A burst of aurora shortly after sunset tonight was a real surprise. Our big Orkney sky never fails to bring delight and wonder.

Greater Sea Spurrey on the coast today at Marwick Bay, Orkney. A late flourish before autumn's withering grip descends.

The amazing bill morphology of a freshly dead Sooty Shearwater in Orkney today, complete with 'tubenose' structures which are used in the detection of food. It was on an epic migration, from home in the Falkland Islands, around the entire seaboard of both Atlantics.

Taraxacum pankhurstianum, the St Kilda Dandelion, on Hirta last week. Endemic to the islands, these were of the 4 plants I found in Village Bay. Thrilled to have finally connected with these!👍

First Great Yellow Bumblebees of 2025 were these two queens in my garden today, on Comfrey & somewhat unusually, Red Campion. Emergence timing pretty much spot on, though the garden is weeks ahead due to recent prolonged sunny weather.

17 years ago today this immature male Trumpeter Finch was among a small fall of migrants on North Rona (59°07'N 5°49'W). I'd not seen one anywhere, so viewing from a few feet away as me & a camera were dangled head first off a cliff, was quite the experience!

This Glossy Ibis has been on Sanday for a week or two, and recently flit across to North Ronaldsay, but here it was yesterday, on a cracking little roadside pool at Newark that positively screamed "Check me" as I drove by.

Happy Bus Pass to me.

Evidence of a seafood buffet held in Papay over 5000 years ago. Diners chose from fresh Oysters, Cockles and Limpets, disposing of the shells in their midden; which is now quietly eroding away.

A superb little federation of Common Goose Barnacles just landed in Orkney, after an epic transatlantic drift on to a 8" trawl float. These were whoppers! Several around 50mm total length, & collected for @BarnacleHunt and her groundbreaking research into their growth rates

Night laundry at the shed. Drying under the wolf moon and a puckle of planets.

Everywhere in central Kirkwall is barricaded. The town is battened down and it looks like some hellish force of nature is about to hit.
It is.
The Ba' is coming.

A scarce find on the Orphir shore today, a far-travelled colony of larval polyp tubes of Thimble Jellyfish (Linuche unguiculata) on a moulded plastic frame. These tiny jellys are native to the Carribbean, particularly the West Indies & Bahamas. Delivered on the Gulf Stream & associated currents.

I don't find many rare birds these days, mostly because I'm not really trying & just casually check stuff as I bimble around doing other things. But today, the old rarity radar flickered into life just long enough to register a juvenile White-rumped Sandpiper! Very satisfying!