Bog Myrtle & Peat

In moving things from my old laptop to my new computer (a very fancy iMac), I found this picture of my much loved pet blackcock who lived in the garden for a couple of years before passing on to the great lekking ground in the sky in 2013. I learnt a huge amount from studying… Continue reading

Having longed for a trail camera for years, I was delighted to take receipt of a demonstration model belonging to Solway Feeders last week. Told to put the TASCO camera through its paces, I took it straight up to the Chayne and set it on the fence line where the harriers have been in evidence… Continue reading

A study was published in December which basically claimed to debunk the logic of crow control for conservation. At the risk of paraphrasing too much, the paper explained that crows don’t have much of an impact on their prey species, and the only real benefits of crow control were in increased prey for sportsmen and shooting… Continue reading

It was an odd feeling to head off for a day’s shooting woodcock on Friday without my dog. She has just come on heat during the last week, and I decided that it wasn’t fair on the other dogs to have her pumping a frenzy of hormones and excitement into the day. As it turned… Continue reading

Worth mentioning in brief that I have finally taken the plunge and updated my camera – I am now the proud owner of a Sony alpha58 – just an upgrade of the old (and extremely battered) alpha200 which has been the mainstay of this blog for the past five years. I managed to catch up with… Continue reading

It has been interesting to see the varied reactions to the Langholm 7 year update which was published just before Christmas. The RSPB appears to be branding the project an outright success, despite its failure to deliver a shootable surplus of grouse. They argue that grouse shooting is “just around the corner”, and some commentators are… Continue reading

Spending New Year in North Cornwall with my in-laws after a particularly chaotic Christmas, I had some very welcome opportunities to get out and about amongst the wildlife. After seven years of visiting the West Country, I haven’t really managed to make any real inroads into the local countryside, and as much as I have spent… Continue reading

In the dying moments of last year, I resolved in 2014 to catch a sea trout and stalk a six pointer roe buck. Although I only managed the former on a technicality (see full report), the latter presented one of the most exciting and overwhelmingly memorable achievements of my life, fulfilled as it was after a… Continue reading

Difficult to reach the end of 2014 without quickly mentioning my Kelly Kettle, which has been a phenomenal boon during the course of the year. Not being particularly drawn to gadgets, I made an exception in May and bought a kettle while passing through Tiso in Perth. It was something like an impulse buy, and… Continue reading

It will come as no real upset to followers of this blog (and visitors to my house) that my dear turkey went to meet his maker yesterday morning at the hands of the same rogue fox that killed five of my hens last week. “Shane” had been a popular fixture in my garden for the… Continue reading