Bog Myrtle & Peat

It was very worrying to catch a glimpse of a grey squirrel while shooting woodcock on a local farm earlier this week. The little devil came dashing through a stand of young ash trees, and only avoided being shot because it had never occurred to the gun it ran past that it could have been a grey. He realised too late, by which point it was gone.

We see red squirrels almost every day in this part of Galloway, although greys are always trying to advance. Some estates in Dumfriesshire spend considerable time and resources trying to stop the greys, and the entire south west of Scotland benefits from their work. The occasional grey squirrel turns up in the Glen where I live, but the keepers or gardeners usually stop it in its tracks. It seems like the future of red squirrels is hanging in the balance here, and if the people who take control so seriously even relax their grasp for a moment, all could be lost.