Stromness Loons: February

My blog for February comes a little bit late, as it is now the first week in March. But I would say that Spring is well and truly on the way, although there is still a niggling feeling that Winter is not quite finished with us yet.

I was joined on this walk by a good friend who is also very enthusiastic about wildlife, so we had a wonderful time spotting wildlife and 2 pairs of eyes is always better than 1!

Can you spot the Brown hare in the photo below?

Brown hare in stubble field

Woodland copse

Lesser Celandine

Daffodils in the verge

Just along from the daffodils, I spotted a bit of movement in the ditch, and to our delight an Orkney vole leapt up from the ditch and ran into the cover of the dry stone wall. It's not often you see one alive, so that was a really special moment.

We were alerted to a bit of commotion by a noisy Hooded Crow that was harassing a Kestrel. The Kestrel was carrying prey, possibly an Orkney vole, which it dropped, but to my relief a passing Hen Harrier caught the vole. So, although it was sad that the Kestrel lost it's prey, I was pleased that the crow missed out!

A rainbow

Marsh Thistle rosette

Buttercups

Flooded field

Lichen

Towards the end of the walk, we stopped briefly to watch some free-range chickens when I spotted an ermine Stoat running towards a pile of stones. 

Stoats are not native to Orkney and are an invasive species. They have had a devastating impact on our native wildlife including species like the Orkney vole and Short-eared owls. The Orkney Native Wildlife Project is a partnership between the RSPB, Nature Scot and Orkney Islands Council, and the aim of the project is to eradicate Stoats from Orkney. Any sightings of stoats should be reported back to the project as soon as possible so that they can respond quickly. 

On a brighter note, it was lovely to see some primroses with buds on them in a sheltered ditch. Definitely a sign that Spring is on the way.

Will we see more signs of Spring on our March walk? 

Stromness Loons: January

January will certainly be a month to remember but perhaps for the wrong reasons! While we are used to stormy weather during the winter months, it has been relentless with one storm after the other and not much respite in-between. We have also had 3 Amber weather warnings, one after the other, in less than a week. One of those warnings was for gale force Northerly winds and snow which brought Orkney to a standstill for a day.

We don't get a lot of snow in Orkney, and it doesn't usually last long but it was lying snow for about 5 days, and even when most of it had melted away, there were still a few big drifts which lasted a bit longer.

I do enjoy walking in the snow though, so I was still able to enjoy my monthly saunter around the Stromness Loons. 

Footprints in the snow

Woodland Copse

Snow on pine needles

Blackthorn and Gorse hedge

Mossy dyke just visible

The birds do struggle to find enough food in the snow, there wasn't much grass available for these Greylag geese to feed on, and I saw smaller birds like Robins and Meadow Pipits in the ditches where the ground would have been a bit softer.

Greylag geese

The video below shows a Redwing which was foraging for food in a ditch.

Snow drifts on a farm track

Burn/ditch

Pheasant tracks

Flooded field now frozen

"Selfie"

Bank of heather

I am very lucky to be able to see Short-eared owls on this local patch walk, and one of my goals is to try and get better photos of them, however, I think that is easier said than done! Usually if they are perched, they are too far away, or the light is wrong. If they are flying, the camera finds it hard to focus as they move so quickly. Below is one of my attempts to get one in flight, and there is a short bit of video too.

Snowy branches

Sunlight on snowy hill

As we move closer to the end of January, there are more gales/storms in the forecast for the week ahead, but we can only hope that there is better weather to come. What will I find on my February walk? Join me next month to find out. 

Stromness Loons: An Introduction

I have never blogged before, and I wouldn’t describe myself as the best of writers, but I am hoping that my photos will tell the story. Through Stromness Saunters my aim is to show the changes in nature’s calendar on monthly walks around my local patch. My first “saunter” is a 3 mile circular walk around the Stromness Loons (marked in green). 

The habitat is a mixture of farmland, wetland/marsh, heath and a small woodland copse with a burn running through it. There are some focal points in the landscape that I hope to photograph every month:

Woodland copse

Blackthorn and gorse hedge

Mossy stone dyke

View over the Loons

Burn/ditch

Another view over the Loons

A flooded field

In addition to the blog, I will also be keeping a record of the birds I see on Birdtrack, and recording other wildlife on iRecord. The map below, shows the polygon of my route on Birdtrack.

I am really looking forward to getting started on my monthly saunters through nature's calendar. Keep an eye out for January's post later in the month.