December 23rd, 2013

Most keepers will be kept busy over the festive season with Boxing Day shoots and feeding pheasants. Let’s hope they get some quality time with their families, too, when the big day arrives. If you haven’t signed our online petition regarding the tail docking please take the time to do so. It is very important for us to have as many signatures as we can possibly get. We are now hopefully nearing the end of this sorry saga and one last push might make our politicians remove some of the cotton wool from their ears. I would just like to take this opportunity, personally, and from everyone at the SGA, to wish everybody a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

December 4th, 2013

On Thursday I managed to travel up to Badanloch Estate in Sutherland to meet up with Brian Lyall and his team. I was spending the day on the hill with Brian and was hoping to shoot a hind or two and help him with his hind cull. When we arrived at the bothy we were warmly greeted by the young stalkers and ghillie who were full of enthusiasm and pride for their estate which is right in the heart of the flow country. 
After a day on the hill with Brian we covered many of the species of flora and fauna that occur in this part of the country. For many years now, through Brian’s enthusiasm and hard work, the estate has been carrying out habitat assessment plans and impact assessments. The environmental designations on this estate are many and need to be managed accordingly.
 Some of the hinds we shot that day were used for gathering more data. We collected blood, faeces and rumen samples. This would help the scientists in their quest to gather more information and maybe inform the future management of the deer. Some of this work was picking up early signs of the deer lacking in certain trace elements. 
Modern stalkers continue to show they have the knowledge to manage their estates with passion and a broad interest in the many species of animals and plants, as opposed to the way they have been painted recently in some quarters. Driving down the glen that evening I couldn’t but help wonder if this would be the case if Rob Gibson was to succeed in his quest of bringing deer management groups in Scotland into a statutory regime. I began to think of a scary futuristic vision where papers had to be checked and a government weapon issued on arrival as no weapons would be owned by the public in Scotland by this time.
 Thankfully the vision didn’t last and my attention was alerted elsewhere and to the road home. What it did make me realise was how mad it is that we constantly have the environmental movement, assisted by influential figures, attacking estates but it is these estates, in many cases, which have a far more diverse ecology, species range and habitat. Maybe the time has come to compare the ground that we manage seven days of the week with the likes of the ground that the Environmental Link group manages collectively. When some of the conservation bodies acquired land some years ago, the SGA requested that some inventory should be done at the time to allow some form of base-line as to whether their management was benefiting wildlife in general and not some single species. As far as we are aware, no base-lines were ever established and the work was never done. One of the features on BBC’s Out of Doors last week was a discussion on mountain hares and why estates were reducing the numbers.
There was the usual desperation to lay the blame at the gamekeepers’ door. Grouse moors cull hares to control tick but this is done each year in a way that still maintains sustainable populations.
 In their rush to blame the keeper it was never mentioned that unless the poor hares have a strong programme of predator control to guard them, they would now be extinct. Indeed, you would struggle to find any at all on ground with no keepers.
 You just have to drive from Glasgow to Campbeltown through hundreds of miles of sitka spruce and not one hare in sight. Or visit Creag Meagaidh, one of Scotland’s National Nature Reserves, and ask to be shown a mountain hare!!   *Please accept apologies for the block of text. There is an ongoing issue with the SGA website which we hope to rectify before the festive break as we port the existing content over to a new content management system.

