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’