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Seedlings
Although it has only been in the ground for a fortnight, the game crop is showing some encouraging signs of progress. Clusters of turnip plants have appeared, and some of them are almost as big as fifty pence pieces. I had imagined that they would be starting to dry up after almost three weeks without… Continue reading
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Buzzard Predation
With the sun shining and turnip seedlings rising out of the game crop like dragons’ teeth, the first mini-setback has happened. A buzzard has taken the first partridge, plucking the feathers clumsily so that they lie in puckered bunches, bound together by scraps of skin. It is a concern, but the return of Mr. Lightbody… Continue reading
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Ringing The Birds
Last year I found a dead mute swan on the beach at Dundrennan. Thrilled to find that it had a leg ring, I took the details and contacted the BTO, hoping to be told wild, romantic tales of migration across the arctic ocean. The response was very quick from a bird ringer on the Isle… Continue reading
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Seven and a half weeks…
Perhaps the greatest joy of my entire dalliance with grey partridges came a month ago when the nerve biting moment came to open the pop-hole and be damned. Feeling horribly protective of my dear little charges, the moment quickly arrived when they could no longer depend upon the security of the electric fence. The A-frame… Continue reading
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Retail Therapy
It was a fantastic weekend at the Perth Game Fair, with incessant sunshine and some great things to see and do. The Heather Trust stand was well attended, and some of the visitors had useful (although tragic) stories to tell about heather beetle outbreaks, particularly in Caithness and Sutherland. Interestingly, one visitor who lost more… Continue reading
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The Scottish Game Fair
As a piece of flagrant advertising, I will be on the Heather Trust stall at the Scottish Game Fair this weekend at Scone – any readers who are passing by should drop in for a chat and maybe a cup of coffee. You may find yourself enlisted to the ranks of the Heather Trust, but… Continue reading
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Anyone For Millet?
As part of a mad dash, the game cover was broadcast and rolled this afternoon with a fantastic debut appearance from “Ugly Betty”, the newly named David Brown tractor. I can now relax as the smirry rain clouds begin to gather, safe in the knowledge that there is nothing more I can do. It is… Continue reading
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“Giving Nature a Home”
Just worth noting that there are many ways to “give nature a home” which do not involve donating money to the RSPB. This spotted flycatcher has made a nest in the bracket of the satellite dish which beams my internet into the house. I didn’t have to fill in any gift aid subscriptions or make… Continue reading
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Calling In The Cavalry
Hours after getting hold of the Chayne’s first tractor, the rotovator I was planning to use for the game crop ate itself in a moment of noisy destruction. Left with a twisted ruin of angry-looking metal, I was faced with the deciding whether or not to call in the cavalry or abandon the idea of… Continue reading
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Narrow Strip Matrix
Heading to the North East of Scotland last week, I had the opportunity to spend a few hours in the magnificent hills of Strathdon (where there are so many black grouse that the Pennines would blush to see them), before heading over the heights of Lecht and down onto Speyside to visit Dick Bartlett, who… 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 