November 6th, 2013

Last week we attended our latest first aid course which is done every three years to keep us up to speed with developments in the first aid world. We made a special request to our female trainer, who was in the local mountain rescue service, to build in some practical demonstrations which could be of help, given that we work alone, sometimes in very remote locations. The day started off with general first aid and we progressed to dealing with different emergency scenarios which gamekeepers may encounter during their working week. Saving a fisherman who has nearly drowned in a loch, for example; a fisherman whose life could be saved through the quick actions of a gamekeeper with the necessary training in first aid. We then moved onto some of the incidents we had heard of involving vehicles, in particular quad bikes being crashed or turned over. We discussed the many different accidents that could arise involving the use of chainsaws, knives, fishing hooks and firearms. Everybody had a tale to tell but this was exactly what our instructor was keen to discover. Each incident was gone over with a fine tooth comb and it was made clear to us the vital importance of first aid in those critical first few minutes and hours. The last part of the course covered the use of a defibrillator; a machine which can help keep alive someone who has suffered a heart attack, until medical assistance arrives. Many public places now have these. As the price comes down each year, more and more shoots (especially the large commercial ones) would probably find that these invaluable life-saving devices are a worthwhile investment, especially when there are more senior guns out in the field. The great thing about these pieces of apparatus is that they can be operated by anyone. When the gadget is removed from the wall and opened up, the instructions are spoken in a similar way as a sat-nav machine talks to you in your car. Modern technology is amazing and, if it saves only one life, it is well worth the money. Everybody on the course found it  very useful and it was well worth the time and money to attend. When the course organizer recognized the fact we all spent the biggest part of our time in the hills and mountains, it dawned on us that maybe the mountain rescue service and the Scottish Gamekeepers Association should meet up and exchange ideas and information. The SGA certainly has a massive range of members who have the local knowledge when it comes to finding missing persons. They also have access to many types of specialized equipment, especially all terrain vehicles. Even helping the local rescue teams with land, or maybe a building in which to meet, could be very useful on their training days. Our first shoot is coming up this week so I am praying for some hard frosts to remove the last of the leaves from the hardwood trees so we can get a good view of the pheasants. The pheasant season is now in full swing. Speaking to the beaters and pickers up, who largely stay in an urban environment, they tell me it’s a bit like the rugby, football or Shinty; a pastime which keeps them fit and healthy while giving them something to look forward to each weekend!

September 17th, 2013

Left the house last Thursday morning at 4am, drove to Edinburgh airport, parked the car and caught a flight to Manchester. Met up with Allan Hodgson our SGA Firearms Officer who had arrived on a flight from Inverness. We then picked a hire car up and drove south for an hour and a half to our destination which was the JCB World Headquarters in Rochester, Staffordsire. The JCB building was really spectacular. The conference room and dining room had all the state- of- the- art facilities. We were attending a National One-Day Conference: Best Practice in Licensing Firearms for Live Quarry Shooting. The conference was organised by our sister organisation, the National Gamekeepers Organisation, to promote best practice in firearms licensing countrywide. Chief Constable Andy Marsh chaired the conference for the day and each presentation was brief and to the point.   To summarise the day, the main thrust was to —  "Always ensure public safety" leading through to Good Reason, Suitability, Land checks, Conditions, Mentoring, Fees, Medical Fitness, Using eCommerce and Cutting Waiting Lists. The day was most interesting and useful and we were assured to hear that the shooting organisations would be engaged in any future dialogue. JCB are one of the NGO's main sponsors. Blaser Sporting UK sponsored the lunch and Edgar Brothers sponsored the presentation pack. To have access to such a fantastic venue is very impressive and it was an enjoyable day made more so by meeting up with many old friends and acquaintances. We left the conference at 4:30pm to make our way back, arriving home at 11pm. A long day but well worth the effort.   The badger cull is now well under way down south and I wish them every success in their operation, although I feel this would have been achieved more thoroughly by re-licensing the use of gas. The gamekeepers have been warning for decades of the imbalance in nature especially when it comes to our top predators. What the cull has done is opened up the bigger debate of managing species. If the likes of BBC Springwatch had tackled this issue twenty years ago many of the young adults of today would have a far deeper understanding of nature! Even the latest episode of Countryfile avoided any confrontation when talking of water voles. They subtly implied the voles were coping better when they lived in a protected area. Mink were mentioned but not in the same sentence. It is so sad to see the huge urban population being fed fairyland tales when there is a golden opportunity to show land management- its necessities and benefits- at the sharp end.

