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First Egg
It was with no small amount of delight and triumph that I found my first grey partridge egg of the year this morning. Although it looked a little small, research online has shown that it is within the average expectations for a partridge egg, weighing around 14g (the average is 14.1g). I must admit that… Continue reading
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Downy and Silver
The past few weeks have been spent planting up an area of rough, abandoned ground which hasn’t been grazed for the past ten or fifteen years. In some areas, willow scrub has come up in thick clumps above the heather, and the area already seems to be attracting woodcock, roe deer and black grouse. This… Continue reading
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April Osprey
Planting trees with a friend yesterday in a caustic easterly wind full of snow and misery, I looked up to see a strange shape passing down the line of a cleugh two hundred yards away. Following a moment or two of squinting and tooth sucking, it was revealed that it was an osprey. A look… Continue reading
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Ash-bathing
Just worth including this picture of one of my captive partridge hens enjoying a dust bath. I posted last week about released partridges using molehills for dustbathing purposes, and it made me look into partridge dust baths just out of interest. My birds have had access to sharp sand since I first got them in… Continue reading
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Hares at Glenshee
Having a girlfriend who is an extremely keen ski enthusiast, I found myself on the road to Glenshee yesterday morning. I’ve been over the top of Glenshee several times before but never really had cause to stop and look around, so as my girlfriend and some of her friends went off to organise skiing equipment,… Continue reading
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Heated debate
Judging by the news, most of the north of Scotland is currently on fire. Hyperbole and exaggeration aside, there have been some big fires in the north and the perennial issue of muirburn has reared its head conspicuously on cue yet again. It is interesting how issues relating to wildfire and muirburn are relayed by… Continue reading
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Given that we are about a month behind schedule for the breeding birds, it seems unlikely that there is much to be gained from running larsens for a few more weeks. However, there has been a pair of corbie crows coming in to one of my last feed hoppers, along with a range of rooks,… Continue reading
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The Big Thaw
Now that the snow is finally starting to drip, some ghoulish remains are beginning to surface. There has been no real snow for the past ten days, but only in the last forty eight hours has the sun really managed to get a bite in to the frozen hillsides. Walking across a corner of the… Continue reading
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A Good Dustbath
I was very pleased to see that my first pair of released grey partridges are still hanging around the remains of the game cover. I was worried about them after five and six foot high snow drifts buried their feed hopper, but was planting blackthorn trees in the new hedge this morning and heard a… Continue reading
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Clear Fell
Having spent four years dancing around the issues presented by a long forty yard wide band of sitka spruce trees across the middle of the Chayne, the past few weeks have been spent taking matters into my own hands. The wood is too small to make it viable for a proper harvester to come up… 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 