Natural highs and lows

Last week, I had planned to blog about a recent birthday, not a particularly significant birthday, but one with plenty of punning opportunities if one happened to be of a Beatles frame of mind. In fact, as part of the punning, I was going to post on the following day, thereby introducing a further song title. As I said, "I had planned", but somehow the muse struggled to leave the ground and the moment was lost. Anyhow, it was a lovely day, with a nice lunch at a gin distillery and a bit of wildlife watching afterwards (including my first Brambling of the year). Instead, here's a round up of October's natural history happenings. Parsnip Moth (on the bedroom wall, not in the vegetable patch) Our first Blackcap of the Autumn, which instigated a search for an apple source Whilst putting out the swiftly-purchased apples, we noticed that the recently-strimmed and mown lawn was riddled with Orkney Vole tunnels running through the grass. Unbeknownst to us, we had been sharing...

Late September in Orkney and we're still enjoying blue skies, sunshine and modest breezes. Typically, I had managed to tweak my lower back, one of those annoying muscular twinges that benefits from keeping moving rather than remaining motionless, so walking was a good remedy. Fortuitously, we were due to carry out our Autumn vole transects, monitoring activity for the Orkney Native Wildlife Project. The drive to Mull Head, even as a passenger, wasn't pleasant, but once out on the moorland, my spirits raised and we set about the first transect, recording any signs of chewed bits of grass and the digestive results of said chewing. As ever, on the march between the two transects, we stopped for lunch and some scenic views. No voles here, but there is a Harbour Seal... Also between the transects, we happened upon some ONWP staff out testing their latest bit of Stoat-spotting gadgetry, a drone with a thermal camera. Never mind invasive mammals, even during the day, with this technol...

In case you're wondering, yes, we survived last Sunday's beach clean at Orphir Bay despite the 40+mph winds. Fortunately (although actually unfortunately), there was so much rope on the beach, we were able to weigh down our plastic rubbish bags quite easily. Smaller bits of plastic were trickier to handle in the gusty conditions, for despite plunging the offending piece of litter into a bag, by some sort of venturi effect, it would be whipped back out by the wind. I had to pick up one particularly annoying food wrapper four times 🙄  At a rough guess, 95% of what the group collected was fishing-orientated: rope, string and netting. There was also plenty of parcel strapping and, new for 2024, some discarded coffee pods. The following day saw Megan and I head over to Deerness to carry out some vole monitoring, with the Spring survey for the Orkney Native Wildlife Project. Shortly after beginning the first of our two transects, Megan found a caterpillar of the Ruby Tiger moth clam...

We have lived in our current home since last Summer, so there's a whole Spring that will be new to us, and we can't wait. This morning we were woken from our slumbers at 06.45 by a Blackbird singing, the first time we have heard one here. Hopefully this is payback for keeping him in apples all Winter. The Blackbird had obviously decided that today was the day to begin defending a territory from rivals and to start wooing the ladies. I chuckled to think that... well... it is St Valentine's Day. In a household where Nature is the defining feature and a shared passion, here's our riff on the theme and a nod to the local endemic wildlife. All credit to Ruth for her decoupage The second bird we heard calling whilst we were still in bed was an Oystercatcher. Although a few of these waders do remain here during the Winter, numbers are now swelling, so it won't be long before the flocks on the shore begin to disperse around the county as birds scout nesting sites. It was a ...

As forecast, the snow duly arrived on Sunday night.  On Monday morning, the view from the kitchen window was rather picturesque.   At least in comparison to the view from the lounge which, although still quite picturesque, came with a side order of Armageddon.  The snow continued through Monday into Tuesday, fine particles driven by a strong wind. Even when it wasn't actually falling from the sky, it blew off the fields, a low swirling of white. Mocha, our more outdoorsy cat, was beginning to see her sister's point of view, setting off from the front door and quickly returning indoors via the back door. Come the afternoon, my planned work had been postponed, so it was time to sample some fresh air myself. Ward Hill in Hoy was looking very wintry, gullies and cliffs brought into stark relief by a dusting of white stuff.   And then some blue sky appeared, allowing a view of the Moon. As the sun sank behind the clouds once more, a flooded and frozen field caught the lig...

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...

The past week or so has seen plenty of natural lows in the British Isles: the UK is experiencing more wildfires; one in six species are at risk of extinction in Great Britain; a person chopped down a tree (for some reason this is worse than lots of people elsewhere chopping down lots of trees); oh, and the go-ahead has been given to extract more gas and oil from the North Sea, single-handedly driving a coach and horses through any plan to meet our climate targets. It is all rather depressing, and I struggled to think of how to lift the mood. Signing online petitions helps a little, but travelling over 500 miles to join an actual demonstration in London is clearly not carbon-neutral, never mind the financial cost. Oh well, there's always the Autumn vole survey to do for the Orkney Native Wildlife Project, so that will have to suffice. Our designated site is a couple of 1km transects on Mull Head in Deerness. Several potential dates for the survey came and went in a flurry of heavy s...

Another week of island hopping for work, with a bit of wildlife watching thrown in for good measure, and another survey completed. The weather's been very April, some balmy days (for here), plus some wind and lash at other times. Whilst on Stronsay, mid-week, I had a few hours to spare before the ferry home. At the lochan of Matpow, there were plenty of ducks to be seen: Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Red-breasted Merganser, Pintail, Shoveler and Shelduck. Scanning around the shore, I spotted a Snipe snuggled down out of the wind, and on a small islet were a pair of Sandwich Terns. At St Catherine's Bay, the avian interest was limited to gulls, until four Godwits flew in and began feeding in the shallows. I struggled to keep my bins steady enough to identify which species, but fortunately I took some video as they were flying, which later allowed me to see they were Bar-tailed Godwits. On Good Friday, I had to go to Hoy at lunchtime. Scapa Flow was like a mill pond, so I sat o...