August 19th, 2013

Just back from two days at Galloway Country Fair at Drumlanrig where it was good to catch up with some old faces. The majority of the keepers and syndicate members who spoke to me were very worried at the sheer numbers of badgers and buzzards in the countryside  and the affects they feel they are having. Like everyone else with a view on this subject, those spending their daily lives working or operating in the countryside deserve to be listened to by policymakers, as their concerns are very real, both for livestock and wider nature. I was approached by a farmer who informed me that it was now impossible to have lambs outside younger than a week old and that foolproof fences were a thing of the past as the badgers were destroying them constantly. Everybody I spoke with were asking how long the tail docking fiasco was going to continue.  Many people are now buying their pups from south of the border or Ireland- what a sad state of affairs for our industry in Scotland. Please keep up the pressure and email your MSP on this important issue. On Friday, I attended the Police Scotland headquarters in Pitt Street, Glasgow, along with Allan Hodgson, the firearms representative on the committee, to discuss different issues with the firearms team. We had a very useful meeting regarding all sorts of issues and we came away feeling very positive. It gave us peace of mind that we will have direct connection with the police in the future concerning any problems that may arise with our members. I hope this is a start of a two way process whereby we can help each other. Last week saw me back out on the Glorious 12th, loading at the grouse for two days. What a joy it was to meet up with many keepers I have not seen for months. The purple heather was in full bloom and stretched as far as the eye could see. These large areas of heather moorland (which to me are special places of conservation) were teeming with insects and plants. Our heather is now more endangered than the rain forest and I felt very proud to be out on the hill this week. We must take every opportunity to enlighten people, who have not seen or experienced our special moorlands, as to the fantastic job the keepers do in conserving such a rich resource. There will be few reserves run by conservation charities this year that will boast as many wading birds. Over my two days of loading I had some interesting discussions with my gun ( who was, incidentally, a builder). What we both emphatically agreed upon was the fact that, as worldwide experiences  go, grouse shooting, whether it be driven or walked up, was very high in the order of things and could not be replicated anywhere else in the world. He also agreed that millions and millions of pounds are raised privately and invested straight into our rural economy, which keeps our rural communities breathing. For our government to ignore this vital statistic would be extreme folly indeed!

June 21st, 2013

Two weeks of glorious sunny weather and everybody is much cheerier  after such a long spring with cold easterly winds lasting weeks on end. The lads on the grouse moors should be very happy. I have just received an email from the Forestry Commission asking for permission to investigate the presence of phytophthora ramorum  on some larch trees in one of the plantations. This is a fungal disease which effects Rhododendron bushes and larch trees. Almost every tree and shrub on the estate has been badly burned with the east wind so we will wait and see what the outcome is. This past month has been really busy with the multitude of jobs a Gamekeeper must know and learn. Here are just a few that have been keeping me busy. You must be a very accurate shot both with the shotgun and rifle. If these ground nesting birds are to have any chance of survival they need all the help they can get at this time of year. Just last week in one morning alone I saw Red Shank, Lapwing, Oyster Catcher, Snipe,Wheatear, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Black Grouse and Red Grouse. For the first time in my career I managed to see and photograph a snipe chick with its mother. We have been building shelters in release pens to try and give the poults more cover from buzzards and the rain. Tools and materials needed for that job alone are Strimmer, chain saw, knapsack sprayer, mel, piercer, measuring tape, pencil, hammer and roof nails. Not to mention sheets of tin and posts. The pens are now beginning to resemble some shanty town from the poorer side of Cape Town! This is symptomatic of the lengths you have to go to to protect your livestock so, unfortunately, there is little choice. We’d rather have the pens looking pristine but, with so many buzzards waiting at this time of the year, people need to protect their livestock investments any way they can. In England recently Owen Paterson, Environment Minister, was bold enough to stand up to people and organisations that don’t actually work in the countryside, on the basis of good scientific evidence gathered on the ground in a specific area. He should be applauded for protecting a rural business by using, proportionately, the appropriate legal mechanism that exists in the UK. Yesterday Paul Wheelhouse launched the 2020 Challenge for Scotland’s Biodiversity. If he is serious about saving our wild flora and fauna he should not disregard the views of those who have managed our wild places for over a hundred and fifty years. We must have some balance and proportionality applied for the benefit of all species. The sooner sensible practical management is applied the better chance we have of saving some of Scotland’s conservation-listed species. Time is running out!  At the end of the month I will be attending Scone so I hope to have a catch up with some of you there.

