Bog Myrtle & Peat

The last week has brought the first distant scents of autumn. The rowan berries are suddenly red enough to catch the eye, and the bracken suddenly feels hard and weary. The first buds of devil’s bit scabious appeared on the moss last weekend. These little purple flowers often persist well into October, and they are… Continue reading

There have been some extremely encouraging signs of progress amongst the galloways over the past few days, and while old Charlie’s feet have been giving him some grief, this is probably more a result of being kept indoors all summer than anything more pernicious. Twenty four hours after his arrival, he had latched on to… Continue reading

Long-term readers will remember my attempts at growing game crops in previous years to boost partridge and blackgame habitats. These didn’t produce exactly the results I was hoping for, but the crops provided plenty of food for thought.   Lots of local people remember shooting black grouse and grey partridges from turnip fields on hill… Continue reading

I set off on a hazel coppicing project in November with great enthusiasm, but other work soon intervened and I was forced to focus elsewhere for much of the winter. I checked in on the first signs of growth in April, then circumstances again tied me up and the trees have been undisturbed ever since.… Continue reading

It is indisputably important to acknowledge the arrival of a new team member on the Working for Grouse blog. Having hummed and hawed over the subject of breeding cattle for the past two years, I began this summer with the express aim of acquiring a bull. Feeling my way in the strange world of agriculture,… Continue reading

Catching up with this blog after a few days away, I can’t resist a quick post about grouse grit on the hill. Regular readers will remember the considerable effort I put in to setting up grit boxes in November, and may also recall my slight frustration in February when it seemed like the birds were… Continue reading

At the risk of labouring the subject of cuckoos, it’s hard to resist a further post to acknowledge the fact that they are slowly becoming independent of their foster parents. I noticed one youngster attempting to feed itself yesterday afternoon for the first time, dropping down off the telephone wire to bounce along the track… Continue reading

It’s worth recording that I found a good number of golden plover on the summit plateau of the Merrick when I climbed that mighty hill last week. The little black-bellied birds rose up and rushed away to the West, leaving nothing more than a mournful “peep” in their wake. This ground is very similar to… Continue reading

It has been disappointing to find the annual crop of rabbits is suddenly in a tailspin. Rabbits move in mysterious ways on the hill, and their population swings between periods of extraordinary boom and sudden, crushing bust. I’ve written on this blog before about liver fluke as a driving cause of population collapse, and I’ve… Continue reading

The new house continues to reveal pleasant surprises as the seasons revolve. Having enjoyed a deafening din of cuckoos throughout May, I had the distinct feeling that eggs and chicks must be somewhere in the vicinity. Swamped with work and tied down with the mechanics of moving house, I failed to spend much time in… Continue reading