Martin Gray @peediepuss Twitter profile

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

@hare_today_ Pegs always for the clothes line, but here in Orkney we're obliged to use pegs of marine grade stainless steel, or else Norway gets all our clothes

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Stunned earlier to be sent this photo, from Ward Hill summit, Hoy today by Graeme Campbell. Orkney's first Ptarmigan! Utterly unexpected record. At least 50 miles from the nearest Scottish summit with them. A feat of vagrancy up there with Varied Thrush & Yellow-browed Bunting!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

That's it. After 4 surgeries, 9 months of fantastic, compassionate care, her treatment is complete. The cancer is gone. She's off their books. We're incredibly fortunate & truly grateful to everyone at @nhsorkney , @nhs_grampian , @CLANnow . Now to draw breath and be thankful.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Every minute looking for Groatie Buckies is an hour well spent.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

9 months

Always nice to find a Coconut washed ashore in Orkney. The fibrous husk is what differentiates the genuine drifters from the tropics from shop bought. This one's been landed a while and has been knocked about a bit in the surf. Rare here; I find one every couple of years.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

A real pleasure to show Sir Ian McKellen around the Ring of Brodgar today. What a lovely man; thoroughly warm and genuinely engrossed with the story of this very special bit of Orkney.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

7 years

This years crop of balloons I found on Orkney beaches totals 93. We're a very small target and very distant from major centres of population. 93 for fucks sake.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

@SoilandGas It's a Flapper Skate eggcase. Only a common find locally in Orkney, everywhere else they're uncommon to rare or exceptional. Where was this one please?

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Gale force sunshine and a wild, wild sea.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! 😖 Sitting down at home all set for our Friday team work meeting, message arrives "Orcas cruising along the coast heading your way, maybe 2 pods, monster bulls" More AARRGGHH!! Orcas or work...... Orcas or work.... Orcas or..... Anyway, they were brilliant!!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

There's a spot on the beach not far from Stromness where natural cracks in the flagstone bedrock trap small stones when they're being moved around when it's all overrun by heavy seas.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

This old tracked Caterpillar tractor ploughed out a lot of hill ground in Orkney in the 60s & early 70s. It broke down on this hill in Holm in 1973, & hasn't budged since. In our mostly treeless landscape, it's now a nest platform to a pair of Hooded Crow. 3 big chicks today.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

1 year

You've heard of Wild Camping, & Wild Swimming, well here's my contribution to the vogue...Wild Napping! It's just the loveliest thing! Today's was in a nice sheltered spot in the hills above Yesnaby. Skylarks & Skuas for company. A great wee snooze! #wildnapping #sleepout

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Definitely not a cast-off from yesterday's County Show this coconut in the husk ashore today at Marwick was a genuine drifter from the tropics. These are properly rare here; I think this is only my 4th in 7 years beachcombing.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

The Orkney shoreline is a bleak and distressing place these days. #AvianFlu

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

@SoilandGas Could you please record it. All east coast records are very valuable. Cheers beuy

Great Eggcase Hunt - Record

Want to help shark and ray conservation? Take part in the Shark Trust Great Eggcase Hunt. Find and record eggcases that have washed up on the beach. Fun for all ages!

www.sharktrust.org

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

8 months

Can't wait for the year's turn & putting 2023 behind us. It's been a lousy year; an accident that should have ended me, then a blanketing of anxiety & depression (my first time). Still trading blows with these. But so much kindness too. So much. No, not all lousy then!❤️

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

A touch of the tropics in Orkney today, at Skaill. A seed of Monkey Ladder Vine from the south Carribbean. This rainforest plant drops its ripe seeds on the forest floor, where they're washed to sea by heavy rain. Some are captured by the Gulf Stream & end up in high latitudes.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

1 year

Nice Aurora from Orkney tonight. Perhaps not exactly dancing, but pulsing and shimmering, reaching beyond overhead and into the southern sky. Best show I've seen for a long time.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

We love these peedie shells here, and it took me about 20minutes to find these this morning. Their name in our dialect is Groatie Buckies and in our folklore they are bringers of luck. If you feel you could do with some luck, send me a message and I'll post one to you.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

The funny in today's 'Orcadian'. Alex always nails the topic and gets the tone just right

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

1 year

Orcas seen off Hoy this morning, moving up the west coast, so I took the gamble that they'd keep coming north, & went to Yesnaby. About 30 minutes later, Bingo! Very spread out, but maybe 6-8 animals, including two massive bulls plus a female+small calf. Always fun to see.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

10 months

It's not even fully dark and the aurora is already winding up into a bright, colourful display in the north

