35

Another night of low slung activity with a good spike the back of ten/eleven. I managed to totaly miss it as well....never mind.

All to brief tonight.

I posted a bit early last night and things developed a god bit more with an active display. The ark produced rays bright enough to be seen by the naked eye. It was short lived but very enjoyable after all the nights of cloud. Tonight a sighting from Groats had me out early and catching a good top. The top is the highest part of the aurora below this is the green. The weather was to go against us tho. Within an hour or so clouds swept in and aren’t looking like going anywhere . Frustrated yet again the clouds thicken as the magnetometers quicken.

Tonight

Yet another frustrating night !!

After nights and nights of frustrating cloud with aurora above it I managed a glimpse of lights last night. Tonight its the clearest its been for ages. This along with the bonus of no moon set the stage for a show however its a show that was destined not to go on. We did for a moment have the top of an aurora on camera but all to soon the stack plots showing activity flat lined. It looks like thats that for tonight even the sky id hazy now and the crisp display of stars is gone....33...just.

31

Well I managed to blag 3 aurora over the last five nights. There has been a good wait for a glancing CME blow. It arrived early and bounced off to little effect. Most of the activity is the results of an enhanced solar wind from coronal hole high speed streams and sector boundary crossings. Tonight’s has been seen away down the south of Scotland and a lot of folks have managed to catch it. Shame it wasnt seller death dust falling through the skys dramaticly lighting up all before and below it but that just wasnt to be, there is still time for 2205 to produce the goods tho. Fingers crossed.

28

Tonight we have a big arc with a big moon and big big clouds. There are good looking areas coming in to sight now and given a few days we will see what happens....

A low slung light changing slowly low in the north marks No 27. Surely its time for something much more substantial !!!

25 came and went with a glimmer. With the demise of the large sunspot cluster at the end of a disapointing transit I kindo hoped for a bit of a show from any residuals brought on by the series of impotent X flares of the past days. The night started with an early arc but we lost that fairly fast. Rain was the order of things untill it drove me to my bed. Rising at the back of three i managed to catch a few more images, again it was an all to brief display. That is 26 tho so i am happy.

Poor weather last night and i missed a chance of a sighting. The large group of spots continues to move across the face of the sun with out kicking off despite being well primed to go.As Mags said the other day A watched pot that just wont boil over......

After a day of endless rain a brief gap saw the clouds part enough to confirm there was an aurora behind it all. In the time it takes to type it was away and the rain sporadicaly returned. Disapointing day with an X flare not producing any CME, Sill the art of survival is in the way we wait.

24

Twenty four comes in with a flat glow behind clouds. Its been blowing fresh for most of the day . An hour before sundown the cloud began to break up. It remained fresh but the clouds looked drmatic in the failing light. An eatherial sort of green glow was on the camera but not on the large screen had me going but as soon as those photos were processed i was out again this time to get a solid colour. I dont know if much will happen but the stackplots are jumping at notheren lattitudes and the solar wind speed is 600 it looks good for a bit any way.

Scraping a couple in.

The night of the 20^th was a bit of a wash out with few if any gaps in the cloud. Once again I stuck my head out the door at 4.30 to see stars so a quick couple of shots that looked ok on the camera and back to bed. 20 hours later and I check the images and they have a faint aurora on them. Im well chuffed. Tonight’s weather has been cloud and pishing rain. There was a gap showing on sat24 that rolled in right on time. Unfortunately as happens with the satellite photography it wasnt the whole story. The rain stopped about on time and the cloud lifted well but didnt really go away. In the north the sky lightened superbly but the remaining cloud would just not split. The photos I have are still on the camera but I have green showing through a couple of thinner clouds. Its a bit of a pisser that there is a KP6 thats G1 now and its all kicking off out of sight of the ground....hope everywhere else is having more luck than we are having here !!

Nice night

Continual rolling cloud ment that the view last night was coming and going a bit. With some paticence tho I managed to see repeated spells of dynamic movment. More words later maybe.

Sat night

Its half seven on sat night, the stackplots at our lattitude in Norway and Lerwick are showing good movment. There is a KP3 called and the Bz is south. Cloud may be a problem but here we go again.....fingers crossed.

21 today

First off i called Sky Glendale Auroras,

Glenern last night and thats the name of a house down the road from me...oops...anyway we have strong green but with a hazy cloudy sky. this shot is cleaned up a bit of the orange haze. I dont know if it will get stronger or show better but heres hoping.

Onwards

Back to the smaller stuff tonight. After seeing a post from Glenern on Skye a quick test shot revealed a broad low aurora here....20 !!

