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Showing posts with the label Sexton Beetle

Not the foggiest idea

If Summer in Orkney means one thing, it's more likely to be haar, than sunburn. Yes, after a few days of warm weather, we are always guaranteed a generous helping of fog. High Hoy Lighthouse on the island of Graemsay If we're lucky, by mid afternoon the haar will have burnt off, and then... ooh... I don't know... perhaps there'd still be time for some dragon hunting?   Back at the nearby pond, surrounded by wisps of fog drifting up from the nearby coast, Black Darters were busy propagating the species. Pairs were mating in the vegetation around the edges of the pool, then egg-laying in the mossy shallows. There was plenty of other invertebrate life to be seen, some of which even deigned to be photographed, or at least didn't scarper as soon as they saw me. Caterpillar of a Broom Moth Bog Hoverfly, Sericomyia silentis A Sexton Beetle (ID'd by BR as  Nicrophorus vespilliodes ) The male Black Darters were so keen to find good vantage points in the sun, they often l...

The randomness continues

There's still precious little to report due to having little appetite for walking or wildlife watching in horizontal rain. Since I returned to work, every job which was outside has been carried out in the wet. And every indoor job has been accompanied by sunny skies. Go figure. For example, this week we have had: Monday (outside and dreich), Tuesday (indoors and glorious), Wednesday (outside and dreich), Thursday (was supposed to be outside but ended up being indoors and glorious), Friday (today, outside and dreich). On the plus side, tomorrow is Saturday and should be glo... nope, I'm not going to say it, just in case. Last week I had the good fortune to be working in Shetland (sorting out wifi and connectivity problems in the home) on the day that the whole county had an internet outage thanks to a fishing boat. Smart phones were just paperweights, I couldn't contact a soul. I thought I might have to go all Victorian and write a letter, then remembered that Royal Mail wer...