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Me up a hill today. Not a big hill, a wee hill, but still a hill. I've spent my entire adult life hating hills. They're more bother than they're worth & spoil views of the sea. So what's changed? I stopped smoking, that's what, & now I've got breath & energy. It's bloody amazing!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

12 years sober today. It's a dour kind of anniversary & I'm only here to recall it because it exists. This past year was a challenge, & I've had to push back a little bit more than usual. It's never easy, but it does get less hard. Thankful as always for every bit of support.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Our eldest came to us in March when his University was closing around him. He sat his final exams in April, from our spare room. His result came through today; a First. I am overwhelmed with pride and respect.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

An amazing quadruple rainbow over Gyran this morning. The 4th arc is very faint. Sure I've not seen that before.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

Just home from taking the final 'Up with the Lark' 4am walk at the Ring of Brodgar and struggling to find words to describe how very special it was.. @welovehistory @WorldHeritageUK @bbcorkney @alice_lyall @keithvenny

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

Happy Christmas from us both, at the Brough of Birsay on a perfect winters morning. We're out of kilter this year; preoccupied. The bastard, cancer, has shown up. Donna's OK, in fine fighting form & receiving exceptional care in the NHS. We're bringing all we've got to this.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

Doonie joy as the Ba hits the water after about 6 hours 20 minutes of sheer physicality from both teams.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Dropped by the Standing Stones of Stenness on my morning walk today. Always spectacular, whatever the weather, but just awesome today. #WorldHeritage #Neolithic @HistEnvScot

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

Really cool find at Skaill this morning, a chunk of baleen. It's probably from the juvenile Fin Whale that washed ashore near here in June last year.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

So, I migrated out to Papay today for a few days. The streetlamps light the road from the Post Office to the Hostel, and in the far off eastern horizon, the North Ronaldsay lighthouse flashes once every 11 seconds on the sea roads all around.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Most years the Heather is fairly dull, a purple tint in the landscape, but this year it's vivid & bright! Up close it's teeming with bees & has delicious scent, which I'm enjoying for the first time in decades now that I'm 6 months without fags, I've got my sense of smell back!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Frog Orchids are out now on the Orkney maritime heath. Most are very small, but this absolute unit was one of about 30 up on the Hill of Borwick this morning

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

Chuffed to bits today with another beachcombing first, a @Tags4Wildlife satellite tag washed up at Skaill. Still with Goose Barnacle stumps attached so is recently arrived, probably from the western Atlantic. It's a tough bit of kit, & I hope to have the full history soon.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

A perfect Sea Heart today in Birsay; the seed of Monkey Ladder Vine (Entada gigas) all the way from the southern Caribbean.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Primula scotica at Yesnaby, Orkney today. None in flower yet but getting very close, though about a fortnight later blooming than last year. Loads of rosettes so it's shaping up to be good year. #wildflowerhour

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

Motherlode! Not sorry

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

This 31cm long feather on the beach in Birsay today had me scratching my head for a few seconds, until it dawned on me what bit of the bird it's from! It's a tail feather from a Sea Eagle!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

Happy New Year to all the good folks on twitter. We're starting 22 on the front foot, taking the fight to the bastard Cancer. It's a great source of solace & comfort that we've got so much support here.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

9 years #sober today. At first, it was like hacking uphill through dense jungle, with an anvil on my back. Siren voices called me back. Lesser, distant voices pulled me on. In time, the way got easier. 1st year was a sod. If you need to do it, do it. Fuck the schemers & sirens.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Another Bonxie downed by birdflu. This adult, with a recognisable facial pattern, lies in the territory it has bred successfully in over at least the last three years.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

20th April. 11 years sober today. It's not the combat it once was but it still needs lots of maintenance and gentle resistance. More like an arm wrestling stalemate than full on battle. It's never easy, but it's a lot less hard. Onwards, never back.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Like a stack of old books, the story of Orkneys landscape can be read in its rocks.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

10 years of sobriety today. Pausing to reflect & be grateful for everyone along the way who've helped me make it to a decade sober. Thinking too about the friends & loved ones that are struggling still, and hoping they find the courage. It's not easy, but it does get less hard.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

The soft Orkney sandstone yields readily to the erosive forces of Sea and fresh water. But not all at the same rate, leaving us with some astonishing detail in the Yesnaby clifftops.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

A rare day when Orkney's simple beauty is achingly obvious. I'm on an East Mainland headland this morning with Fulmars cackling, Long-tailed Ducks carolling and a Great Northern Diver close inshore giving it's wonderful, haunting tremolo. Bonny beyond words.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

This is on my morning commute. No bad, eh? Just twa tups and me at the Standing Stones this morning.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

