Bog Myrtle & Peat

The number of redwings flying over Galloway has become absurd. I can’t ever remember such a glut of thrushes, and hardly ten minutes passes without the thin, whining trill of passing birds. As anticipated, the sparrowhawks are riding the crest of this wave, hunting in sharp, feline pounces through the brambles. The plucking posts are flock-coated with… Continue reading

Interesting to note the recent appeals from the RSPB which is aiming to raise funding to buy land adjacent to their existing reserve at Mersehead. There’s no doubt that Mersehead is a grand place, and in fact it is so near my home that I often walk the dogs there on winter evenings after work. On the… Continue reading

In brief, I had a superb day’s stalking with a friend in the Grampians yesterday amidst the white-hot heat of the rut. What I thought I had seen on Islay turned out to be just a precursor of the real deal, and the day was alive with bellowing, piss-soaked stags in the most turgid throes of sexual… Continue reading

The galloways required their first “hands-on” treatment on Tuesday, providing me with the first real opportunity to work with them at close quarters. They needed a fluke and worm treatment – two sub-cutaneous injections to clear them of any parasites they may have picked up over the summer. Having just spent a good deal of… Continue reading

The sky is suddenly filled with redwings. I had forgotten their thin, reedy screed until the rowans were filled with it. Flights of song thrushes have been tantalizing me for days, chittering and clicking as they fly against hot blue skies. I hope they are fieldfares every time, then spot dotted breasts and that familiar,… Continue reading

Watching a blue hen harrier cock hunting over the grass last night, I had a fresh opportunity to see how these birds interact with grouse. I had spotted a grouse cock quietly picking through the moss at a distance of perhaps five hundred yards, and the harrier’s arrival drew my eye away as the sun began to set.… Continue reading

After several days away, it’s been a pleasure to get back to work on the Chayne. I headed up last night with the chainsaw to tackle some of the worst areas of fallen sitka spruce which have swirled and tumbled like pick-up-sticks in the wind over the past few years. This was partly deliberate, as… Continue reading

Several recent articles seem to have begun with an apology for the sporadic nature of this blog over the past few months, but this time I can claim genuine legitimacy. I’ve been staying for the last week in an old farmhouse on Islay without any electricity or even the merest suggestion of internet, but the days… Continue reading

Worth a brief article to commemorate the approaching ten year anniversary of my first stag, which fell on the 14th September 2006. It had been a long walk in up some steep country as cloud came and went from the tops and the moss wheezed and gasped under every footfall. This was classic West Highlands terrain… Continue reading

Very impressed with the new handling pens which have just been completed for the galloways – until now I’ve had no way of working with the heifers, but now they will be wormed and fluked before autumn comes in (more on this to come). Of course it goes without saying that even these tiny pens… Continue reading