History has shown us that black grouse and commercial forestry do not make good bedfellows. The huge population crashes of the seventies and eighties in southern Scotland coincided precisely with the birth of expansive sitka spruce plantations, and it would be hard to imagine a better way of destroying quality habitat than by draining it Continue reading

Just worth putting in an advance warning that I’m down to be interviewed on BBC Radio Scotland about black grouse next monday at lunchtime. I’ve never had anything to do with this sort of thing before, and it seems a long way away from checking fox snares and planting trees. The programme’s being recorded in Continue reading

It’s been a while since I’ve seen signs of black grouse on the Chayne. They’re certainly still going around, but the majority seem to be on the neighbouring property to the north of the farm. While he was alive, my favourite blackcock provided a good focal point for birds in an easily accessible spot, but Continue reading

Just worth mentioning in brief that I’ve just returned from a press trip up in Perthshire and had a chance to see what was going on at leks in the shadow of Schiehallion. It’s always a real pleasure to watch displaying blackcock, and even though the biggest lek I saw this morning held just six Continue reading

My larsen trapping regime has forced me to visit areas of the farm which are normally too inaccessible for me to go to on a regular basis, and I’ve learnt some interesting new things over the past month. I was forced to watch a fox charge away through the rushes yesterday evening when, for the Continue reading

A few days ago, the cows returned to the Chayne. I usually dread their arrival, because they quickly go wild up on the hill and stampede at the slightest provocation. It’s frustrating to lie out for a fox and have forty cows staring at you with the same amount of fascination as if you were Continue reading

One great addition which has come to the Chayne over the past few weeks has been the building sound of red grouse cackling at first light and at the last squeak of blue before darkness. They reached a peak of calling a few days ago and have since taken a bit of a step back Continue reading

After a huge thunder and lightning/hail storm last week, I’ve had no internet connection in the house – which explains the lack of new information on Working for Grouse. It’s frustrating because this is usually the busiest time of year for the obsessive black grouse enthusiast, and I now have a backlog of nine unpublished Continue reading

Now that the wheatears are here, the time has come to make a start on my lek search for 2012. Essentially, I need to know where the blackcock are lekking within a three or four mile radius of the Chayne, and given that the area has been abandoned by the RSPB surveyors who no longer Continue reading

With the majority of trees planted this year, it only remains to get the last few hawthorn and birch whips in the ground before the season ends. It’s been a hard slog to get the trees planted in time this year, and I just hope that this dry weather breaks soon or most of my Continue reading