Natural highs and lows

The first full day of a holiday always feels like it doesn't need a car, and after two days of driving, this strategy was a no-brainer. The cottage we had chosen was within easy walking reach of a nature reserve. A nature reserve that had a cafe. I'm not quite as stupid as folk think! Furthermore, although I didn't know in advance ( I am as stupid as folk think!) , the cafe had an alcohol licence, so even more reason to walk there.  After a leisurely start to the day, we ambled a short distance down the farm track and followed a footpath alongside a mature hedge, hoping to hear the Yellowhammer we'd heard the previous evening. When this path reached a farm, we turned onto a rougher farm track which soon delivered us, by way of a pair of Kestrels, to Kingfisher's Bridge Nature Reserve . We'd effectively walked around three sides of the arable field behind the cottage, that's how close the reserve was. Following a browse of the visitors' centre, with its i...

Summer is a tricky time for my partner, Megan, to take a holiday as this is when she is busiest with Wild Orkney Walks . For the past few years, we have been gently edging our Summer holiday date forward and shortening the time away, so as to reduce the impact upon her business during the tourist season. This year we took our Summer holiday at the end of April, a week in a cottage in rural East Anglia with walks from the door and plenty of opportunity to feed Megan's life list with birds and mammals. En route, we visited or met up with various members of my family, and we reduced the driving a little by catching the ferry to and from Aberdeen, saving three hours of motoring in both directions. We still managed to rack up 1500 miles, which is a lot of potholes, and often felt like we were in an episode of Wacky Races, especially in Englandshire. Due to transport and accommodation logistics, we left Orkney at midnight on a Wednesday, a really strange time to begin a holiday, I though...

Currently, we're away on holiday, but before we left Orkney for a trip to the east of England, there was an outing to Yesnaby on the west coast of West Mainland to look for some strikingly marked red and black beetles. This is a bit of an annual pilgrimage in April, but well worth scrabbling around on hands and knees to see some glossy black shinyness with bold red stripes. No! Wrong type of Beetle Yesnaby Castle The foot of Yesnaby Castle Before we found what we were looking for, I noticed a well-camouflaged micro-moth. The photo below shows the tip of my index finger for scale. Those that know about these sorts of things, identified the moth as Philedonides lunana. Eventually, we began finding our target species, Chrysolina latecincta ssp intermedia , and Megan set about photographing them. Meanwhile, I had found a slightly larger beetle, which was carrying off a small slug or snail. This time those who know identified it as Carabus arvensis .   Pleasingly, during this trip, we a...

We're not talking invoices here, like being charged a fortune for a glass of wine in a restaurant or your energy supplier upping your monthly payments threefold without mentioning it to you. No, this post is about beaks. Bird's beaks, or birds' beaks to be more exact. Island-hopping for work had carried on apace, and yesterday I visited Sanday for various connectivity issues. As per usual, after the customers were reunited with tv signal, I had a few hours to spare waiting for the return ferry. Oddly, for me, I was quite organised, and had prepared a picnic in advance, so was able to head to a beach for lunch. I should say that there was also a bitingly chilly easterly breeze which strived to deploy my salad leaves downwind if I wasn't concentrating. Whilst working my way through some coronation chicken and pitta bread, it was pleasant to watch a couple of Gannets out in the bay, plunge diving for fish. There were waders galore in the rock pools and along the tide line,...

Another week of island hopping for work, with a bit of wildlife watching thrown in for good measure, and another survey completed. The weather's been very April, some balmy days (for here), plus some wind and lash at other times. Whilst on Stronsay, mid-week, I had a few hours to spare before the ferry home. At the lochan of Matpow, there were plenty of ducks to be seen: Mallard, Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall, Red-breasted Merganser, Pintail, Shoveler and Shelduck. Scanning around the shore, I spotted a Snipe snuggled down out of the wind, and on a small islet were a pair of Sandwich Terns. At St Catherine's Bay, the avian interest was limited to gulls, until four Godwits flew in and began feeding in the shallows. I struggled to keep my bins steady enough to identify which species, but fortunately I took some video as they were flying, which later allowed me to see they were Bar-tailed Godwits. On Good Friday, I had to go to Hoy at lunchtime. Scapa Flow was like a mill pond, so I sat o...

I have one of those mobile phones that is rubbish at taking photographs in low light conditions, or more likely, my phone has one of those owners who is rubbish at taking photographs generally. Either way, a few weeks back, trying to capture the Merry Dancing of the Aurora Borealis was a challenge for both man and machine. I'm afraid this is my best effort and does little to convey the beauty of the spectacle, the otherness of the moment, or the body tingles it engendered (although that could just have been the cold, it was flipping freezing).  As March reluctantly released its grip of Winter, a work trip to Westray brought some light relief. I bet this didn't make Radio 2's traffic bulletin. Parked by Pierowall Bay, I spotted a gull that wasn't quite a gull, my first Sandwich Tern of the year, with its punk hair-do and chrome yellow tip to its black beak.   From the same vantage point, but out of a different window of the van, I also watched a Curlew foraging in the sh...

Jings, March has flown by in a flurry of... well, mainly snow. I have ventured outside occasionally, but half of the photos below were taken from indoors. It was so cold that even some Fieldfares were tempted from the surrounding fields into the garden to forage. They were very flighty, possibly due to the local Blackbirds not being so keen to share the apples we put out. The seed feeders were busy with House Sparrows, Greenfinches, Starlings, the occasional Robin, a Rook and these Goldfinches. Meanwhile, beneath the feeder, Dunnocks, Rock Doves, Blackbirds and an even more occasional mouse helped themselves to spillages. The Hoy Head departing Houton bound for Lyness as another snow shower rolls in. The Rock Doves are waiting for a few messy eaters to show up (yes, Starlings, I mean you). Venturing out along the bay between wintry showers, wrapped up warm against the bitter wind. I seem to have spent the month never far from a hot beverage. The Hoy Head again, this time approaching Ho...