Nineteen

Been a brill night, aurora seen wide spread across Brittan. Took a while for wurs to come alive but come alive it did....best night of the season....so  far !!

Heads up

We are looking good for a display tonight. There is activity building all ready and a southerly Bz and a KP4 call. We have clearish skys. suns down about 18.30 and the moons up at about 22.30 so hopefully we will have some proper darkness in the early evening.......Im now crossing my fingers and toes !!

18

18 Comes in tonight with a purple glow peaking out from behind tall standing horizon clouds. Moon rise is lighting up the sky now.....Im going to give it a go in a while and see if theres a better view.

17

Aftre a bit of speculation and a bit of a false start last week tonight right now 17 is in view. A very faint glow across the horizon that struggles against the rising waining moon. Im charging the battery now and going to try again in an hour.

16

Number 16 fell to the camera last night although it took some waiting for. There was a super clear sky but with the BZ against us it was not looking to hopefull. I was going to give it up but a photo from Graeame Whipps taken from Durness had me back out for a look. Eventualy I had green on the camera screen. Pleased as i was it looked more elusive on the computer screen although two shots did hold a little green. I think i was at the total edge of what my 450d could handle. So this is the tip of the day. If you are looking for a camera body to take night sky photos dont get a cheap Cannon 450d....

15...01 10 14

Low slung faint aurora with dynamic overhead etheral lights, Best overhead etherals of the season so far...gubbed by rain !!

14

Low slung aurora in progress right now.

13

The Harray kirk to the right, the lights of Dounby to the left. Another flat and static display tonight but at least we saw some good colour in the last stages. Been a good couple of days, just started a local aurora group on facebook.

Looking across the gardens.

Strugling tonight again. It was as if last night repeated its self, a good looking gap with horizon cloud exposed the dancers in the distance. It wasnt to last long and soon was once again lost to the clouds. So thats me, indoors watching Blues Brothers going back and forth to see if the skys clearing. Think im going to give it up on both counts.

 

KP4.

The sun is barely down. the clouds are barely away, the aurora is barely up, things have barely begun, my battery is barely charged !

Frustration,After missing monday night this was about the best point of Tus night.

A hint of promise for tonight.

and this is the sky now.....again!!

Within three mins of returning outside the cloud rolled over the now clear sky and that was that again...mmmmm

Quick cures for frustration

Frustration reigns just now. I think madness lies just below the surface. There have been four nights of aurora in a row. Tonights show if its up there is somewhere above the sea of rainy cloud the stretches from horizon to horizon, even the horizons are close together. This seemingly constant aurora is coming not from snapping filaments or flares but rather an increased flow of solar wind from an earth facing coronal hole. Its passing now but today I was reading there’s another facing us for three days. Which a bit of luck there will be more fun for the start of the week. The good night for us was Tuesday. But since then its been all cloud and rain.. Last night had lights being photographed way down over the border at Hadrians wall and over on the east coast. Lots of folks got to see some lights even with almost universal scabby skies. Photos and reports from the far north have been full of exciting talk and stunning photos, its heady stuff !!Here the clouds parted at five this morning to reveal some lights but I must say it wasnt me that saw them this morning. I was out fifteen minutes ago for a look and got rained on for my troubles, A quick jump out again as a break from typing right now.......the frustration continues.. I am lucky tho the season just starts although the equinox is prime time in it. There are months of darkness to go and many more nights to come. So maybe this is the blog kicking back in to life........bloody hell I just went out to take a photo of the rainy cloud and light pollution and there is a green swathe of lights beneath a horizon gap. The gap does not get very far north but its green way down to the east....once again the game is afoot, and the wifes about to groan im sure......

Night of the 23rd

It took a while for the sky to clear and the display was very static but at least it was bright. Above is the arc and below the aurora and the milkyway.

Heads up

I know its been raining for hours but there is good activity out there. Glendale on Skye has aurora. The skys have just cleared over Harris and theres a show going on. Looking at Sat24 ther is a noticable looking gap coming towards us. Extrapalating the arival time it looks as if it will be here half twelve one. Theres a lot of ifs hare but if the sky breaks there may well be a lot to see !!!

FOUR SIX SIX FOUR SIX.