These two Scottish Primroses just opening their delicate little blooms today at Yesnaby. That's a good week or two earlier than the recent dates of their first emergence.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

1 year

A By-the-wind-sailor (Velella velella) ashore at the Bay of Skaill this morning. One of about a dozen. These live by the wind, and go wherever it directs. Normally they're way out in the temperate Atlantic.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

A coconut in the husk ashore in Birsay today, an ocean drifter from the tropical Caribbean.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

6 years

Found my first ever St Kilda Mailboat today, washed ashore in Birsay. Only been looking for one of these for 40 odd years! It had been launched from a boat off Boreray on 10/08/18 & contained 13 stamped, written postcards for the finder to mail. Many happy memories of time there

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Happy Christmas from us both to all of our friends and family, near and far. With much love and best wishes, from a blustery Bay of Skaill.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

7 years

From the Tropics to a frigid Orkney beach. This Sea Heart is the seed of a rainforest plant from the southern Caribbean, found today at Marwick.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

What a grand tonic to be able to spend time down at Skaill among the Curlews & Oystercatchers. Real & priceless natural therapy, supporting the excellent care Donna has received from @nhsorkney & @nhs_grampian . We're content, positive & certain that we're in the best of hands.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

A fair breeze at the coast today, and blowing right in where the Burn of Langadee dives over the cliff edge. It was like perpetual motion!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Just coming off Papay tonight after 4 superb days birding, walking, beachcombing and botanising among the dying fronds of this years growth. Some fabulous sights, but this swell at Mull Head on Saturday morning was ferocious. The wave breaking sounds like cannons! Sound up⬆️

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

10 months

This is the preserved carapace of the Green Turtle that, at the age of 14, I found dead in Orkney on 27th January 1980. It was the first record of a presumed vagrant of this species in British & Irish waters. It was badly decomposed, weighed 5.45kg, carapace 33cmX28cm @mcsuk

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

5th March. A year without the fags and it feels good.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Pre-apocalyptic Kirkwall today. The Ba'is coming.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

The first of the summer flowering Scottish Primrose are out today at Yesnaby, Orkney. These tend to be greater in number and with shorter flower stems than spring flowering plants. #wildflowerhour

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

Under strict instructions this weekend to do nothing at all. No birding or beachcombing. I've been doing too much and running on empty. Fair enough but I just had to grab a few minutes respite from my respite at the coast where the Atlantic was thundering in. And it felt great.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

North American Eider on the beach in Flotta today. The two species of Goose Barnacle, and their size (=age) are consistent with an ocean crossing. Eider are still heavily hunted in Newfoundland and Labrador, hence the decoy.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Anyone fancy a wee wander along an Orkney tideline with me this afternoon? Join me in the ether at 3-30 today for a look at our rich coastline and beachcombing tradition.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

Maeshowe on a misty solstice morning.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

The first breath of westerly in the wind for an age, and I'm away beachcombing. This big lump of wax ashore in Birsay was intriguing. We see lots of WW2 vintage paraffin wax here, but this isn't it. I've taken a sample but think this could be Beeswax, and if so, very old.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Yesnaby. Iconic Orkney brand cliff and seascape.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

1 year

Wild napping today on Orkney's wild west coast😂 Skylarks, Pipits and Bumblebees at their business on the clover. #wildnapping

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

Happy Christmas to all my buddies on Twitter. You're good folk, and your company has meant a lot to me over the last 12 bumpy months.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

Loads of Ray & Skate cases ashore on Orkneys Atlantic facing beaches today including my first ever Blonde Ray case. Somehow managed to miss them all these years! Looks just like a gigantic Thornback case! Also lots of fresh, burnished Spotted Ray cases. Coorse in the shooers tho!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Yesnaby flowers today; Oysterplant, Scottish Primrose, Greater Sea-spurrey, Kidney Vetch. Orkney's highly specialised coastal flora at its very finest.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

6 months

This very battered plastic crate today at Skaill was a milk crate from Tuscan Dairies in Union, New Jersey. It comes with a ridiculously stern warning about what might happen to you if your use of it is "unauthorized"😱🤣

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

10 months

A sorry find ashore today, an oiled adult Great Northern Diver, recently dead among the rocks. Its summer plumage was still mostly intact, & showing iridescence, so I'd imagine that it was recently arrived from the arctic. A sad end for a beautiful bird.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Scottish Primrose. Strictly coastal in Orkney, particularly on clifftop maritime heath though can be up to 500m inland. #wildflowerhour #coastalplants

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

Sea Beans from the tropical Carribbean are rarely wafted to Scotland on warm ocean currents beginning with the Gulf Stream. These Sea Hearts are the most frequent. This from Newark Bay in Deerness today is my 10th in 6 years. Shudder to think how many beach miles this has taken🤔

