Bog Myrtle & Peat

This blog has been awfully quiet over the past week for one simple reason – I’ve left the continent. For one post only, Working for Grouse is coming live from Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan in Northern India. Besotted with Indian wildlife, devoted to Kipling and fascinated by British colonial history, this trip has always… Continue reading

Important to note in brief that grand stirrings are taking place among the blackgame on the hill. Although nobody has yet seen the birds in situ, I found a generous scattering of blackcock shit all around the green patch where they periodically display from the end of April onwards. Much of this evidence was very fresh,… Continue reading

Big things are happening up on the hill. The curlews came back in dribs and drabs from the 25th March, and the wheatears were close behind them. Larks and pipits tumble out of the sky like confetti, and every burnside has a pair of grey wagtails holding territories. I sat beneath the curlews on a sunlit hill… Continue reading

A couple of weeks have passed since I had an afternoon with Colin Scott of Border Taxidermy, but the mind still boggles at the breadth of information shared over a few hours. I took Colin the mysterious greyhen found dead near Gatehouse of Fleet and he showed me how to skin and prepare it for mounting in… Continue reading

I wrote a few days ago about my discovery of a dead fox which inexplicably turned up in the old hayfield behind the house. There was no obvious explanation as to how it had died or ended up in such a bizarre spot, but having skinned him out for a closer look, I can now… Continue reading

There was an uncanny stillness to the discovery beneath the trees. The dismembered frog was almost warm – or as warm as he had ever been. Seconds beforehand, a fox had been dining here, and now he was close by, watching me. Eyes were on me. I was an unwelcome guest in a strange house.… Continue reading

Very concerned to see the latest announcement from the Langholm Project that gamekeeping will cease next month. Putting politics and bumbling mismanagement to one side, the Langholm Project has produced a phenomenal and growing spread of wildlife over the past seven years, and that boom has been the result of hard work from the gamekeepers and… Continue reading

For some unknown reason, an article I wrote about liver fluke in rabbits has become one of the most popular posts I’ve ever published on this blog. You’re very welcome to click through and have a look at it, but there is not a great deal of detail aside from a moderately useful photograph. I didn’t… Continue reading

Having tested my mettle a few days ago as a forensic scientist to solve the riddle of the greyhen, I am now facing an even more intriguing mystery. Driving onto the hill this morning, I saw what appeared to be a dead fox lying out in the middle of the hayfield. It seemed to have been shot,… Continue reading

Worth including a quick photo in brief of two grouse cocks sparring. Grouse are extremely hormonal at the moment, and they have been very noisy and conspicuous over the past few days. When I was breeding and releasing grey partridges, this was the dangerous time for cock birds as they were distracted, noisy and vulnerable to hawks.… Continue reading