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| Moon Chill over Mount Battock - pastel sketch on paper |
Surviving through a Scottish highland winter is tough for the resident wildlife that have to endure freezing temperatures and short daylight hours for several months. My sketch shows an almost tropical colour scheme, but appearances are deceptive because the grass I am sitting on is frozen solid and the north-westerly, that seems to be the sting in the tail from the 'polar vortex' that put America in the freezer for a week, has a chill factor that is more at home in the Arctic circle. There is no feeling in my hand as it scuffs the pastel onto the paper and the loss of touch sensitivity sends any passion that I am trying to muster into shivers. The cold, blue sky has no cloud but only a chill Moon suspended in space and its timeless face a silent harbinger of the nocturnal freeze yet to come.
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| Sketching today |
The glen was held ransom to the unrelenting wind and nothing moved, bar the trickling water that meandered beneath the bubbled sheets of ice, then in turn it gushed down through the marsh rushes and into the burn. In the far distance, over the snow patched hills, two Ravens fly directly with speedily flapping wings and the clue is provided by them that there is some action up on the hill tops. I follow Fergus's frozen, horse-shoe prints along the deer track towards the whisky bothy where I spy three more Ravens climbing with the wind then cascading earthwards and this behaviour has all the signs of a food source somewhere up there on the plateau moorland. With watering eyes that feel glazed with the wind carried freeze, I briefly make out the familiar outline of a large raptor and calculate a route over the complicated glen ravine to get there.
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| Roe Deer |
The diminutive and delicate Roe Deer can be found fairly high up on the mountains but they tend to favour sheltered areas and two young looking animals are near the waterfall gorge as I approach a crossing point. I love it when truly wild creatures have little fear of my presence and this pair stand to stare at me in wonderment, yes I have that effect sometimes. Then, as I struggle to undo my camera case, they prance around the heathered crag terraces but one obliging deer poses and ponders during its moment of indecision and briefly my thoughts are invaded by a lovely plate of venison as my camera shoots. Most of the beasts of the hills are very flighty if you make another move after first contact, meaning that if you move for the camera they are off like a shot. Considering this frustration, it must have been the same suffered by the ancient hunter as he struggled to get arrows from a quiver or the modern hunter raising a gun.
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| Snow Bunting male in winter plumage |
Reaching my pre-planned destination on the high ground, a flock of twittering, tiny wings rise and then descend into the slope above me and I begin a stealthy walk over sedge, which is edged with puddles of ice, towards them. Wee birds in the wild highlands are always a problem to identify, hands clutching binoculars are cold, eyes stream in the wind which also pushes you off your balance, but all of a sudden I am in the midst of a sweetly twittering and flittering maelstrom of Snow Buntings. A true polar vortex of freeze defying feathers, the likes of which I have never seen on the hills before, that in their hundreds come and go like a scent on the breeze. The wind is strengthening up the slope and some of the wee charmers are sweirt to rise and one eyes me from four metres away as it grips the sedges with its claws to stay firm and safe from the sucking vacuum of azure sky that threatens to pull our souls away forever. The twittering of living 'snow flakes' bobbing in the air as one integrated avian creation flies over my head and through my head as sweet sound and a song so alien to this harsh environment of the highlands.
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| Golden Eagle male adult |
The Golden Eagle and King of the Glen rises from the line of corrugated iron grouse butts and plays in the freezing wind to drift effortlessly towards the moorland where, incidentally, the poisoned immature eagle Fearnan was found. I see the reason for his interest as his mate is outlined in a high, twisting flight against the low, sun kissed clouds that hug the distant hills and make the turmoil of snow covered buttresses and gullies that is Lochnagar look like a very unwelcoming place. They meet and part, then he returns in slanted flight to check me out, for once again I have disturbed his kingdom. Overhead he goes, with long tail flowing and head shrunken to his shoulders to keep warm, just like me as I pull wool to chin. I try to follow with the camera as he soars directly overhead but fall backwards against a shooting butt in wind blasted dizziness and sun blurred confusion. He recognises the fool in red and sinks with the wind down into the glen but eighteen minutes later returns to search for his companion along the watershed ridge between neighbouring shooting estates. Maybe my translation of his action is too 'disneyfied' and rationale wins over with the observation that all of the white Mountain Hare are up here where the snow patches linger and consequently my presence scares them from their camouflaged hidey holes into the unsafe realm of 'eagle ready meals' that he, I think, is crafty enough to take advantage of by remembering where the hare hideaways are located. Most hare rely on being absolutely still for their camouflage and this one featured below is a perfect example only a few metres from me and the only thing that moved on it was the fine guard hairs wafting around in the draught.
