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Acts of provocation
Having found the fox earth and planned a possible way of destroying it, I thought that I had time on my side. It turns out that I was wrong. Two new born lambs have gone missing over the past twenty four hours and this is a situation that cannot continue unchecked. The field from which… Continue reading
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Dietary requirements
Looking for more information about trees for black grouse, I found this cracking chart online. As far as I can tell, silver birch are shown as being the most important tree species for the black grouse’s year, and although I have already planted fifteen, I am sure that another dozen or so won’t do any… Continue reading
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The last of the yellowhammers
Shooting and conservation run so closely together that, out of season, I am beginning to feel like quite the naturalist. Every time I visit the farm, I carry a .243 and a Sony SLR digital camera. Encouragingly, I am beginning to find that I can use my camera more and more as the spring develops.… Continue reading
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A near miss in the fog
With the roe buck season now upon us, my venison larder is starting to look decidedly bare. As far as I am concerned, the finest meal available to man is roe fillet marinaded in red wine and served with potatoes dauphinoise, and having access to stalking across the county, it has often been my particular… Continue reading
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Bleating and squeaking
Eating a packed lunch by the side of the new birch plantation, I was treated to one of the finest aerial displays I have ever seen. Skylarks burble incessantly in the background, but through the general chaos of bird song, a noisy squeaking approached low over the moorland. Rather like the sound of a rusty… Continue reading
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Transport issues
Country people are renowned for driving enormous cars. It is the definitive statement of rural intent to own a mud spattered 4×4 and fill it with dogs, sticks and sloe gin. Aside from a small urban minority who insist on taking range rovers through the city centre of London, country cars are constantly forced into… Continue reading
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The wet ride: a woodcock experiment in progress
Work on the pine strip has ground to a halt over the past ten days after I disturbed a pair of woodcock who seem to be thinking of nesting there. I had been in the process of brashing a path directly through the centre of the long narrow pine wood, clearing patches here and there… Continue reading
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New arrivals
Spring is still springing, and it’s a process that seems more dramatic each day. Curlews are queuing up to feed on the moor and the sun is almost obscured with squadrons of skylarks, pipits and fieldfares. Fresh shoots of cotton grass are soaring out of the moss, and the entire atmosphere is one of unexpected… Continue reading
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On an unrelated subject…
A previous post mentioned puritan martyrs, hounded across the Galloway countryside in the last years of the seventeenth century. While it doesn’t have much to do with grouse, the weather has been so wild recently that I haven’t been able to get up to the farm for the last two days, and it occurred to… Continue reading
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Of Moles and Men
The last month has seen a massive explosion of moles across the Chayne. The small areas of grass between the rushes have been churned up into thick black stacks of peaty soil, and entire fields have been quite literally turned upside down. I have worked as a mole catcher over the past seven years and… 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 