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Late Departure
Just worth mentioning that I saw a skein of thirty pink foot geese yesterday, flying low along the Solway coast. I originally assumed that they must be greylags, but there was no mistaking that classic “wink-wink”. I wonder what they’re still doing here, since the majority of birds left at the end of March. The… Continue reading
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Cuckoos and Pipits
Having come close to complaining about the incessant calling of cuckoos last week, it’s worth thinking about why they come to Galloway in such numbers. As well as quantities of caterpillars, the southern uplands has a huge abundance of meadow pipits lurking in the marginal moorland – perfect for raiding and abandoning an egg in… Continue reading
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Hatching Plans
In order to save up for this summer’s programme of rearing and fiddling about on the hill, I was working at the local elections yesterday. Starting at 6:30 am and finishing after 10pm, it was a long day as a polling clerk, spent crossing names off a list and explaining how to put numbers on… Continue reading
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A Golden Moment
I had the happy surprise this afternoon of putting up a small party of three golden plover on the long walk around my traps. The first thing I recognised was a plaintive, gloomy whistle, repeated twice from the bare hill a few yards to my left. All of a sudden, three sharp-winged shapes rose out… Continue reading
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Cuckoos Aplenty
Everyone makes the association between cuckoos and the arrival of springtime, but over the last few days, the changing of the seasons has been marked by cuckoos to such an extent that the call is constant up and down the valley. It’s not that I’d ever fail to appreciate the arrival of a fascinating migrant,… Continue reading
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The Great Woodland Scam
Good to see that the Forestry Commission and others are keen to trumpet the recent increase in black grouse numbers, which, as well as the small matter of mild weather conditions, was apparently brought about by woodland expansion projects… (?) Yet again the great lie of black grouse conservation rears its head, just as it… Continue reading
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Cows and Blackcock
A few days ago, the cows returned to the Chayne. I usually dread their arrival, because they quickly go wild up on the hill and stampede at the slightest provocation. It’s frustrating to lie out for a fox and have forty cows staring at you with the same amount of fascination as if you were… Continue reading
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White Arse?
Wheatears have been on the Chayne for almost a month now, but only in the last few days have they become really conspicuous. Courtship songs and display flights have been the order of the day, and it’s been a great opportunity to get up close and personal with these cracking little birds. They have such… Continue reading
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The Loneliness of the Long Distance Larsen
Now’s the time of year to be getting stuck into the vermin, and yet again I’m reminded of how difficult life on the Chayne is without proper roads, tracks or access of any sort. Two weeks ago, I carried a multi larsen trap on my back two miles across the hill and left it in… Continue reading
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Seeds of Cha(y)nge
I was born and brought up on a lowland farm overlooking the Solway, so you’d think that I’d know something about agriculture. Sadly, that area of the world is a total mystery to me, and arable farming is a subject about which I am wholly ignorant. I spent my entire childhood shooting pigeons and rabbits,… 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 