With the hill more or less dead and lifeless, now seems to be the time to make plans for the spring. Although it doesn’t seem it, the growing season is almost here, and I’ve got big plans for planting. One of the most important projects I’m working on this year is creating (or resurrecting in Continue reading

Just thought it was worth including this picture which I took this morning from my bedroom window, looking across the loch to the Bogrie Hill. I’m thrilled to bits to finally be living within earshot of grouse, particularly in an area with reasonable heather coverage. The Chayne is a white hill, with the majority of Continue reading

The woodland surrounding the Chayne is managed commercially. Big subsidies and tax breaks were being offered a few decades ago to anyone who wanted to plant trees, and as a result, one of the most devastating changes in land use that Britain has ever seen began to permanently destroy thousands of acres of the nation’s Continue reading

While the last couple of years have been quite slow for my project on the hill, I feel like things are starting to pick up pace. I now understand what needs to be done to help black grouse and all ground nesting birds, and I’ve whittled down my various habitat management theories into a handful Continue reading

Having followed the black grouse’s progress in real depth over the past few days, I’ve had a good opportunity to see what they like and what they don’t like in their surroundings. Short grass is perfect for lekking, foraging and catching the sun, but it leaves you exposed and feeling vulnerable to birds of prey. Continue reading

With a bank holiday looming and little in the way of sporting shooting on offer on the Chayne, it seemed like a good idea to head up country and do some hillwalking. Of all the hills you can see from the Chayne, Cairnsmore of Carsphairn is perhaps the most dramatic. Just shy of 800 metres Continue reading

Having spent the whole of yesterday with a heavy knapsack sprayer on my back, I can honestly say that bracken control is not exactly a barrel of laughs. Lugging a leaky sixteen litre container full of Asulox over the hillside, spraying the crisp fronds of chest high bracken with a woefully small jet fitting feels Continue reading

Further to the post on asphodel a fortnight ago, it’s worth noticing how fantastically well the heather has done in the stockproof enclosure this year. I’ve been following the progress of the ling shoots since February last year, when they were looking decidedly weak and on the back foot. Since their protection from grazing, they Continue reading

When I fenced off an area of the hill and prevented it from being grazed in February of last year, I had no idea how fascinating the half acre of apparently dead vegetation would become. Within weeks, I began to notice a difference between the area inside the rylock netting and the area outside. Over Continue reading

I’ve been so busy slashing down sitka spruces to build my new release pen that I haven’t really had time to think about what I want to replace them with. The woodcock strip has been opened up enough over the past year so that roe deer now live in it after an absence of more Continue reading