Cormorants – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
Forty years ago on 17 August 1976, when I was a 12 year old boy, I saw Cormorants while on holiday in …
Fulmars
Fulmars look like gulls but aren’t. Look closer and they have strange adapted bills with tubes on their noses. Their countershading colouration …
Mute Swans – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
I was 13 years old when I saw a Mute Swan from the train. How do I remember that I was on …
Collapsing roof
With the weight of flagstones on the roof timbers, a Westray roof needs love and attention to keep it keeping the rain …
Drips
Drips of water run down the cliffs on Westray.
Green pool
Walking along Westray’s rocky shores through a rock arch and into and out of caves we come across this dripping waterfall with …
Westray sea cave
Wandering along the coast of Westray it’s sometimes hard to tell what’s in the cliffs below. Only when there’s a promontory can …
Evening Puffin
A Puffin at the Castle o’ Burrian as the low evening sunlight streams through the grey clouds.
Reading the runes
I love the Orkney Museum. Every time I go there I see something else that I’d bypassed on all previous visits. Here’s …
Dunnock – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
Dunnocks are beautiful birds but it’s hard to tell they’re so beautiful because they keep in the shadows, in hedges and under …
Earthballs – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
The Common Earthball is also known by the charming common name of the Pigskin Poison Puffball.
Family picnic on the grass
Editing a photograph from last summer makes me want to be on those cliffs again with these picnickers.
Jay – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
Here’s my nature notebook entry from 1976 about Jays: ‘You can not get near them,’ I said. It’s still true. However, with the wonder of modern telephoto lenses, large numbers of megapixels, and heavy cropping, it appears now that you can.
Wrinkled and cracked
The exposed rocks of Westray are endlessly fascinating even if you’re not a geologist.
Puffin watchers
Looking back at my photographs from the summer I found this one. I’m a keen photographer of the Puffins on Westray: I …
Fish scales at Snaky Noust
‘Scattered fish scales of Osteolepis are common at Snaky Noust.’ From the wonderful Westray Heritage Centre.
Wet pebbles
The pebbles are beautiful and wet inside the mouth of this sea cave on Westray.
Frozen Moment
The sea on Westray is so clean and clear when the waves crash and it bubbles and foams in the air.
The trees have ears – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
I bought my first SLR camera when I was 11 from my neighbour Ron for £6. It was a massively heavy Russian …
Mandarin Duck
Mandarin Ducks are one of the most spectacular birds in existence. They are originally from the Far East and were introduced to …
Saint Olaf in St Magnus Cathedral
In life Saint Olaf was a violent and brutal warlord; a killer Viking who lived 1,000 years ago. Yet he’s a Christian …
Long-Tailed Tits – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
I love the description of Long-Tailed Tits that I wrote in my nature notebooks forty years ago: They really are a very …
Telegraph insulator
I recognised this piece of pottery on a Westray beach instantly. It’s that bit attached to a telegraph pole which insulates it. …
Puffballs – forty years ago in my nature notebooks
When I was eleven years old I joined my local natural history and microscopical society. The next youngest member was called Darwin …
Diamonds under your feet
I love the way Westray’s flagstones break naturally into diamond shapes over their surface.
Colourful seaweed
I always had a sneaking suspicion that seaweed was all that strange brown colour. Not so. Just look: