Natural highs and lows

Under half an hour away from the holiday cottage was the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Welney reserve. A brief look at the sightings from previous days revealed that there were several species that would make the trip worthwhile for us, even without the thought of Sunday lunch in the cafe. At this time of year, the Winter flooding of the reserve has not yet subsided, so a few of the paths were inaccessible, but not to worry, we met lots of friendly birders who were only too glad to help with identifying strange-plumaged birds and pointing out fly-over rarities. I should point out, the birds weren't actually strange-plumaged, they were just species we're used to seeing in Orkney in Winter plumage, and here they were changing into their Summer finery. Great White Egret, we managed this ID on our own Avocets, I knew this one from my recent Sanday sighting! During the afore-mentioned lunch, with breaks between courses to twitch Tree Sparrow on the neighbouring feeders, we were...

Last weekend was a bit like April, with lots of sunshine and showers. Well, not like this April, obviously, hence my delight at the much-needed rain. That said, we were fortunate that an afternoon's ramble along the coast in East Mainland was warm and dry, with plenty of wildlife to see. At a muddy pool, we stopped to have a quick scan for damselflies, but only managed a tall wader which I mistook for a young Curlew. A local expert helped me out with the ID later, the bird actually being a Ruff. In sheltered spots, there were plenty of Meadow Brown and Common Blue butterflies, and I couldn't resist yet another photograph of a Blue when one landed on a Ragwort flower. On the cliffs, the Fulmar chicks were very plump and fluffy, including these pyramidally-nestled ones.  The clifftop vegetation now consists of much Wild Angelica and Scots Lovage. Meadow Brown This Shag chick can't be far from fledging. And a Black Guillemot (Tystie) kept a watchful eye on us. As the afternoon...