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| Mountain Hare in static mode, in its hideaway forming the end to a snow drift |
Way across on the other side of the glen this cluster of Red Deer hinds busied themselves by grazing in one confined area of seemingly bare ground. It looks as if the beasts are digging into the peat layer to eat the roots of sedges or grasses that would yield more nutrition than the surface growth that is dying back and over. I just wonder if these hinds, with no sign of stags in the herd, are targeting a specific root or mineral for their nutrition after the rutting season is over and maybe most are pregnant.
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| Cluster of Red Deer hinds |
A herd of stags, with a few hinds, is on my side of the glen and they favour a sunny spot on a hill-side near a gully ravine. The wind is blowing directly from me to them and immediately their noses are in the air, with bulging black eyes searching for movement from any potential danger. I hunker down into the heather and wait for them to settle and then I realise why they have not spotted me, the setting Sun is in their eyes. Taking my chance I sliddered down a peat hag filled with drifted snow to get a bit closer to the herd and my assumption seemed to be right, no panic at all and I fire the Canon off until two sharp eyed hinds see me and start the gallop en-masse into the gully. By the way, I checked for deer staking activity before wandering over the hills, no estate vehicles about and, most importantly, Fergus the stalker's garron was in his field, in fact I had to bully him out of the way to let me pass!
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| Red Deer stags |
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| Raven |
The first birds of Glen Esk that I saw today as I drove up the glen road included three Common Buzzards and one Red Kite on Gannochy estate. The last birds that I saw were a Raven and a Golden Eagle on Invermark estate and in this case it did require a lot of hard work and acquired skill to get up close to these mountain dwellers. It is easy for an 'armchair expert' to declare that there is no life on the Angus moors due to persecution because, during his yearly outing, nothing was seen. I have been out on the Angus hills nearly every week in the past year and have seen White-tailed Eagle, Golden Eagle, Common Buzzard, Raven, Red Kite, Short-eared Owl, Merlin, Peregrine, Goshawk and Kestrel, admittedly I have not seen any Hen Harriers that used to frequent this area and in that respect there still exists a nationwide persecution problem.
There is evidence that raptors are re-occupying vacant territories in the East of Scotland, so a future does exist for grouse moor raptors in this area but this will require furthering education, co-operation and communication between all, especially the owners of these shooting estates that 'guide' the attitudes of the game-keepers or tenant farmers. The ignorant attitude of some estate owners who think that it is disastrous when a buzzard, falcon or an eagle overflies an ongoing shoot and then tells the game-keeper that he has not done his job properly, surely has to stop.
I don't meet many game-keepers on the hill at all, but those that I have spoken with seem reasonable, receptive and amenable enough to have a wee crack with maybe about eagles, deer or grouse and most actually seem to share an interest in raptors, especially eagles. Unfortunately for game-keepers, as they improve their stock, predators are attracted to the higher numbers of grouse and increases in hare due to fox or vermin control. The resulting imbalance is a no win situation that traditionally means that predators are persecuted and by the old adage of nature abhorring a vacuum this results in the trans-migration of predators from one area into another and the general diminishment of predators throughout.
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| Golden Eagle |
I don't meet many game-keepers on the hill at all, but those that I have spoken with seem reasonable, receptive and amenable enough to have a wee crack with maybe about eagles, deer or grouse and most actually seem to share an interest in raptors, especially eagles. Unfortunately for game-keepers, as they improve their stock, predators are attracted to the higher numbers of grouse and increases in hare due to fox or vermin control. The resulting imbalance is a no win situation that traditionally means that predators are persecuted and by the old adage of nature abhorring a vacuum this results in the trans-migration of predators from one area into another and the general diminishment of predators throughout.
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| We three stags of Invermark are, Bearing antlers we traverse afar, Field and water, moor and mountain, Following yonder...... hind. |
All sketches and photos are done on the day and are artists 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.
Fergus - garron used for stalking.
sweirt - Scots for unwilling or lazy
The following photos are included as an example of the zoom lens on the Canon PowerShot SX50HS
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| Mount Keen, Braid Cairn and heather burning in blue rectangle |
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