Natural highs and lows

Time for a bit of a round-up of the last month's nature watching since we returned from holiday. Our weather has continued to be rather mercurial, the occasional warm, sunny day in between dreich periods with chilly winds. For the season, some things are early, some things are late, the wildlife is not sure what to make of Spring 2026. Neither does it help an amateur naturalist with his sartorial decisions, so if in doubt it's four layers and a set of waterproofs. A trip to Sanday saw me visiting a bit of the island which I not previously seen. After a walk along the beach at Backaskaill Bay, I detoured to investigate a large metal construction. It commemorated a sad event which happened more than 30 years ago. Back at home, we're slowly adding more aquatic plants to the pond as friends donate things from their gardens. We now have our very first Bogbean flower! The dragonfly season in Orkney started in mid-May, but it was only last week, as more sightings came in, that we ...

Not the most imaginative title for a post, I'll admit, but this one encompasses several topics, including the mysterious deaths of many seabirds on the north and east coasts of the UK and a day spent surveying for signs of Orkney Voles, as well as also featuring a day's birding in Deerness and several ambles around the bay at Houton. Let's begin with the strange case of the auk 'wreck'. Every Winter, usually after a severe storm in the North Sea, many dead seabirds (often juveniles) wash up on the east and north coasts of the UK. It's depressingly normal, but it's nature, and something that the species involved cope with by their breeding strategies. Recently, many auks have been seen inshore at a time when they're expected to be out in the North Sea. These birds seem to have come back to the coast looking for food, and they have been weirdly confiding, a sure sign that all is not well. Many of them have died and been washed up on beaches. Without a Nort...