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.