Natural highs and lows

Awake early to catch a ferry to the island of Westray, I blearily scanned our bookshelves for some favourite words to read on the boat. My hand settled upon The Screaming Sky , Charles Foster's intensely personal view of the lives of Swifts. Perhaps it was because I haven't seen a Swift for over three years, or maybe it's that I am running out of time to see one this year too, as the birds will soon be heading back to Africa. The journey passed with the swiftness of soaring sentences and sojourns across Sahel and sea. Despite the continued decline in the Swift population, a situation laid firmly at humanity's door, I do enjoy reading this book. Following the installation of a replacement dish and a guided tour of my host's wildlife garden, my thoughts turned to another bird who will shortly be leaving our shores at the end of its breeding season, the Puffin. I drove to the small car park by the ruined cornmill beside the bay of Rack Wick, finding space despite the p...

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...

A recent work-related trip to the island of Westray gave Megan the opportunity to tag along   to carry out a recce for Wild Orkney Walks  whilst I was attending to a couple of repairs.  The walk in question is to the Castle o' Burrian, a rock stack on the east coast of Westray, which will soon be seeing the welcome return of a colony of Puffins for their breeding season.  Once I had completed my tasks, I drove to the small car park by the ruined Corn Mill and headed north along the clifftop path above Rack Wick. Here too, in a few weeks, will hopefully be yet more Puffins. I say "hopefully", because over the Winter severe storms in the Bay of Biscay resulted in many dead Puffins being washed ashore around the coasts of Spain, France and Britain. Megan and I sat on the cliff top opposite the Castle and ate our lunch, watching the comings and goings of Fulmars, Rock Doves and various species of gulls. In the surf at the base of the rock stack, a Shag was diving for fo...

It's been a while since I have posted. There is wildlife stuff to blog about, but the last fortnight has been a bit of a whirlwind due to a family visit, as my younger daughter and her peedie son spent a week with us. What with "cleaning the world" prior to their arrival, seven days of full-on being a grandad and then a week to recover, it's been a journey! Preparation also involved sourcing some equipment, all of which was rather different from "back in the day" when my daughters were toddlers. A stroller was purchased and mantled, as was a car seat. A good friend loaned us a high chair and some age-specific toys for the wee one, and last but not least, we fitted a stairgate to the office so that the cats, Cookie and Mocha, had a safe space (which I dubbed The Panic Room). It being Orkney, there was, let's say, a range of meteorological conditions for everyone to deal with, but on the whole, the sun put in plenty of appearances. Another good friend gav...

Since my previous blogpost, a funny thing has occurred. In tiny increments, day by day, Summer has happened. Yes, really. The upshot of this unexpected development is that there has been lots of wildlife watching, either whilst working, waiting for ferries or on days off. So here's a whistle stop tour of the last fortnight. Training evening. Megan invited me along as another pair of eyes on one of her evening walks for clients. This had the added benefit of me being able to see what she does in her "office", which on this day was the clifftop path at Burwick in South Ronaldsay. It benefitted the clients too, as we found more wildlife to show them, whilst also allowing me to practise the role, should I ever need to cover for Megan. A Common Rustic moth on a Ragwort flower (Thanks to HA for the ID) Everyone wants to see Puffins (although they won't be here for much longer, as now the breeding season is over, they are heading back out to sea). Scottish Primrose outing: W...