Bog Myrtle & Peat

Just worth mentioning that I took a quick detour over Langholm Moor this morning on my way out to a project near Newcastleton (of which more to come). As soon as the distinctive silhouette of the moor revealed itself to view from the road outside Kirkpatrick Fleming, I was surprised to see a cock hen harrier flying directly towards me above the hedge on the roadside. For some reason I always find it surprising to see harriers away from heather moorland, despite the fact that this is a very mobile species capable of earning a living in all manner of habitats.

During the winter I frequently see harriers turning up in all kinds of unexpected places throughout the southwest, and this year seems to have been a bumper year. I must have seen a dozen harriers in the last eight weeks, and looking at the fascinating Making the Most of Moorlands website, where updates from the Langholm harriers are frequently posted, it is quite probable that many of the birds I have been seeing are this year’s youngsters. This is borne out by the fact that the huge majority have been immature harriers, and the white bird I saw this morning is the first adult male I have seen since June, when a cock was almost constantly lurking around and about Middle Moss at Langholm.

I was in a rush by the time I left Langholm and needed to get down into Liddesdale, but I did see a couple of blackcock beyond the county boundary and managed to take a picture of a pugnacious red grouse cock from the window of the car. I had only pulled over to make some notes and check some details on the ordnance survey, and found myself being verbally abused from the verge.

Langholm moor deserves more coverage in this blog and I will get round to writing something about it in more detail in due course.