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| Mount Battock and Glen Esk - pastel sketch on paper |
Scotland's prospective national birds in Glen Esk celebrated the patron saint day of their country, well, quietly without any special reason for getting all feathered up and flighty. The Golden Eagles in the glen were nevertheless haloed in sainted gold from a sulphurous sunset when they did eventually decide to join in with an aerial ceilidh. In a celebration with the strengthening wind, that turned calm into buffeting action, the pair of eagles impatiently danced between soft orange and yellow clouds that quickly dimmed into metaphysical carmine silhouettes that ushered them to roost and so ended St. Andrew's Day for them, and for me.
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| Sketching today |
Earlier in the day I had met Andy the principle stalker, whose own diary stories inspired me to start this sketchbook, and Eric the resident ghillie who both work on Invermark estate. The stalker had guests from Sweden and I, the walker, had a notion to head up the glen which might be too near to their planned stalking area, so an agreeable solution was achieved with me heading up the hill in the company of the ghillie and the garron. A new experience and for me a very informative insight into some of the working background to stalking on the estate.
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| Eric and Fergus |
Fergus, the white garron, is used to carry the deer from the rough hill ground after a successful stalk and a special saddle is used to strap the beasts onto Fergus's back and, by the way, he is the best behaved horse that I have ever met having ridden a few. Eric explained that hinds are hung over the saddle and sometimes two can be carried when the beasts are hung with heads down on each of Fergus's flanks. Stags are hung over the saddle and then the antlers are tied back over the beast to prevent the sharp antlers from rubbing on Fergus's hide. In common with horse etiquette, all approaches to Fergus are done from his left side so that he is not surprised by unexpected movement.
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| Eric Browne and Fergus, saddling up for stalking |
The robust saddle, which is treated with neatsfoot oil, is placed from the left side and the three girth straps holding it on are tightened, well, as far as Fergus will allow Eric to tighten them because this wily garron, like many other horses, takes a breath to expand its chest so that the saddle does not pinch too much. Four, long leather straps located at the back of the saddle are used to secure a beast and Eric neatly wrap coils these straps so that they don't dangle loose. Fergus is also used during grouse shooting when leather saddle bags enable him to transport the bagged birds off the hill.
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| Eric and Fergus - Mount Keen in the background |
A couple of miles away from the parked estate Land Rover the stalk was on and Andy had located a large herd of Red Deer on the side of a burn gully. At this time of year only hinds are being stalked and Eric explained that if a hind is shot then the stalker will also dispatch the calf if she has one, as the calf is unlikely to survive the winter without her.
The radio crackled into life from deep within Eric's camouflaged jacket and the time for ghillie and garron to proceed along the track towards the stalker was called in. Fortunately for me, Andy, who was on the radio, mentioned spotting a Golden Eagle on the other side of the glen, so I set off in pursuit after getting the green light to carry on down into glen. It was grand meeting with Andy, Eric and, I suppose, Fergus and hopefully I might get the opportunity to do some sketches during a stalk one day.
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| Golden Eagle |
The very still, feathered clouds that stretched from horizon to horizon in every variation of grey seemed to hang in suspense waiting for a command to change weather plumage, and change it did from mild calm to cold wind and, to my great delight, brought the Golden Eagle pair towards the shelter of the glen crags that were turning starkly black in shadow. Surfing within the heavenly gale, that launched tumultuous, sulphur coloured clouds to race across an azure-violet sky, the eagles were traced with true gold from the sunset. Both rode the wind over the crags whilst scolding my presence in the gloaming light of their home territory and, as if denied their daily routine, impatiently endured my departure down the darkening glen. It is a relief to witness the eagle pair together as I had only seen the male courting his territory in the previous months, and after their failure to breed this cold spring I had feared that the female had abandoned him or disappeared.
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| Golden Eagle |
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| Golden Eagle |
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| Golden Eagle |
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| Nature quiz - which one is the female Golden Eagle? |
The stalk was still on as darkness drew closer and the black outline of the Land Rover was etched on the burnt-salmon coloured sky-line high up on the ridge, let's hope that they had some success. Talking of burnt, there were a few heather burns going on, with a huge blaze burning to the north-west of Mount Battock on Millden estate. Traditionally heather burning was done during Spring but, with some estates not hosting any deer stalking or indeed wanting any deer, that time for burning has broadened to include Autumn as well.
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| Heather burning |
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| Red Deer |
The Mountain Hare in this part of Glen Esk are, in general, at the same stage of changing pelage into the winter white phase and we can see by the photo below that they are a bit mixed up at the moment and not only because there is little snow for camouflage. On the subject of Mountain Hares seeking a suitable habitat to match their current pelage phase I note that many hares are congregating on a heather and grass mixed hill-side that has numerous white quartz boulders and, of course, the hares blend in very well as long as they remain static; therein lies a slight problem for the average hare. This same slope is opposite the eagle territory, yet throughout the year sports a good population of hare and I do wonder if the crafty eagles have learned to effectively 'farm' their stock of locally available hare by selectively hunting in different areas on a rotation basis.
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| Mountain Hare |
The introduction of White-tailed Eagles to this part of Scotland comes with certain conundrums that are not readily explained to game-keepers, bird watchers or hill farmers. The common questions that are presented refer to their integration with Golden Eagles in their traditional territories, what do they eat and will they kill lambs. Much information has been collated by the Mull introduction project and a few of my own observations combined with reports from game-keepers. White-tailed Eagles, although larger than Golden Eagles, are still very agile flyers and will take the same prey as Goldies, particularly Mountain Hare but with a far greater reliance on carrion. This is because their digestive system is longer and more efficient with a larger crop than a Goldie, meaning that they can survive for long periods without eating. White-tails are not any more likely to take new born lambs than Goldies and, on Mull where there is a large population of eagles, lambs that are known to have been taken by White-tails were weak or still-born carrion. Goldies will defend their immediate nest territories extremely effectively against White-tails with the use of repeated diving attacks usually at the White-tail's head to turn it, then the rear quarters of the White-tail to drive it away, but at other times the two species tolerate each other within the same geographic area. Earlier this year I watched a sub-adult White-tail being attacked by a territorial male Goldie and it defended itself from the fierce, vertical dives by flipping instantly upside down to show talons to the understandably respectful Goldie!
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| Mountain Hare at full speed - what a hunting eagle might see |
Notes;
My new book 'Wildsketch' is available from Blurb Bookshop
All photos and sketches 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.
Photos of eagles were on 50x -100x zoom.
pelage - coat of the hare, fur.
garron - breed of highland pony.
No map for conservation reasons.
Weather - wind direction calm then southerly strong, cloudy and mild.