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| The Heather Kow - pastel sketch on paper |
One of my first bird books was called, "British Birds" by Kirkman and Jourdain published in 1966. This inspiring and beautifully illustrated book has large plates painted by various artists, but they all had one thing in common; the paintings were of birds in their natural habitats. Plate 1 is of the Raven in its mountain home with mists rolling in over the grey crags behind the calling, black beauty and Plate 145 shows a Golden Eagle carrying a rather sad looking Mountain Hare over a misty mountain slope. All of the bird paintings in the book magically reveal a little bit about their lives and that species then becomes a functional part of their surrounding landscape, and, rightly so, an essential wildlife integral of landscape.
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| Sketching today |
Wildlife is part of the landscape, like blood in earthy veins, and therein lies the spirit of existence that we experience as observers who visit that landscape. The wonder of life and how it survives in extreme conditions on that land is fascinating. Our Golden Eagles soar at over three thousand feet all day in a chill gale that factors down to a temperature of minus fifteen centigrade, and below. Stretching my soul out to them on the hill heights, my head is cold to the touch and the stinging numbness of frost-nip spreads over my forehead and headaches into my eyes as bamboozled progress is made into the 'polar' wind, and wind-chill is always the final killer on the Grampian mountains of Scotland.
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| Golden Eagle with a heather kow as nest material |
My functioning as a survivalist within the landscape begins to fail after two hours of exposure and I begin to ask myself checking questions to guard against hypothermia; a bodily reaction that stealthily creeps up within the 'animal' to protect inner organs, then to sleep, then to kill. I retreat out of the wind behind a peat hag as a precaution to slurp hot juice through icy lips, and yet the eagles share a Spring fevered joy within that skin freezing sky overhead. I shiver with defeat as I gaze enviously at the eagle antics of territorial sky-dancing and nest material bonding. This is their element and their warm love for the weathered land is complete.
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| Golden Eagle pair |
This land is grouse moor estate, whether I like its man adopted function or not is irrelevant, and it is a sponge for wildlife. During wintertime that sponge squeezes life from the land to leave only the hardiest souls like the Mountain Hare, the Golden Eagle, the Raven, the Ptarmigan, the Red Grouse, the Red Deer, the Red Fox and the Ermine Stoat; I salute them all as survivalists in a hostile land. They are a family of predators and prey; without the prey, the predators are without a landscape home. Within that landscape a small area of grouse moor at its best, or worst depending on your allegiance, has offered up five individual Golden Eagles (and all the other species in the photos) this bitter afternoon ..... truth and fact; I rest my case.
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| Golden Eagle immature male |
During springtime that sponge of winter's grip relaxes to absorb other wildlife like the Curlew, the Lapwing, the Snipe, the Oystercatcher, the Dunlin, the Golden Plover, the Skylark, the Meadow Pipit, the Wheatear, the Ring Ouzel and the Merlin to name but a few of the more visible species. The farm pasture margins of the heather moors breathe with the calls from waders at the moment and those pastures are tied up within the grouse moor estate land, and without that many species would be without a landscape home.
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| Goshawk |
Hunkered up against the wind, I squirm awkwardly on a ridge top between boulder and heather in anticipation as an eagle wings its way towards me and over my head, maybe sixty feet above, and his feathers whistle silence. I know this eagle from previous sightings. He has two tail feathers jutting out from the round as part of the moulting process and he is a young wanderer sucked into this sponge called grouse moor to hunt and to survive. This eagle may have come hundreds of miles to sucker the prey goodness of these moors or it might be a locally produced bird ..... whatever.
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| Lapwing |
His surviving presence is boosting the Golden Eagle population in Scotland year on year, despite the media promoted propagandist heckling lies from a labourite 'raptor ecologist' suggesting that fifty eagles are 'estimated' to be killed illegally by crime organised by shooting estates. Yip, seen them often in the pub snug planning the next kill ..... what tosh, and what the hell is a 'raptor ecologist' anyway? Surely a raptor ecologist would know and not estimate the numbers killed, and of course no mention of the number of young eagles that die naturally in their first winter, proven to be a one in three survival chance. As far as my observations go, and that of others, the eagle population is bursting at the seams at the moment in Scotland.
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| Curlew |
A new level of responsibility is hatching in Scotland amongst shooting estates and it is certainly not happening in the pub snug. A communicative effort to outreach is being made by traditionally insular estates and those who choose to ignore it, no matter what side they are on, are failing the system of wildlife and landscape. That outreaching change needs some nurturing and encouragement. The lying twists of media and raptor persecution 'facts' that pervert public opinion, like the Herald article quoted below, will fall behind the self motivated actions from shooting estates until they have no place .... and I think that has already happened.
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| Mountain Hare wearing his, 'I survived the slaughter tee shirt' |
The desperate word 'slaughter' is pulled from the hat to 'awe' the gullible, but charitably monied, public at every spoken trick. Through the years I have travelled thousands of miles over these 'fields of slaughter' and have yet to discover what that means; nevertheless, I do find 'slaughter' in the hare carcass plucked by the eagle, or 'slaughter' in the grouse carcass chewed by the fox, or maybe 'slaughter' when a stalker shoots a deer. The cup of the grouse moor will always be half empty or half full until it runs out, and then I wonder where our eagles will go .... that saddens my soul. And maybe the eagle with the heather kow is showing the way forward .... an olive branch of hope, somehow, if only someone was to listen.
