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Beetles and Frosting
As the heather buds start to crack and the first flowers begin to show, it’s a good moment to assess the condition of the hill. I was surprised to find these heather plants on the Chayne which have been almost killed out by cold weather. On an area of almost half an acre, the heather… Continue reading
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Galloway Grouse
Over the past few weeks I’ve been seeing some pretty nice coveys of red grouse, not only on the Chayne but also in the surrounding area. On the morning of the CLA (when I was stalking a roe buck instead of sitting in a hot car for five hours to Ragley), I found some decent… Continue reading
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Ex-Battery Broody
After almost five months working with a number of broody hens to produce partridge poults, it’s been very interesting to see the variety of attitudes different individual birds have to rearing their chicks. Some mothers (the best ones) are attentive, communicative and light-footed around their tiny charges, while others never seem to form a bond… Continue reading
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Turkey Progress
Just worth including a photograph of one of the Christmas turkeys, which are now almost six weeks old and appear to be going from strength to strength. They are starting to behave more recognisably like turkeys, and the velvety down on their heads is starting to thin, revealing pink scalps underneath. Fed on high protein… Continue reading
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Turnip Steroids
In my naïve attempt to fiddle with agriculture, I seem to have opened a major can of worms. Having put in my game crop for the benefit of partridges and blackgame, I have been delighted to see the stubble turnips come leaping into prosperity, even during the long, dry July. Tempting fate, I decided to… Continue reading
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Further Forest Foolishness
I’m grateful to Mike Groves who sent me this appalling picture of a greyhen sitting on an area of what seems to be clear-felled sitka spruce in Angus. The picture was taken a few weeks ago, right in the middle of the black grouse breeding season, and it makes the blood run cold to wonder… Continue reading
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Heather Beetles on the Chayne
After a maddening collision between lightning and the horribly fragile infrastructure that BT maintains in Dumfries and Galloway, I have only recently come back into the world of the internet after an absence of almost ten days – (ten days without that wobbly stop/start rural internet that inexplicably costs exactly the same as lazer-fast urban… Continue reading
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Sitting Again
After three months of constant laying, my four pairs of breeding partridges have laid almost precisely three hundred eggs. I’m now just gathering up the last odds and ends, and feeling rather like I’ve been hit by a bus. They produced more than double the eggs I was expecting, and although now is probably not… Continue reading
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Golden-ringed Dragonfly
Speaking of helicopters (below), I couldn’t resist posting this picture of a golden-ringed dragonfly that I saw yesterday morning out on the hill. I am always extremely impressed by these monsters, and this brute would have covered most of my hand if I had allowed it to land on me. It is interesting to compare… Continue reading
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Bracken Control
Thanks to the Emergency Authorisation for the use of Asulam, helicopters are flying again on the hills opposite the Chayne. They made a great impact on the hill opposite my house last year, and looking at the areas which haven’t regrown this summer, it’s hard to argue with Asulox as a control measure. Long straight… Continue reading
About
“Shout on, Morgan. You’ll be nothing tomorrow”
Swn y galon fach yn torri, 1952
Also at: https://andtheyellowale.substack.com
Bog Myrtle & Peat 