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| Ravens Riding the Hailstorm - pastel sketch on paper |
A venomous storm of icy hail made the moorland dance to a tune that was not June. Every blade of grass and frond of heath twanged a nod to the gravity of pelting hail. The Sun had come and gone after a misty dawn to bring forth a carpet of wild flowers that quickly bowed their petals to earth when the hail from Hell arrived, and I, like the hill sheep, turned my back against the nearest boulder for fugitive respite.
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| Sketching today |
My stony, sketching refuge was a perfect Golden Eagle look-out point and the talon screeved lichen was smudged with white, streaked lime, and I could only sense the eagle's graffiti prone spirit looking over my shoulder at my, equally chalky, pastel scribblings. The spirit was all that came today for the breeding birds did not show and that 'parental' worry creeps into my mind, once more.
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| Curlew |
An immature eagle pair were here last Autumn and this Spring which makes me wonder what happened to the previous adult pair. I do know that one had a bad leg so things must have happened. As I have come to learn, eagle life is in a constant state of flux and the pairing for life syndrome is only text book perfection ..... oh, to be a proper 'raptor ecologist' ..... now that's sarcasm!
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| Curlew chick |
Talking of raptor ecologists*, one had made a flying visit to Scotland with the famed media naturalist Chris Packham recently. And, like school children caught in an orchard with handfuls of apples, the pair were nabbed red-handed by a working game-keeper on a shooting estate while recording some biased broadcast, or another. Let me rewind, they were caught with their cars at the ready on a heather banked public road that runs through a grouse moor estate.
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| Lapwing |
The whole scene became more absurd when Packham ran* to a waiting car to hide in the back seat away from the game-keeper and our 'raptor ecologist' tried to hide her pasty face with a clipboard, but all was in vain for the keeper had captured every self-conscious jerk that the sorry bunch made on his mobile phone. While, in a tit for tat action, the producing activist wielded his mobile phone camera at the keeper to prove exactly the stupid impasse between them ..... it seems modernity has unleashed mobile phone duelling to the death upon us.
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| Lapwing chick |
The sound recordist had designer trainers on, so I doubt if they had just done ten miles over the boggy moors to investigate raptor crime. No, in my opinion, they were probably fantasising over an historical raptor crime to suit a self indulgent agenda to licence or close down grouse moor activities in the name of wild injustice. How sad to think that future laws might be introduced because of some misinterpreted satellite tagging data collated from a transmitter that is dangling from a Golden Eagle, or the poisoned view of a Scottish grouse moor fleetingly garnered from the window of a celebrity naturalist's car.
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| Whinchat |
Enough said about bad rubbish. Now, from my eagle look-out I can see where an accidental wildfire gutted a brimstoned path up a steep cliff in May last year. In the centre of that cliff is a white patch of bird liming where either Ravens or maybe even Peregrine Falcons have nested, or roosted, and that is a confirmed observation going back a few years now. I will check to see if my distant observations hold water after a closer inspection. Let us hope that the local raptor study group or the RSPB have checked out the potential damage to nesting caused by this wildfire ..... oh, shit, more sarcasm.
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| Wheatear |
Much to my surprise a skein of eight Canada Geese flew into the glen this morning, and they looked completely lost. At first towards me, then off to the south-west, then a left wheel down the glen past the washed out eagle's eyrie, and there I hoped at least one would be picked off by a lazy eagle, but no, they flew towards the only sunny bit poking through the gathering clouds and who could blame them ..... a better weathered Canada is probably that way.
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| Ring Ouzel |
I tramped over a fair bit of heath today and only flushed one brood of flying Red Grouse chicks with doting parent birds performing that heather crashing broken wing stunt to attract attention away from the family that had long since gone. The wet and cold weather of May and into June has not been kind to the beasties of the high moors of Scotland this year. Golden Plover should be calling at this time of year but I heard not a peep from their usual haunts in this glen today.
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| Ring Ouzel juvenile |
The rut of Autumn is already blowing in the wind for the Red Deer stags because their antlers are growing back again within the heat of a skin of nourishing velvet. A herd gathers on a high slope where the wetted wind wafts purls into old, scraggy coats that then cast tufts of coarse hair onto the moor. The discarded old antlers can sometimes be found and now I have a grand collection hanging from the house porch ..... much to my sweet wife's displeasure ..... now, maybe, too much sarcasm!
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| Meadow Pipit |
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| Meadow Pipit nest with chicks and eggs |
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| Red Deer stags in antler velvet |
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| Mountain Hare |
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| Heron |
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| Alpine Bistort |
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| Northern Bedstraw |
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| Butterwort |
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| Chickweed Wintergreen |
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| Cloudberry |
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| Cow-wheat |
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| Eyebright |
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| Heath Speedwell |
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| Lousewort |
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| Milkwort |
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| Spearwort |
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| Yellow Pimpernel |
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| Short-horned Grasshopper |
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| Canada Geese |
Notes;........article in progress............
All text, sketches and photos are done on the 16th June 2019 and subject to copyright - no reproduction.
Income from book sales will form a donation to CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter)
* raptor ecologist - someone who invents a special term to describe themselves when they write an online blog about raptor persecution.
*ran - amidst denials that Mr Packham actually ran to his car, he is seen skeddadling or scarpering briskly or fleeing in a new video released by Raptor Persecution UK that strangely does not show the game-keeper taking his original video of Mr Packham getting in the car ..... strange magic!.
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
