last few days, beginning with a 5 mile walk around Mull Head in Deerness, across in East Mainland. Half a dozen pairs of Eider Ducks were loafing at the top of a beach. Amongst the Creeping Willow, my first Great Yellow Bumblebee of the year, a rather unregal-looking queen. The local flora continues to change the yellow hue from yellow to pink and blue, with the latest additions being Heath Lousewort and Spring Squill. A somewhat bare-crested Shag peered at us from a cliff edge. A couple of days later, and Spring turned up for 24 hours. Whilst sat in the garden, several spiders were basking on the south side of the house, including this female with a lovely blue egg sac. It isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination to think of the sac as Planet Earth, although that does mean it's a huge spider! A male of the same species was feeling quite amorous, cautiously approaching the female, whilst signalling frantically with his palps. Here's ...