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Ornamental heathers
Calluna vulgaris is a name applied to dozens of varieties of ling. The plant grows in its natural form on the Chayne, and it can also be found in garden centres across the world, hybridised into extraordinary shapes and colours for the requirements of the horticultural industry. Seeing a selection of unusual looking ornamental heathers… Continue reading
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Learning from history
The Chayne was once part of a large shooting estate. Run together with the five neighbouring farms, the local estate had access to some cracking sport across almost ten thousand acres of Galloway upland. Shooting people often enshrine their memories in gamebooks and diaries, and fascinatingly detailed documents still survive up and down the country… Continue reading
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Red kites on the moor
There have been no kites in Scotland since 1879. Poisoned, trapped and shot into extinction, red kites were seen as dirty birds, responsible for killing lambs and game birds. When thirty-three young birds were reintroduced to Dumfries and Galloway in 2001, many people saw them for the first time. Over the past nine years, they… Continue reading
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Dawn Patrol
Having enjoyed such a resoundingly successful dawn fox patrol last week, I was desperate to follow it up with another. The Chayne’s boundary takes around two hours to walk, and the fact that the farm is surrounded on three sides by thick pine forestry makes encountering foxes far more likely on the fenceline. With silver… Continue reading
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The squirrels are waking up
Dumfries and Galloway is one of the last places in Britain with a healthy population of red squirrels. Grey squirrels are resident in Glasgow and Edinburgh and virus carrying greys are sweeping up from England, but our local reds seem blissfully unconcerned. They disappeared to their dreys over the course of the winter, but now… Continue reading
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“Duncan”: an experimental weapon
Crows become extremely territorial during the breeding season. They attack buzzards or sparrowhawks when they come too near their nest at this time of the year, and sometimes those aerial skirmishes can be a thrilling sight. Buzzards allow the marauding crows to come in extremely close, flicking their thick wings at the last moment to… Continue reading
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Fighting pheasants: a mysterious drama
And still spring continues to unfold on the farm. We have a handful of pheasants on the Chayne, and they lurk throughout the year on the low ground around the farm buildings. A large pheasant shoot releases birds two miles away at the bottom of the valley, and it is inevitable that a few stragglers… Continue reading
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Spring is coming…
I see something new every time I visit the Chayne. The past few days have brought with them encouraging signs of spring and it is fascinating to watch the now familiar landscape coming to life. Dozens of skylarks seem to have arrived over the course of the last week, and I was delighted to hear… Continue reading
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Where to plant the juniper
The time is fast approaching to fence off my juniper stand. The spring is coming in and the time for planting will soon be upon us. Ever since the idea was first presented to me to plant a new spinney, I always planned to site it on the spot where the last black grouse was… Continue reading
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Larsen Traps: troubleshooting
Country tradition has it that the best call bird for a Larsen trap is an unfamiliar crow who has been brought in from elsewhere. Other crows are so enraged by the presence of the newcomer that they cannot resist attacking it, becoming captured themselves in due course. I should have put more thought into where… 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 