The past week has been spent chaotically planting trees in the name of black grouse (post to follow), and I’m already sick of it. The real joy of planting trees comes a few years down the line when they are really establishing themselves, not as you’re hammering tree stakes into stoney ground or lugging tubex Continue reading

It was just a few months ago that I saw my first ever goshawk on the Chayne. Since then, sightings have become increasingly common, particularly around the woodcock strip, a long band of sitka spruces which I have been thinning out, clear felling and replanting in stages for the past three years. It could be Continue reading

What began as a trickle last week has now become a flood. Skylarks hung in every corner of the sky as I walked across the Chayne this morning, and it makes a refreshing change to hear something more than the occasional deep “clock” of a raven. It won’t be long now until the curlews are Continue reading

After three years up on the hill, I came across my first otter last night. It comes as no surprise that they are up there, and even if I hadn’t found their tracks in the snow, I would have guessed that they were about given that the low ground on the Chayne is criss-crossed with Continue reading

Almost a year to the day since they appeared on the Chayne, the hen harriers have returned. Last year, more than five harriers at a time were seen cruising over the low ground below the moor, and this morning I happened to come across a cock and hen bird flying together over a patch of Continue reading

When you set out to create a wild shoot, you can’t be picky when it comes to which game species responds to your efforts. Although pretty much all of the work I have done over the past two and a half years on the Chayne has been in the name of black grouse, snipe seem Continue reading

The snow has been and gone up on the hill. The expanses of standing molinia grass have been flattened by the first drifts and some of the young scots pine trees have had their branches snapped off under the weight of the snow. Although I missed the first morning after the snow fell because I Continue reading

Having waited for snow for more than a month, it arrived at a bad moment. I spent the weekend in east Yorkshire and was away from the Chayne when the first snow fell, but driving back through the hills of Teesdale this evening, I was treated to some great short eared owl action as flurries Continue reading

The past week has given me a fascinating opportunity to follow the progress of my released partridges. Many have wandered far and wide across the farm, while a dedicated hard core of birds has stayed around the pen, feeding and communing with the handful still left inside. It has been a real pleasure to take Continue reading

I wouldn’t normally go out of my way to talk about birds of prey on this blog. Aside from the occasional flash of gratifying prettiness, raptors don’t really float my boat. I’d far rather spend a morning with a woodcock than a buzzard, and while my ambivalence is amazing to some raptor enthusiasts (and even Continue reading