Coming back to Onziebust after a few days away on leave I really got the chance to discover the reserve anew on the drive back to the farmhouse. I’ve only been away four days but at some point I must have forgotten what the island of Egilsay looked like.
The fields of buttercups splashed with the deep pink of ragged robin and the white fluffy seed heads of cotton grass really are quite stunning, especially when the sun catches them. The best of the northern marsh orchid show is definitely over now but the dark purple is still a great contrast to the yellow of the birds foot trefoil and what is left of the pale lilac lady’s smock along the roadside verges. The yellow flag iris seems to have suddenly come into its own with a mass of yellow flowers nodding in the wind and closer inspection of the fields reveals the blue and white ‘changing’ forget-me-nots, lousewort, butterwort and fumitory. Carder bees and stripy bumble bees are busy going about their business and a red admiral butterfly has been fussing around the rosebush near the house.
Northern Marsh Orchid, Birds-Foot Trefoil and Silverweed in the fields at Onziebust reserve
The curlew chicks have doubled in size and are now looking like miniature versions of their parents. I wouldn’t be surprised if they fledge soon, although they still haven’t learnt much roadsense! The number of lapwing and redshank have noticeable dropped but they can still be found around some of the wetter fields. I have some surprisingly mixed feelings about the fledging of what I have come to think of as ‘my’ wrens. I’ve watched the wren bustle in and out of the stone wall outside the kitchen window for what feels like weeks. Just before I left on leave at least four fledglings were mooching around in the rosebush some of them more confident than others in making the short flight between the bush and the guttering around the house. With much noisy encouragement from a parent one or two did make the leap of faith. Four days away and most of the wren fledglings have found their wings and moved on and washing up is much less entertaining when you don’t have the comings and goings of a wren family to keep you amused. Occasionally one still pops back though – it’s nice to see they’re still around.
The swallows are still zipping around catching all the flies that the sheep disturb and I was surprised by a male hen harrier that paid a visit early this morning, no doubt looking for something to take home and feed his brood with. What I haven’t seen since I have been back is the starlings visiting my washing line. They have been nesting in the metal post on left hand side. I won’t be too upset to see them go – not because I don’t like them, I’ve loved watching them going to and from with food for the brood, but I really would like to use my washing line again!
It won’t be just me discovering Onziebust for the first time (again) this week. The third round of residential volunteers will be arriving on Saturday for two weeks. They will be giving me a hand around the Onziebust and Trumland reserves, between seabird and red-throated diver surveys, a couple of practical tasks and a special mission to Papay Westray, we should be kept busy.
Magpie Moth at Trumland reserve (Rousay)