Bog Myrtle & Peat

After several days of cold and bitter hardness, the frost vanished in less than an hour yesterday afternoon. A deep veil of cloud rolled down from the North, and the cast-iron mud collapsed at once into dribbling slush. Driving up the hill to gather some more firewood, the sound of the car disturbed a buzzard… Continue reading

Just in a moment’s idle speculation, it’s worth wondering about the behaviour of a wren I came across this morning while flighting duck. The estuary was patchily frozen with cling-film cow pats of ice where the fresh water swirled around the brine, and wigeon were coming in a steady stream around the bend where I… Continue reading

Having served as “designated driver”, I was coming back from a party on Saturday night along the narrow, winding road which runs through my parents’ farm. It was clear and cold, and I almost drove straight past a dead roe doe in the verge. I usually stop to inspect deer out of curiosity on this road, and… Continue reading

Between curtains of sleeting, miserable snow, I spent an hour this afternoon sticking in some new alder trees to a particularly wet wood that I have been curating for woodcock and blackgame on the Chayne. Strategy in this area redefines the meaning of “low density planting”, and I’ve concentrated (with help) on creating scattered patches of… Continue reading

It seems ridiculous to be carting bags of grit around the hill for the grouse when there is such an abundance of natural stone fragments already on offer. Struggling up a particularly steep slope yesterday with a 25Kg bag of stone on my back, I noticed a thick smear of granite grit which had been exposed by… Continue reading

High hopes of seeing the supposed “mega-moon” were dashed last night by a blanket of low cloud. Perhaps this was inevitable, but the cloud behaved like a diffuser over a gas lamp and a gentle glow of filtered light made the whole countryside shine. I had wondered what effect this moon would have on the migrating woodcock… Continue reading

Slightly disheartened to find that one of my two new beltie heifers became quite unwell during last week, lying apart from the rest of the girls and losing weight at a surprising rate. It was clear that she was hardly eating, and she spent a good deal of her time coughing and drooling. After a… Continue reading

  After weeks without meaningful rain, Galloway was drier than a bone. Muddy tracks had been frozen so often that the puddles finally sighed and blew away on the east wind. The peat crunched underfoot, and banks of fallen leaves swirled in skirts across the moss. There was hardly a fungus to be found in woods… Continue reading

I’ve touched this topic several times and provoked resounding protests and wails of fury, but it is worth returning for an even more definitive statement. Grouse are widely revered as the King of Gamebirds, and there is no doubt that they offer some of the most exciting and challenging shooting provided by any species in… Continue reading

A very quick mention of our first hazel coppice this afternoon. I had this lovely idea that you could build a deer guard out of twigs and branches from the tree you had just felled, weaving them all together like hurdles. Busily congratulating myself for such a work of inspired genius, it actually turns out… Continue reading