Natural highs and lows

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...

Spent the weekend trying not to think about houses. As part of the decluttering and tidying, we caught the ferry to Rousay to deliver a sideboard which Megan has been storing for friends. Thankfully, it just fitted in the back of my van. Whilst on the island, we went for a walk around the Loch of Wasbister. If you're wondering whether it's a buoy or a gull... neither, it's a juvenile Shag Faraclett Head, Rousay Harbour Seals in Saviskaill Bay, Rousay Waders in Saviskaill Bay, Rousay (Redshank, Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher) Stone circles... that is, circles on stone, not circles of stone The following day saw the latest round of HPAI (bird flu) surveys, which were much livened up by spotting some Pintails out in the bay. My first sighting of the species for 2023, and pleasingly near home. A pair of Pintail, Houton Bay

It is a Bank Holiday weekend, the weather is fine and dry (though temperatures are still in single figures due to windchill) and there's not been any wildlife watching to report for over a week. Sounds like a recipe to be outdoors and looking for natural wonders, what could possibly go wrong? Well, nothing actually, until I came to upload my photos to this post and Blogger insists on putting the last ones first. Repeatedly. Hmmm, so here goes, in reverse order, we have... One of several flocks of Curlews departing Orkney and headed northwards A tiny (3mm) orange weevil on a fragment of Heather root Unlucky for some... Shags on the shore This wee beastie dropped in on our picnic. Local experts are thinking a sawfly of some stripe The Great Skuas (Bonxies) are back Little Burra Geo A Shag collecting nesting material from the shore Brough of Deerness (left) and Keirling (right) The Gloup Today sees the launch of the annual Bag the Bruck litter collection, a week of beach cleans by loc...

You know how it is... you get up at stupid o'clock, say 05.10, to catch a ferry to a small(er) island, once there, the job doesn't take too long and you're left with a seven hour wait for the return boat home. The financial recompense is barely adequate, but the wildlife-watching possibilities are certainly rewarding, as long as one's accountant isn't reading this. On an otherwise empty beach, I pondered whether now was the time to plant a bare root tree, as in the surf was an Ash sapling. It certainly added an unexpected twist to the old saying . Did I mention that the beach was deserted? After walking along the length of the beach, a quick traverse through the dunes brought me to a small lochan next to a farm. The lochan contained upwards of fifty Shelduck and a pair of Pintail, but my attention was soon swayed from the water to the fringing vegetation where a Short-eared Owl was hunting. Across on the eastern side of the island, a clifftop walk took in the view o...

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...