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Looking through some old beachcombing finds and found this. I'd forgotten all about it. It's a Ballan Cross, the flattened teeth on the pharyngeal bones in the throat of Ballan Wrasse (Labrus bergylta) Was traditionally worn as lucky talisman.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

11 months

This fishbox, complete with Arabic text, was a cracking find on Skaill beach today. Found the first of these here 4 years ago, now seeing a few each year. Mostly Moroccan, it's crossed the Atlantic twice; westbound first on the Canaries Current, then Gulf Stream to here 🤯👍

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

This fine juvenile Hen Harrier picked today, of all days, #HenHarrierDay2020 , to drop into our garden for a preen, a rest and a peedie snooze

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

6 months

An uncommonly large roll of Birch bark ashore at Marwick today. These are known to be from far overseas, North America at least & just perhaps the Siberian arctic. The dense growth of unidentified Hydroids inside attests to that long float here. Intercontinental organic drift!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

In the C18/C19, Hudson’s Bay Company ships often stopped in Stromness to crew & provision. Their ballast was this iridescent Labradorite from Canada; dumped overboard when the ship was resupplied. Canadian folk culture speaks of how these are the Northern Lights trapped inside.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

@cormac_mcginley @StationeryWoman It's part of the cartilaginous skeleton of a Skate. From the size I'd suggest Flapper Skate, rather than the much smaller Blue

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

7 years

@McDonaldsUK you're in here with 5, @SmythsToysUK so are you, with 2 and @NandosUK with one. Nobody wants your branded litter. It's toxic & offensive. Get ahead of the game and make a marketing plus out of stopping these.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

9 months

Front row seat as 300 grown men beat the crap out of each other in her garden. 😂💪👍 #KirkwallBaGame

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

Donna's out of surgery & sounds in good form. A bit sore & spacey as you'd expect. I can't wait to see her. With luck she might be allowed out tonight. So many people have been asking for her & sending their love. It's meant so much to her, & me. We're so very grateful.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

Neat little beach find this week in Deerness, a scarce 'chisel shaped' bottle stopper from PC Flett & Co, a Kirkwall based carbonated drinks maker from the early C20. Made of 'vulcanite', a hard baked India rubber.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

First Great Yellow Bumblebee of the year for me, on Comfrey I planted in the garden that I planted for this very purpose.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

9 months

Wild, ridiculous skies here today, following 95mph gales overnight, driving hail that would cut you in half. The 80ft cliffs of Rowe Head were smothered in spray at the top of the tide, with Anticrepuscular rays Kelvin Helmholtz & Nacreous clouds in the background. Epic stuff!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Glorious tonight at Yesnaby. Clear, warm and barely a whisper from the Atlantic.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

After days of persistent south easterlies, this is what happens, guaranteed. A dead cert. Balloons. Bloody balloons everywhere; dragged up from the centres of population in GB & Europe. Very often snagged on fences, this one's 'string' was twisted wire with tiny LEDs! Scunnered!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

7 years

Ambergris! Only my 2nd ever bit in 40+ years of beachcombing all over the world

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

5 years

So this is what I abruptly left the dinner table for tonight, Orcas passing by! Pod #27 , Vaila's pod, has been around Caithness and Orkney the last couple of days. This is bull #72 , and his dorsal fin is like a yacht sail! It's humongous!

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Great Yellow Bumblebee on Kidney Vetch at Yesnaby today

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

They're finally out! Primula scotica at Yesnaby today just unfurled today. That's exactly a fortnight later than last years first blooms.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

4 years

Erosion during this winters severe weather has damaged a lot of our coastal archaeology. This lovely boar's tusk washed out of some eroding structure at the north end of the Bay of Skaill recently. @UHIArchaeology @OAS_Orkney @carolinewjones

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

A mighty display of Wild Pansy in Sandwick today in last years stubble. Carpets of them! As "weeds of cultivation" they are extremely persistent and burst into bloom when the conditions are just right.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

7 months

It feels like we've had 200 days of gales, relentless and unbroken. Even some of the oldest, hardiest locals are starting to complain a bit about it now. The first month or so of 1993 was like this with gale to storm days continuously.

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

3 years

With kind permission from @PapayRanger to use his photo of the Varied Thrush landing and showing the underwing. This is the 3rd such underwing I've seen in the county. The Orkney Zoothera set. (yea, I know, Ixoreus).

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Martin Gray

@peediepuss

2 years

A sorry find today in farmland just east of Kirkwall, a Short-eared Owl freshly dead under overhead wires with a catastrophic wing injury. It's claws and feet are it's whole toolkit; simple finesse.

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