The aurora season has started well. This year I have my first DSLR and along with it I have jumped in and bought a Samyang 14mm wide angle lens. So this has replaced my FZ28 which bit the dust getting blown off the garden wall last winter. Going out armed with a nikon compact for the big feb display kindo made up my mind that I needed to be tooled up better. Although we still haven’t had a good big display I have been getting colours I could only dream of with the bridge tho so im pretty chuffed so far. Tonight there was a good strong southerly BZ and the chance of KP4 so it might have gotton good and bright. Almost as soon as the twilight disappeared there was a noticeable glow in the distance. It grew in proportion to the band of cloud across the horizon but never managed to crest it. Cloud cover looked dodgy. Sat24 had shown a good gap in the coming cloud cover but lots more cloud behind and from sundown for an hour and a half or so we had the view to the north. Once gone it wasnt to come back. I just had to be satisfied with reports from lapland of huge bright dancing displays. Ach well thats just the way of it. There is a chance of more over the next couple of days but I think thats No10 by for us tonight,

Starry sky at the Ring of Brodgar.

looking over next door last night.

Unusual harrier behaviour

I saw something I have never seen before tonight. As I was coming away from Russadale quarry I had the dog running on a right good bit in front and was messing about in the heather just off the track. A hen harrier came over Chris's house down the field and over the heather. It made for the dog and circled around it five or six times. It really looked as if it was looking to nail anything the dog would have put in to the air. I might be assuming a lot here but it really looked like it was taking advantage of the dog buldering about.

Time moves on with nobody charged

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-28673161

The Pied fly remains for day two !!

Through the square window

Standing in the kitchen looking out of the windows putting off doing this and that, thinking of making a cup of coffee when bugger me a pied flycatcher lands on the compost heap then drops down and picks off a couple of flys. With this it rises to perch on the fork handle and look about. It probably sees me raising binoculars and moves off to the rugosa and out of view. After a reasonable time of about sixty seconds waiting I slip out of the back door for a spy and sure enough the wee fella is sitting low in the garden corner elder. Unfortunately for me a mop of grey hair and a grey hoodie dont make for very good camouflage and its off again. Returning to the kitchen I put the kettle on and before its boiled the bird is low down in the other corner of the garden. There is a cold wind blowing down there and the bird is flighty, just picking insects but it looks like slim pickings. A few moments later it was up and gone hopefully to better feeding. It was a delight to see for that brief time and a garden tick. I made and drank a cup of coffee waiting but it was gone carried away on the migrants wind.........then it was back to the task of putting off what ever it was off again. Who says procrastination gets you nowhere !

First wheatear of the year.

Briefly out and about

Out for my first run about for a while. The west side was devoid of auks with just a few razorbills and fulmars. There were quite a few kittywake about with one or two settled on ledges. I took a few shots of fulmars loafing. A female wheatear shot along the rocky shore at Mar Wick which was a nice site being the first one I have seen this year. Shooting over to the Butquoy carpark at Birsay for a bacon roll I met a holidaying birder that I had met before a couple of years ago, poor fella has had a rough time of it with the weather.!! From there to Northside and the geo to have a look at the puffin ledge. It to was bare apart from a few razorbills. There were plenty of fulmars paired up tho so at least that was encouraging. Just at the parking I spied another wheatear which I manage to snap a few photos of. It moved off to the garden wall across the road where it was joined by a second. I totally failed to get another shot and the pair took to the air disappearing in to the fields. Not much but it was fine and bright with a promise of better days to come !!

Facebook bloody Facebook

I may be preaching to the converted but I think that through out birding in general there is one rule that at the top of the list and it is this.... Your actions in the field should NEVER be detrimental to the interests of the birds, the birds come first. With the proliferation of DSLR photography this maxim has been pushed aside as more and more photographers push on for more and more intimate images. Now seasonal shots of unfledged chicks in nests, birds on nests are cropping up on the big facebook sites. Some of these groups are happy to host such images. Its a disturbing thing to see some shots of the worlds rarest freshly hatched ducks scattering before a snappers lens. Another shot one day had rare chicks in a nest with the photographer giving a description of how hard it was climbing the tree and getting mobbed whilst he struggled to get the shot. This instance did cause a fair amount of condemnation but such comment was soon stopped by the admin and the group continues to host such images. The problem is that such big sites attract superb photos and big audiences and turn over a large amount of photos in a day, the toxic shite is soon buried in the scroll. I saw a shot of a LEO around a occupied nest taken with 50-250 lens. The only reason the owl didnt fly and he got the shot was because the female was on the nest nearby. If the bird had spooked the female could have gone as well and left the nest open to predation and for what, a crappy photograph. You would probably need a licence to take that shot in the UK, to get that licence you would need a better reason than some ego massaging on facebook. The past few weeks things have looked worse in this respect than previous years. I hope its a trend that will get stopped and facebook groups will get a grip on this irresponsible crap but in reality I cant see it.,...sucks

Great Grey Shrike

The Great grey shrike at the Shunan today, theres a bit more on the blog facebook page.