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Raven |
Notes;........article in progress............
All text, sketches and photos are done on the 11th March 2019 and subject to copyright - no reproduction.
My new book 'Wildsketch' is available from Blurb bookshop
Income from book sales will form a donation to CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter)
Kow - Scots for an old heather branch or stalk
Quote from The Herald news 8 March 2019;
"GOLDEN eagles and other protected birds of prey are being illegally slaughtered in what amounts to "serious organised crime", a leading expert has said.Dr Ruth Tingay of Raptor Persecution UK said birds are being killed on or near grouse moors across Scotland before the evidence is then removed to avoid prosecution.
Kow - Scots for an old heather branch or stalk
Quote from The Herald news 8 March 2019;
"GOLDEN eagles and other protected birds of prey are being illegally slaughtered in what amounts to "serious organised crime", a leading expert has said.Dr Ruth Tingay of Raptor Persecution UK said birds are being killed on or near grouse moors across Scotland before the evidence is then removed to avoid prosecution.
She spoke out during a fringe meeting at the Scottish Labour conference in Dundee.
Claudia Beamish MSP, the party's environment spokeswoman, said it backed strict new rules for estate owners – including a total ban on the use of lead shot and the large-scale cull of mountain hares.
She said: "In order for grouse moors to continue, if indeed they do, there needs to be very robust licensing."
Labour delegates heard grouse moors cover almost a fifth of Scotland, with estates handed more than £300,000 a year in public subsidies.
Revive, a coalition of organisations calling for change, insisted estates should be stripped of this cash as part of a crackdown aimed at encouraging radical land reform.
It said the intensive land management associated with driven grouse shooting causes environmental damage.
Meanwhile, there is evidence scores of birds have been illegally killed on or near estates, it said.
Dr Tingay, a leading raptor ecologist, said: "My argument is that what we are seeing here – not just with golden eagles but with other birds of prey, particularly hen harriers, which are also persecuted on driven grouse moors – is serious organised crime.
"If the Government accepted this, we would see a lot more resources coming in to deal with this issue."
She said some estimates suggest 50 eagles a year are disappearing.
Revive is made up of Raptor Persecution UK, Friends of the Earth Scotland, animal charity Onekind, the League Against Cruel Sports Scotland and think tank Common Weal.
Craig Dalzell, head of policy and research at Common Weal, said estates should be opened up to other uses.
He said grouse moors in Scotland had an annual economic impact of £32 million and were responsible for around 2,640 jobs.
In comparison, forestry boasts an annual economic impact of £973m and creates 26,000 jobs, he said."
Claudia Beamish MSP, the party's environment spokeswoman, said it backed strict new rules for estate owners – including a total ban on the use of lead shot and the large-scale cull of mountain hares.
She said: "In order for grouse moors to continue, if indeed they do, there needs to be very robust licensing."
Labour delegates heard grouse moors cover almost a fifth of Scotland, with estates handed more than £300,000 a year in public subsidies.
Revive, a coalition of organisations calling for change, insisted estates should be stripped of this cash as part of a crackdown aimed at encouraging radical land reform.
It said the intensive land management associated with driven grouse shooting causes environmental damage.
Meanwhile, there is evidence scores of birds have been illegally killed on or near estates, it said.
Dr Tingay, a leading raptor ecologist, said: "My argument is that what we are seeing here – not just with golden eagles but with other birds of prey, particularly hen harriers, which are also persecuted on driven grouse moors – is serious organised crime.
"If the Government accepted this, we would see a lot more resources coming in to deal with this issue."
She said some estimates suggest 50 eagles a year are disappearing.
Revive is made up of Raptor Persecution UK, Friends of the Earth Scotland, animal charity Onekind, the League Against Cruel Sports Scotland and think tank Common Weal.
Craig Dalzell, head of policy and research at Common Weal, said estates should be opened up to other uses.
He said grouse moors in Scotland had an annual economic impact of £32 million and were responsible for around 2,640 jobs.
In comparison, forestry boasts an annual economic impact of £973m and creates 26,000 jobs, he said."
If you are inspired to go out into the hills and glens of Scotland please leave it as you find it, respect the environment, do not litter or discard so called 'biodegradable' fruit and especially if you are a dog walker keep your beast on a lead and do not bag up its waste then chuck it by the wayside. I recently came across one black poo bag neatly hung on a tree branch for someone else to take home and also a bright blue one thrown in the moorland verge....why?
Moorland birds like Golden Plover, Dunlin, Dotterel, Ptarmigan and many raptors nest on the ground, it is advisable to keep dogs at heel or preferably on leads when walking on the high plateaux of the Cairngorms during summer months.
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. Observe protected species at a respectful distance usually from about 1000 metres and for short periods of time only.
No wildlife was unduly or knowingly disturbed by my presence or for the purposes of this web page other than what would be expected on a normal hill walk. Many geographic names and location recognizable photos have been omitted to prevent persecution or ringing-monitoring disturbance to named species.
Canon camera 200D with optical zoom lens EFS 55-250mm used; please note that the zoom range distance if given is calculated by OS map from subject location to camera.