Planets

 I've not seen Neowise as it has been overcast to the north every night for more than a month. Thursday night it was clear so, rather than a celebratory GT I headed out to try to see it. It might have been wise to have checked that it was still visible from here (it isn't) so thinking it muct have been behind the one large blob of cloud to the north that seemed immovable I gave up from The Brough and moved on to The Ring.

The Brough of Birsay at night, lighthouse on.

Planets were showing well. Not being practiced at night photography with the Canon (the Nikon P8700 was such an excellent camera in that regard) I couldn't get the shots I wanted with the Moon and the stones. However, this one with Mars is not too bad.

Ring of Brodgar, Mars.

Last night I was being taxi and it was clear again, perfectly. This when a little research found the comet was not visible from here anymore. Mars and the Moon to the east and stunning views of Jupiter with Saturn close by to the south, well worth a look.

More time is being spent on habitat work in the garden, cutting grass now, scraping bare ground to sow collected seeds, especially of Yellow Rattle but also of finer grasses like Sweet Vernal and Crested Dogstail. I'm making daily trips to the fields below and returning with pocketfulls of seeds. I've also been sowing some seed trays, hoping to have some plug plants for the spring.

Anyway whilst on my hands and needs sowing the seeds by opening up bare ground in the turf I came across one of my favourite beetles, the snail hunter, Cychrus caraboides.

Cychrus caraboides.

You really would not want to be a snail faced with that. Interestingly, whilst I was trying to get hold of it in the grass it made a weird sneezing noise. It didn't do that in the pot, but as soon as I put it back in the grass and chased it a bit it made the noise again.