Natural highs and lows

It turns out that the upcoming heatwave forecast to arrive on a Bank Holiday weekend isn't playing a gig in Orkney (neither is the BH, to be honest). So I was rather glad for a couple of warm sunny days last weekend. We took a trip down to the southern tip of Orkney, at Burwick in South Ronaldsay, to walk along the clifftops towards Barth Head. There were still plenty of flowers about, especially the frothy domes of Angelica, and these were attracting all manner of insects. A hoverfly, Scaeva pyrastri Small Tortoiseshell butterfly Norwegian Wasp Not a clue, but a stunning wee beastie Five-banded Mason-wasp And here's a bit of footage of a Mason-wasp collecting mud to create a pot in which to store caterpillars to feed its larva. Three-banded Mason-wasp An Eyebright Stoat Painted Lady butterfly There were birds aplenty too, lots of Gannets and Bonxies, even a Hen Harrier spotted out over the sea, but the day belonged to the insects.

On a recent trip to Hoy (not looking for dragons this time), I was obviously in close-up mode. Weather conditions were dry but blustery, so I'm not too sure why my macro shots worked better than my scenic or panorama ones. But my photos of Rackwick Bay and the Old Man of Hoy were all less than satisfying, so here's a selection of the views that were mainly at ground level. Actually, now that I think about it, for many of the flower/insect shots, I was holding the plant stem with my other hand! Ling Bell Heather Bearberry Arctic Bearberry (and Crowberry and Bearberry and Ling) Norwegian Wasp An early instar caterpillar of the Fox Moth On the path back from the Old Man, heading towards Rackwick Bay Crowberry Goldenrod Blaeberry (Bilberry). There should've been more berries in this shot, but I wasn't quick enough with my camera before someone ate them 🙄 Hoverfly, Volucella bombylans On the return route, whilst watching a couple of Small Tortoiseshell butterflies on some t...