As a side project, I have resolved to learn more about taxidermy. How this will progress remains to be seen, but as part of my preparations, I received a bag of borax powder and two acrylic grouse eyes in the post this morning. The eyes came from the amusingly named company “just eyes” which operates Continue reading

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing our small grouse syndicate down on the Solway coast is the huge extent of old, mature heather and the fact that it lies on extremely steep hill faces. It is tricky to burn, since the hill is surrounded on almost every side by forestry plantations, and a lack of management Continue reading

Just interesting to compare the crop contents of a bird shot on Peak Naze in Derbyshire on Thursday with the “rush-seed-eating” bird I posted about previously. The Peak District bird has a crop full of readily identifiable heather shoots, including some flowers, demonstrating that the annual cycle of grouse food depends hugely upon what is Continue reading

Having started to develop an interest in hill walking a few years ago, I find that one of the most interesting elements of the pastime is watching other people do it. In my limited experience, human beings have a range of reasons for wanting to ascend steep, challenging mountains, but in Scotland there is a Continue reading

Having passed hundreds of miles of Britain under my car bumper over the past few weeks, it seemed time to catch up with a pseudo-chronological record of events since the start of August. Gannets coasted easily around the ferry as it pounded out from Oban, slicing through the short gap to Craignure. The sun began Continue reading

On my trip down to Coverdale last week, I couldn’t resist driving through Teesdale, the heartland of England’s black grouse population. Usually used to seeing thirty or forty black grouse in a short half hour circuit of the dale, I was slightly downhearted to only see fields of lapwings as I first pulled off the Continue reading

After the most fantastic day of grouse shooting that I can ever remember on Friday, it’s interesting to study the bodies of the fallen before they end up in the oven. We shot one and a half brace during an afternoon of racing cloud and sunshine, walking them up with the help of a young Continue reading

The great downside (or fortunate bonus) of being devoted to a popularly obscure gamebird is that there is no consumable merchandise that my friends and family can give me on my birthday. Aside from the RSPB enamel badges, there really is almost nothing in the way of gimmicky black grouse tat such as key rings, Continue reading

Just to commemorate the passing of the 12th with this picture of a soggy grouse poult which I took yesterday during a fine day’s grouse shooting in Coverdale. It was largely a bright, wild day with some horrendous showers, and while the birds did as well as they could, this year’s later hatch was quite Continue reading

Having been listening to the arrogant cackling of a grouse cock in a totally new and unexpected corner of the hill, I took up a friend with a pointer last week in an attempt to find out what all the fuss was about. Despite covering a huge amount of ground, the pointer revealed nothing in Continue reading