Bog Myrtle & Peat

The heather laboratory continues to go from strength to strength, looking magnificent in its current guise as a cotton field. Keeping the sheep off the hare’s tail cotton grass flowers throughout February and March has meant that the entire enclosure is now knee deep in puffy fruits. Black grouse and red grouse both love to eat the protein packed flowers as they start to appear with the retreating snows, and being forced to compete for them with sheep must be having an adverse effect on both species.

With the summer progressing and the heather looking happier and happier without any grazing pressure at all, I hope that this bodes well for the future. If nothing else, it’s a stunning display and shows what an effect livestock have on moorland undergrowth. While I was visiting this afternoon, I noticed a strange bird sitting on the barbed wire just above me, and managed to photograph it just before it vanished again. Mealy redpolls are relatively common, feeding on seeds from birches, alders and spruces. When my plans to plant all these species of tree for black grouse are fulfilled, we should start seeing plenty more of these pretty little birds.