Natural highs and lows

Late September in Orkney and we're still enjoying blue skies, sunshine and modest breezes. Typically, I had managed to tweak my lower back, one of those annoying muscular twinges that benefits from keeping moving rather than remaining motionless, so walking was a good remedy. Fortuitously, we were due to carry out our Autumn vole transects, monitoring activity for the Orkney Native Wildlife Project. The drive to Mull Head, even as a passenger, wasn't pleasant, but once out on the moorland, my spirits raised and we set about the first transect, recording any signs of chewed bits of grass and the digestive results of said chewing. As ever, on the march between the two transects, we stopped for lunch and some scenic views. No voles here, but there is a Harbour Seal... Also between the transects, we happened upon some ONWP staff out testing their latest bit of Stoat-spotting gadgetry, a drone with a thermal camera. Never mind invasive mammals, even during the day, with this technol...

Stromness is a small town on the west coast of the West Mainland of Orkney. Its known maritime history encompasses Viking seafarers, the 18th Century herring fishing boom and, these days, a fleet of recreational diving boats taking adventurous folk to explore the World War One wrecks beneath Scapa Flow. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Hoy Sound to the south and the sheltered inlet of Hamnavoe to the east, Stromness faces the sea. We live on the other edge, to the north, just where a town of approximately 2500 souls gives way to fields and moorland. This statement must be tempered with the phrase "for now", for even the peaceful haven that is Orkney is as susceptible as anywhere in the UK to rampant house building and the spread of human habitation at the expense of wildness. Indeed, three houses are imminently to be built around us, lessening the liminal feeling of our home as a place connecting urban and rural.  This won't be completely a bad thing, as the new...

Here at Natural Highs and Lows, the blogposts are currently about a fortnight behind real time, though 'real time' hasn't got a lot to write home about, thank you very much. What with expensive energy prices, cost of living increases, a looming recession and, generally, all the other wonderful benefits of the much-vaunted sunlit uplands of Brexit... well then, real time can go stick its head in a sewage outflow. Rant over, back to the past wildlife, and the last day of the long weekend in Hoy and South Walls from mid month. As was becoming customary, the day began with thick fog, so we reasoned that looking for dragons or birds would be a tough gig. Instead, we visited a Scottish Wildlife Trust site at the Hill of the White Hamars, which has a lovely walk along the Pentland Firth coast of South Walls. With our focus narrowed down to our immediate environs, we were able to bask in the glow of a multitude of wildflowers. We began a species list and, in a very short time, it ...

It turns out that the upcoming heatwave forecast to arrive on a Bank Holiday weekend isn't playing a gig in Orkney (neither is the BH, to be honest). So I was rather glad for a couple of warm sunny days last weekend. We took a trip down to the southern tip of Orkney, at Burwick in South Ronaldsay, to walk along the clifftops towards Barth Head. There were still plenty of flowers about, especially the frothy domes of Angelica, and these were attracting all manner of insects. A hoverfly, Scaeva pyrastri Small Tortoiseshell butterfly Norwegian Wasp Not a clue, but a stunning wee beastie Five-banded Mason-wasp And here's a bit of footage of a Mason-wasp collecting mud to create a pot in which to store caterpillars to feed its larva. Three-banded Mason-wasp An Eyebright Stoat Painted Lady butterfly There were birds aplenty too, lots of Gannets and Bonxies, even a Hen Harrier spotted out over the sea, but the day belonged to the insects.

With the New Year, inevitably, comes a new bird list. The 2021 list had a slow and soggy start on the first of January, with an afternoon's trudge through the rain from Orphir village, down to Swanbister Bay, then back along the Gyre Road. Swanbister Bay... goodbye sunshine A small flock of Great Northern Divers Yesterday, the weather was much improved, well drier at least, and a trip to Marwick Head produced my first Stoat sighting in ages (ok, ok, a Stoat's not a bird, I know). Marwick Head and the Brough of Birsay From Marwick Head looking south to Hoy Stoat on the cliffs Hoy and the Old Man Marwick Choin and Head, with the Kitchener Memorial Today was just peachy, so a slight detour through Finstown was called for en route to the big city to twitch a rare duck and search the Community Garden for more common birds. The instruction for finding the rare duck was "Look in the bay, behind the bus shelter" and to be honest, driving by the bus stop at 30mph produced the ...