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.