Natural highs and lows

This past week has seen two island trips, with ferry journeys to Eday and Egilsay. Although these were working days, there were brief moments of wildlife wonder, as my inner naturalist is never really off duty. Eday was a 13 hour day, and the only non-work photograph I took was this Rabbit on the customer's drive. However, whilst I was toiling away outside, a Wren frequently sang, its accent very distinctly of the island, rather laid back and unhurried.  A pair of Hooded Crows were looking after their two fledglings, and every time I stepped out of doors, they let me know that they were distinctly unimpressed at my presence. A few days later, the Egilsay ferry trip meant calling in at another two islands first, so I had to reverse to the back of the boat whilst everyone else boarded and disembarked in Rousay or Wyre. The local Library van, Booky McBookface, was visiting Rousay Rousay stop with the postie picking up the inbound mail and delivering the outbound mail to the boat Bound...

Well, what do you know? Another gale. This one's from the east, so all the plant pots which we'd moved from the back of the house to the front for protection from the previous westerly, have had to be issued with return tickets and re-routed (re-rooted?) to their former location. Perhaps we actually sowed seeds of doubt? This particular hoolie has been designated as Storm Gerrit, and horizontal sleet is currently splattering madly against our east-facing windows. Mocha and Cookie, our cats, are taking it in turns to monitor the west-facing windows, staring out at the flailing grasses, as well as every leaf which dances in the vortices beyond the lee of the house. We're forecasted to have 70mph gusts after lunch, which sounds more like curried beans on toast than a weather prediction. Wildlife watching in December has suffered from the prolonged period of gales. Whilst there have been moments of calm to enable us to assuage our cabin fever, the short Winter days have meant p...

It's mid afternoon, a haar is rolling in and the skies are darkening as a November morning's gloriously sunny weather succumbs to its inevitable fate. I am frantically trying to avoid social media and all sports outlets in an attempt to not see the score of the Scotland v New Zealand rugby match, because when Megan returns home from work, we can watch the game together. For better or worse. And, yes, you did read that correctly, earlier it was the most perfect Autumnal morning, so much so, in fact, that I happily engaged in a spot of housework. I know! Much to the cats' disgust, the place was vacuumed from end to end, followed by the 'hooverings' being deposited in the compost heap. Two loads went through the washing machine, first the contents of the laundry basket and then a big throw from the sofa. Once all this was hung out to dry, I cleaned the bird feeders, refilled one of them and hung that out too, together with some apples for the Waxwings Blackbirds. Pred...

The past week has seen me on a bit of a thrash around the isles, with work on Eday, Stronsay and Westray. Only Stronsay provided any time for nature-watching, although my 'office' for the day on Eday had calling Red-throated Divers flying overhead. Arctic Tern, Stronsay Green-veined White butterfly, Stronsay Swallow, Stronsay By way of relaxation, on Saturday I helped out at an event for the Orkney Nature Festival, as the Orkney Field Club had organised a walk through Russadale. We had Hen Harriers and Redpolls to watch, whilst the air was filled with the sounds of Cuckoo, Willow Warbler, Wren, Blackbird and Stonechat.   Common Heath moth, Russadale Redpoll of some stripe, Russadale Dog violet, Russadale Millipede, Russadale Red Admiral butterfly, Russadale Sunday's meteorology wasn't particularly conducive to going outdoors, but we made the most of a short weather window (too short, as it turned out) to walk a little of the west coast of West Mainland. There are many m...

Had a work trip to Papa Westray last week. Had to book the flights in advance and the weather forecast wasn't that great for the allotted day. I shouldn't have worried, it was absolutely peachy for a January day in Orkney. Lichen atop a stane dyke Double trouble Troglodytes troglodytes x 2 As the (Hooded) Crow fries Seals at South Wick Meantime, an apparently dead fly that had been sat on an exterior wall of home for a few days caused a frisson of excitement when I realised that it was in fact (a) alive; (b) not a fly; and (c) a female Winter Moth. These insects are virtually wingless so don't fly, leaving all that energetic kind of malarkey to the males. She just sits around, exuding pheromones and waits for him to show up. Or maybe she has a tiny mobile phone with a dating app like Bumble (presumably developed for bees, but hey, we're not judgemental).

On Sunday I helped out with a recce of a walk near the Bay of Skaill. This area is famous as the location of Skara Brae, the 5000 year old Neolithic village, but we were more interested in the current flora and fauna along and around the clifftops. The coastline is cleft with many geos (pronounced with a hard 'G'), which offer nesting sites for all manner of birdlife, principally auks and Fulmars, but with the occasional corvid like this Hooded Crow. For instance, this is Yettna Geo, facing out towards the Atlantic Ocean, and brutal testimony to the erosive force of wave power. There are myriad circular structures in the Orcadian landscape, dating from many time periods, be their origins Neolithic, Bronze Age, Viking, Georgian or wartime 20th Century.  Whilst sat on a clifftop, I noticed a faint outline on a nearby headland, which didn't take too much imagination to be viewed as circular. Closer investigation revealed that it wasn't some previously-undiscovered Neolithi...