Natural highs and lows

In Orkney, the Nature Festival and Folk Festival both occur during May. Perhaps surprisingly, due to our busy lives, we attended more events of the latter than of the former. We did, however, visit the seabird cliffs at Marwick Head and have a good chat with RSPB staff who had set up telescopes to allow members of the public to view the various Gannets, Kittiwakes, numerous species of auk and Fulmars. For the folk festival, on the opening night we went to see Anna Massie of Blazin' Fiddles and RANT fame (plus BBC Radio Scotland's Travelling Folk trad music programme), who shared the bill with Polenta, a Finnish quartet of three fiddles and an acoustic guitar. The following evening, to indulge our trad/funk/electronica yearnings, we went to see Elephant Sessions in a nightclub in Kirkwall. The gig didn't start until 10.30pm so we didn't arrive home until after 1am. Then, 24 hours later, Megan went to see The Chair, another late gig. I reckoned I wouldn't manage two l...

At the beginning of the week, a work trip took me to the island of Westray. The repair didn't take too long and, with no midday sailing available, I had a lengthy wait until the return ferry.  As the weather was mainly dry and sunny, I opted to fill the time with a couple of walks, one on the west coast of the island and one on the east coast. Despite 20 years of either holidaying or living in Orkney, I had never walked the four mile circular route around Noup Head, with its lighthouse, coastal scenery and seabird cliffs. It was time to put that right. I parked in the designated place next to Backarass Farm and followed the waymarked route through a few fields down to the coast. Heading north, I was aware of the constant to and fro of Gannets collecting nesting material and returning to their colony at Noup Head. Fulmars glided back and forth along the cliff edge, seemingly revelling in the joys of a stiff breeze. I spotted a few new species for the year: Bonxie (Great Skua), Kitti...

Firing up Blogger, whenever I hit '+ NEW POST', the cursor on the new page is always stepped in by one space and I have never bothered to figure out if that's a setting in Blogger or a quirk of my computer. Therefore, as a ritual, before I start typing I hit 'backspace' on the keyboard. Then, because some habits are really hard to shake off, in a drop down menu I select Arial as my preferred font and type two capital T's at the beginning of the first line of the post (IYKYK). This is because my next step is to add the photographs I want in the post, and invariably, if I haven't set the font beforehand, once the pictures are uploaded, I will begin typing straight away and not look up until there's a whole sentence or a paragraph in Times . Perhaps it's a subconscious way of mentally switching from the now sadly all-too-mundane world of war, death and climate chaos, to instead allow me to reflect upon the wonders of the natural world? What, and further...

When in need of some fresh air, I can breezily recommend a blustery trip to Yesnaby on the west coast of Orkney. At the weekend, there were plenty of wildflowers on display, but even at ground level the wind was making photography difficult. My Scottish Primrose pics were all blurry, same for the snaps of Sea Plantain Leaf Beetles, and I didn't even attempt a shot of the stunning pale phase Arctic Skua which gave us a close flyby. The afore-mentioned Primula scotica is having its interregnum between the Spring and Summer flowerings, so it was even more of a challenge than normal to find any of its diminutive blooms. Predictably, after ten minutes of fruitless searching which had only yielded either old seed heads or fresh leaf rosettes not yet in bud, I looked up to see Megan waving me over to a couple of flowers. Spring Squill, Tormentil and Bird's-foot Trefoil added their vibrant colours to the floral carpet, whilst the small patch of Oysterplant was just beginning to open it...

This year, in Orkney, wildlife news has been dominated by one topic, bird flu. This might please Stoats, as they've been in the headlines a little less, but everyone else is very concerned about the effect on seabird, wader and wildfowl numbers. Scotland holds 46% of the world population of Northern Gannets and 60% of the world population of Great Skuas. It has been heart-breaking to witness so many dead and dying individuals of these two species during the breeding season. And dozens more species are affected by the disease. The current outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) amongst domestic and wild birds is the worst ever seen in the UK. Monitoring by DEFRA, whilst encompassing reports of wild bird mortality, seems to focus on the poultry industry. As a wildlife watcher this has been rather frustrating, with no outlet to be able to do anything to help wild birds. Fortunately, NatureScot have now launched an HPAI surveillance project which allows volunteers to assis...