April 10th, 2013

After attending various area meetings up and down the country it has been really good to meet up with old and new friends. Many interesting subjects have been spoken about, not least the huge number of badgers, ravens and buzzards which are having a detrimental effect on our wildlife and livestock. Stories of ravens attacking just about anything they can mob and kill are quite terrifying, ranging from ewes to lapwing chicks. Badgers are now commonly seen on ground up to 2000 feet; a sure sign of them being pushed well beyond their natural woodland habitat. Conservation of our upland waders and grey partridge has now become so critical that some form of licensing has to be discussed and thrashed out between the keepers and SNH. The light at the end of the tunnel might be the fact that SNH are very keen to find an answer to this awful dilema which I believe will see the extinction of some of our waders. Hopefully they will listen to the keepers on the ground and take heed of their advice. Last month we held a fox shoot which was very well attended by the neighbouring keepers. We had permission to drive out a large wood which adjoins our ground. To see 25 keepers surrounding the Sitka spruce forest was like watching a slick, highly skilled operation. These men are trained to a high standard and were soon completely blended in with the surrounding vegetation. Two lads from Fife had brought along half a dozen beagle type foxhounds which were mustard on any fresh fox scent they picked up on. They did an absolutely brilliant job at chasing the fox out to the waiting guns. Everybody on the day was very impressed by the professionalism of the pack. By late afternoon we had 5 foxes in the bag, the farmer was delighted as his lambing was starting this week and we were pleased to have saved a few more ground nesting birds. Driving back home I was thinking just how very important our fight had been, many years earlier, to have saved our hounds and terriers when they faced a possible ban under the Watson bill. As I am writing this blog, we are now onto the 10th of April and the hill is still completely white with snow. The feeling amongst the hill men is one of frustration. No heather can be burned and the grouse will soon be going down to nest. The late spring will probably knock things back for a month which could have a serious effect later on in the season. To think that some scientists were advising us, through computer modeling results, that ptarmigan and dotterel would disappear off our high tops due to global warming or climate change, as it is now called. To men working on the land, this type of desktop pseudo- science scares us to death especially when it effects government decisions. The best- laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley.

March 11th, 2013

I drove up to Old Meldrum in Aberdeenshire on Friday afternoon and helped with an area meeting Peter Fraser was holding at the Lochter Centre. Euan Webster, the owner of the centre, very kindly allowed us the use of his premises and the meeting was well attended although it was snowing hard outside when we arrived. Ronald Rose junior gave a very informative talk on managing the forest at Eskdalemuir for the past 40 years. I knew there were a couple of scientists in the audience and, chatting with them later, they were amazed to hear how much scientific information Ronald had collated over the years. These ranged from soil types to grasses and fescues that the deer preferred. Ronald’s talk was well illustrated, from the small insects through to the larger mammals, where everything was living in balance with each other. It was a fantastic example of what can be achieved with some forethought and common sense. Richard Cooke then gave a very good presentation on managing Scotland’s lowland deer population. The Lowland Deer Network Scotland aims to cover all the lower ground from Caithness to the Borders. This will give us a far better insight into problems which may occur, especially where local councils and the road authorities are involved. These type of meetings are very useful to our members when they need answers to some of the more specific problems they might have. We intend to have 3 more meetings in Inverness-shire, Borders and the west coast so please come along and give your support. We will be happy to meet with you all. I have just returned from my second visit to the local police station having successfully completed my snaring application. The first visit entailed over an hour’s wait whilst the two constables tried their best to find out what the procedure was regarding my application, without success. So we had to go back today to finish the process. I had a phone call from an owner regarding his keeper having visited the police station where he was refused his application because he had his firearms as proof of identity. They claimed he needed a passport or driving licence! After a phone call we straightened this one out. This week I will be attending the annual Wildlife conference which is held every year at Tulliallan Police College. I will keep you posted as to how it went. Duchess’ pups are now 4 weeks old and, at long last, they are taking puppy meal. This has helped enormously from having to bottle feed. If anybody is interested in a pup please leave me a message at the office. As you can see, they are growing like wee mushrooms. Click on the link to see one of the ‘wee mushrooms’

