Grey October on Gannochy, Glen Esk

Digger in the Mist - pastel sketch on paper

Grey is a colour that I have grown to enjoy, grey means drifting mists that host a plethora of mysterious distortions, grey invites the uninitiated to become lost on the moors and opens the door to the discovery of uncertainty, grey can mean mixing black and white to obtain the expected or it can mean combining red, blue and yellow together to produce a rainbow of hues from warm to cold that expresses the elements of the Scottish mountain landscape. In and just below the clouds today I breathed in grey until it soaked away all fear of time and being. In fact, grey could be religion up here on the heights of the Angus braes during this dreich, rainy spell that is typical of October.

Sketching today

That point between cloud and land where the last clear view disappears to a cataract of grey, swirling mist intrigues me as an artist. The cloud level division is transitory and, like sunlight passing over the land, is ever-changing and fugitive so sketching is difficult. To presume that mist is uniformly a greyish white is simple but look again and you will find many hues and shades that are reflections form the land colours and sky beyond. Mist also tends to act as a barrier to birds and animals that like us feel more comfortable when seeing our surroundings.

Red Kite with wing tags

Half a dozen Black Grouse flew from the heather, the black half showing their white wing bars in strong, level flight and the grey, other half just disappeared out of sight into the misty murk that formed that drifting wave over the hills. The Red Deer were keeping low and out of the mist as well, maybe for a reason because the rutting stag, that was avidly shepherding his herd, could keep an eye on the sneaky hinds who seem keen to avoid his attentions after a month of enforced imprisonment. Ironically all are within a part of Gannochy estate that is fenced off with a two metre high deer fence, how do they get inside I hear you ask - by walking over it during the depths of winter when the fence drifts in with snow. This stag's antlers were freshly decorated with clumps of grass, bracken and heather after scent  marking, so his 'hat' was being critically judged by a few hinds who cautiously pointed their snouts his way in doubtful appreciation. 

Stag with antler decor

A Red Kite with wing tags wheeled over the glen and when comparing the flight characteristics of these birds with or without tagging additions, I must observe that the birds without any human additions fly more beautifully with a graceful agility that is absent from birds that are burdened by add-ons. Kites have a winter roost not far from here, so it is now not uncommon to see them in the glen. I can only hope that their progress in colonizing the glen is not hindered by the wind turbines that have been 'planted' nearby on the Hill of Wirren.
Mentioning mystery in the mist, an unidentified 'hawk' flew up from a newly bulldozed boulder near Craigancash, possibly a Kestrel but the outline was just a grey smudge as it disappeared into the murky cloud only a few metres away from me. Wisely below the clouds a pair of Ravens make their presence known on the moor and one flies with a sizeable lump of something in its huge bill, probably hiding it from its mate who has settled above the bog, near the deer herd.

Red Deer with the North Esk river in the background

Shy Mountain Hare

The invasive nature of hill developments is never far away and as a caterpillar digger carves yet another hill track into the hill-side, the mist echoes with the clatter of rock being pulverised to form the track bed. Glen Esk has never seen such intensive hill track development with Gannochy and Millden forcing more new tracks per acre than any other estates in the Angus glens - the hills are now islands of heather surrounded by the scars of these bull-dozed tracks. No wonder this Mountain Hare looks surprised, it just doesn't know what will come next to invade its environment.

Notes;

All sketches and photos done on the day and are artist copyright.

Please be aware that it is illegal to disturb nesting eagles or other raptors and you may do so inadvertently in your journeys into the highlands. I do not recommend searching for any of the species mentioned in this blog because this may cause undue disturbance to them. With my knowledge of the areas described in this blog I can locate and observe protected species at a respectful distance usually from about 1000 metres for short periods of time only.

wing tag - coded identification marker fixed on the wing from released or nest tagged birds.