Now all the swallows have vanished. The great bulk of them moved south around a fortnight ago, but I have been holding off mentioning it until the last few stragglers headed off as well. The first birds arrived at the Chayne on April 10th, the day of the Grand National, a fortnight before I had Continue reading

With the moor dying away, it’s easy to get gloomy about the long months ahead, but the last few weeks have seen a great rise in the numbers of caterpillars across the lower ground on the farm. Two of the most recent finds have been ruby tiger (on bog cotton) and light knotgrass (on soft Continue reading

Summer is formally over. Until we receive further instructions from autumn, we are in a difficult middle ground. The chestnuts around the farm are turning and the bracken is almost all gone. Out in the fields above the far shed, chaos reigns. The few pasture fields on the Chayne have become infested with thistles over  Continue reading

One of the first rules of wildlife photography is that you should always have a camera on you at all times. I am not a wildlife photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but by virtue of having a long lensed camera over my shoulder all day and every day, I have got lucky once Continue reading

The woodcock strip has come alive with sinister toadstools. Bit by bit over the past few weeks, red balls have emerged from the undergrowth, thrusting aside fallen sitka needles and dead grass. At first, I took them to be fly agaric, the classic red and white spotted toadstool that everyone knows is deadly. However, as Continue reading

It’s been a while since I went out and did the rounds with the rifle. Seeing the afternoon set fair, I headed out this evening for a bit of a wander. Two cock pheasants strolled aimlessly through the rushes where the blackcock sits, but the hero himself was absent. I drove the car up to Continue reading

Over the past few days, something has been brewing up on the Chayne. I first noticed it last week, when I was driving up to the farm. Dozens of wheatears had gathered together along the topstones of the roadside dyke, and they fluttered and rolled away from the car as I drove. Last year’s adults Continue reading

You can’t beat a melodramatic title. In truth, nothing was attacked and the bat in question has been safely released into the wild. That said, today has not been without incident. It was a grim morning, but by the time I had got up and done the worst of today’s work, it was looking a Continue reading

I must admit that my self proclaimed mastery of British ornithology has recently been called into question. Usually, I can happily identify the majority of our bird species with the slightest glimpse or whistle, but I have recently been struggling with three birds who are effectively interchangeable. They belong to an avian family which is Continue reading

When I first started to write this blog, I intended it to look at managing an upland rough shoot throughout the year. As time has gone by, the subject matter has gravitated towards black grouse and habitat management. I make no apology for this, since I find those subjects most interesting, and limited as a Continue reading