February 20th, 2013

Let me start with a date for your diary – The SGA AGM is on the 1st March 2013 at Perth Racecourse, registration 9am. Hope to see you all there. What a busy week it has been! Duchess gave birth to fourteen puppies last weekend. Sadly two were still-born and the little one passed away on day two. So now we are left with eleven hungry, healthy bundles of joy! There is a lovely mix of colours from light fawn to dark brindle.  There was a large turn-out which showed that Keepers are keen to gather information and the take- up on courses such as snaring and deer competence is very high. This shows that we are educated people and are striving to follow best practice at all times in our occupation and way of life. It gives me great pride to know that we, as professional wildlife managers, are striving to be the best in Europe. Nowhere else will you find such a rich diversity in such a small area. This is down to Keepers protecting Scotland’s Flora and Fauna. Could I just remind everyone, please remember and register your snaring details with your local police station to gain your identification number. This has to be done by April 1st, 2013.  All details about this can be found on the SGA website.  It’s almost puppy feeding time again. If this lovely, dry weather that we are having keeps up, we will be out on the hill burning heather next week. Who would have thought it, after all the rain and snow we have been bombarded with this winter?
Due to mum’s lack of milk, we have been hand feeding every two hours and each member of the household has been called upon to roll their sleeves up and muck in. Waking for the 4am shift made me think I was back to stalking roe deer in the summer months. I have emailed the Glasgow Veterinary School in the last two weeks requesting information about the two papers on tail docking, which should have been on the government’s desk in September. They assure me that they will have these papers ready before our AGM. It is now a Scottish disgrace that we are the only country left in the UK with no provisions to allow our working dogs’ tails to be docked. People who work their dogs in the countryside are becoming very, very angry. If you feel strongly about this, I encourage you to write to Richard Lochhead and your local MSP. We have to keep the pressure on at this late stage in the proceedings. Last week, I attended a police wildlife conference in Galashiels. One of the main topics of the evening was the fact the Keepers must read the conditions of the General Licence before trapping any crows. The General Licence can be found online at the SNH website.

January 17th, 2013

First of all I would like to wish everyone a happy new year. Duchess is now officially pregnant after receiving her scan yesterday.

 “Who,” you might ask, “is Duchess?” Click here for Photo She is a two year old red Bullmastiff that we have had since she was a puppy. I have been so impressed with this breed that I wanted to spread the word to everybody out there, as she has certainly made an impression on our family and everybody who visits us. Her husband is called Bram and he is a large brindle dog from Finland. By sheer luck we met a lady from the west side of the country and her whole life has been devoted to improving this breed. Her help and advice has been very much appreciated. I would like to give you a brief history on this breed because, after all, they were bred by gamekeepers as a personal security dog. In the late 19th and early 20th Century, many gamekeepers were badly injured or killed during their duties, especially at night. This led to the keepers breeding a dog which would knock a man to the ground and be heavy enough to hold them there ‘til he was apprehended. Eventually a breed was perfected which was roughly 40% Bulldog and 60% Mastiff. THE KEEPERS’ NIGHT DOG. They are large dogs measuring 2ft at the shoulder and 130 1bs in weight. The Bullmastiffs’ coat is waterproof so they thrive outside in kennels, but Duchess is kept indoors where she is a big, soft, loving pet. She is very gentle with the family and does not take up as much room as her size might suggest. She normally only barks if there is a problem, which is a great confidence booster when your wife or girlfriend are alone in the evenings and when you live miles from any police station or neighbours. Everybody has had a long, very wet, season and we are all looking forward to the end. No doubt the last week of the season will be full of Keepers days, where we can repay some of the hard work and enthusiasm that our beaters and helpers have given us through the year. It is worth remembering that many shoots could raise money on that day on behalf of the SGA by selling a gun to someone to stand every drive. It would be very much appreciated by some guns to have the chance of shooting on your estate. This year we have invited Kenneth, our PR man, to come and experience a keepers day. I will keep you posted.