I was very interested to see this picture taken of a sign at Coed Llandegla in North Wales, which was sent to me by fellow blogger Sam Thompson. The statement that over 50% of the UK population of black grouse lives in North Wales caught my eye, because if this was true, then Wales would Continue reading

Well worth recording the fact that this has been a fantastically productive year for red grouse on the Chayne. With the exception of one spectacular pack of almost eighteen birds, most of the grouse have now split into pairs for the winter, although I have been seeing two “threes”, i.e. two hens with one cock. Continue reading

Plucking and drawing the grouse from Morayshire on Tuesday, I was interested to see what their crops contained. When I opened up the crop of a grouse shot in August, I found nothing but rush seeds, demonstrating the extremely variable diet of a bird that we tend to think will only eat heather. On opening Continue reading

After having been repeatedly soaked by rain over the past few weeks, I decided to take matters into my own hands with a new raincoat. Going into the situation fairly blind, I was pointed in the direction of a brand named “paramo” by the wise council of a Dumfries jacket salesman. After years of optimistically Continue reading

Further to my post (below) about the benefits of new woodland, I visited an estate in Perthshire on Thursday where over 100 acres of a 5,000 acre moor have been planted up with a range of hardwoods, scots pines and larches. Unlike the commercial plantings in Galloway, these trees have been put in specifically for Continue reading

Interesting rumours beginning to come through of a massive cull of Galloway larch trees as a result of the major phytophthora outbreak which has taken place in the Galloway Forest Park. I posted about this a few months ago when I came across a huge area of dead larches on the Border between Galloway and Continue reading

Just worth including this photograph of a cut heather “sculpture” on the hill above Traquair, near Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders. Half a dozen large cuts have been put into seven or eight acres of mature heather surrounded by sitka spruce trees to create an optical illusion that is much the same as advertising on Continue reading

During a few hours in Weardale and Teesdale on Thursday afternoon, I saw more black grouse than I have ever seen in my life. In one five acre field, there were forty two birds, and as I watched, they were joined by another brood of six. Brood after brood of promising young poults moved quietly Continue reading

On Wednesday morning, I found a small tuft of greyhen feathers on the Chayne where a newly overhauled stretch of track has left piles of bare soil heaped up in the rushes. My first reaction was that a greyhen had been dustbathing on the exposed soil, where there was also a litter of pheasant and Continue reading

On her various travels as a private hire chef, my girlfriend has just returned from a week cooking for a shooting party near Braemar. She took this photograph (above) of a covey of birds on the road up to the shooting lodge, and I thought it warranted inclusion purely on account of its being a Continue reading