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Our ocean facing coast was pounded today by a heavy 'land sea'. This is our colloquial description of a swell that reaches us from a distant low pressure disturbance out over the ocean, but not its weather. Today was a winter sea but a warm, breathless day

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.

Calum sends all the love & luck to all his #TheOutrun pals at the #baftas this Sunday. Amy, Sarah and Saoirse, he misses you all very much and hopes the night brings you and the whole team the recognition you all so richly deserve! xx🤞👍❤️

First Plantain Leaf Beetle (Chrysolina intermedia) of 2025 today with 3 near Yesnaby, Orkney. Two were in cop, baffling as the only known wild larval food, Sea Plantain (Plantago maritima) leaf, is still 6 weeks from emerging, so I'm stumped on the biology that rolls from this.

Whatever happened to Covfefe?? I miss it.

These flimsy plastic vessels are Octopus pots, lost from the Portuguese or NW African fishery. A few reach Orkney every year, after their epic double crossing of the Atlantic. This one ashore in Orphir this week is marked CH.BAH, for Cheikh Bah, an octopus fisher in Mauritania!

A rare find of a Northern Sea Tribble on Papay this morning. This one's just ashore for a rest after the recent rough weather. Surprisingly nimble, this one was away quickly over the rocks!

What a fantastic shed shower this morning! It takes ages to rig for and is over in minutes, but it's a wonderful cleansing experience, in every sense! I have side-eyed in envy at the sea swimmers and all their rapture, and now I think I've found mine!

Quarters. April 20th is my sober anniversary; it's 15 years since I left the booze behind. I also turned 60 last week, so my relationship with alcohol fits uniquely into quarters of my life. I went to Yesnaby to think, & found myself picking out 'quarterings' in the rocks.

Oh that's just brilliant! What a masterstroke! Put extra litter inside helium balloons so that when they fall to earth as litter, they spawn a whole little federation of litter! Genius! 🤯🎈 Fucks sake 😱🫨👊

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.

Part of the @veday80 celebrations up here is the gathering of these historic Norwegian vessels commemorating the heroic exodus of resistance fighters on the 'Shetland Bus'. Not a well known part of the history of struggle against Nazism.

I found a freshly dead Stock Dove on this mornings tideline at the Bay of Skaill, Sandwick today. A very scarce migrant in Orkney, especially away from the North isles. My best guess is that a Bonxie nailed it somewhere along our west coast.

I've been surveying Plantain Leaf Beetle (Chrysolina intermedia) in Orkney & for the first time, mapped their entire distribution. Even so, there are many many questions! Do they mate only in proximity to a food plant (Plantago spp)? And why sit, torpid, up a stem for hours??

Tee shirt weather today on the top of Fitty Hill, Westray. Incredible, seeing as it's not even spring yet! Sincere apologies to all visitors to the islands, honestly it's not usually like this. We're very sorry.🥶💨🌨️⛈️🌊

A 12-er! A dozen flowers on this one Scottish Primrose head! There were so many it had to lean against the nearest grasses just to get them all open! 😂 I don't think I've ever seen so many. On Papay today, and possibly at a new site for them here.

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 off a cliff, was quite the experience!

Really great pub session at Beltane House last night with the Edinburgh University Folk Society. Great skills and great go, with some strong vocals too. The University of Edinburgh

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.Great Yellow Bumblebee Project Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Another 2 Great Yellow Bumblebee queens today at the famous Voy Comfrey patch, a reliable site each year for newly emerged queens to forage before the next bit of their feeding succession, the vetches and clovers, really take off. Great Yellow Bumblebee Project BeeConservationUK