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Case in Point
As if to endorse yesterday’s post about the importance of crow control, I found this empty oystercatcher egg by the side of the loch infront of the house this morning. Continue reading
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Endless Corbies
It’s frustrating to see that despite my best efforts, crows are still in evidence across the Chayne. I may well have removed the bulk of breeding birds and I’m always on the look out for new nests, but that doesn’t stop the less destructive but still dangerous gangs of non-breeding birds from passing through now… Continue reading
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Spring Rain
Each season on the Chayne has its merits, and I must admit that my favourite is always the one currently happening. I love winter in winter and summer in summer, but there’s something really special about May. I was thinking it today as I walked round my larsen traps and was caught out in a… Continue reading
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Discoveries
My larsen trapping regime has forced me to visit areas of the farm which are normally too inaccessible for me to go to on a regular basis, and I’ve learnt some interesting new things over the past month. I was forced to watch a fox charge away through the rushes yesterday evening when, for the… Continue reading
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Red and Grey
Now that the eggs are in the incubator and the first bantam is starting to show some evidence of turning broody, my partridge project seems to be coming together nicely. I don’t know a great deal about grey partridges, so this area of my work on the Chayne is something of a new voyage of… Continue reading
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Mail Order Partridges
2012’s grey partridge project has begun, but not as I had planned. Originally, I intended to buy partridge eggs from a breeder in the midlands, but for one reason and another, I didn’t get my act in order before the first clutches had been sold. I will still get some eggs from that breeder but… Continue reading
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A Suspicious Lull
The last week has been really very quiet up on the hill, particularly in terms of vermin. I haven’t caught a crow, stoat or weasel in a few days, and there have been no signs of any fox activity. That’s not to say that the buggers aren’t still out there – Having accounted for the… Continue reading
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The Ploughman Cometh
It seems like an eternity since I got approval from the tenant to take a field and put it under game cover, and during that time I’ve been getting more and more excited about what is essentially just a bog-standard agricultural procedure. I’m excited because of the links between black grouse and arable farming, as… Continue reading
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Larsen Progress
Over the last few years, I’ve had to learn a great deal about larsen traps. When I started to work on the Chayne three years ago, I only had one trap and I hardly had the time to keep an eye on it. It sat in a convenient spot by the side of the road… Continue reading
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To Tweet or Not To Tweet
With the publication date of my book approaching (due in August, although pre-orders are being taken on Amazon.com, which is quite exciting), I’ve been looking at ways to publicise the project and get people interested, not for my sake per se but for the wider benefit of black grouse. I was never quite sure how… 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 