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| Wilderness Eagle - pastel on paper 26/3/23 |
The warp and weft of the high Angus glens create a tapestry between the powerful elements of nature, mountain land, weather, wildlife, and man. Gaze into that tapestry and you will find all of these factors combine to form a unique world that has survived for centuries, yielding a wild habitat where man and nature, nature and man share the spirit of existence. In effect, these highland glens demonstrate a fine balance that relies on an elemental flux of being that goes far beyond the reasoning knowledge of those pursuing the drive for unreasoned change to achieve their version of an idealised 'wilderness'.
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| Sketching today 26/3/23 |
This goal of an idealised wilderness that makes things better for nature, and the planet, has been cultured in the minds of the general public by influencers from various authoritarian sources, whether government led or conservation organisation led. Let us go beyond the media pushed notion that 'glen man' and his gun sport or actions are bad for these habitats that currently do provide a safe home for threatened nature. Looking over the land, from where I sketch, a story is revealed.
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| Adders male & female 26/3/23 |
On the higher hillsides, eroded paths worn by grazing deer and sheep over the centuries criss-cross contour the hillsides to create a broken tracery through the native heather and grasses. These paths open up rotational grazing locations where no trees grow and, if you look at my sketch, the only tree growth is out of reach on very steep ground or rocky crags; that is the norm here. To enable an ideal wilderness with native tree regeneration the grazing ungulates and nibbling lagomorphs would have to go requiring extensive fencing and keepering; deer culling is an emotive subject, just look at the Assynt situation.
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| Mountain Hare 26/3/23 |
Further down the glen, on the moderate moorland slopes where muirburn is carried out, the patchy pattern of heather burning is clearly evident and it is this grouse moor management practise that affords much misinterpretation amongst those who would prefer unmanaged, rank heather as a starter to their ideal wilderness; unfortunately this readily becomes a wildfire risk in some areas. Many of the huge fire scarred hillsides with negligible heather regrowth are a result of poorly administered muirburn where fire breaks have not been cut beforehand. These burnt areas of grouse moor are usually promoted as the bad side to grouse shooting and soon become the only side in the peat-carbon argument for rewilding and the elimination of shooting estate life; as I have found, burning areas of heather does not destroy the underlying peat.
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| Wheatears 26/3/23 |
On the horizon reaching and weather scoured plateau tops, where heather is left to its own natural growth cycle, we find an almost alien landscape of eroded peat hags, sphagnum bogs and stony reveals where deer are stalked and the eagle hunts. The constant exposure to weather extremes does make this habitat a true wilderness not responsive to arboreal regeneration or management and it is vast in Angus; look at any aerial map and you will see that almost half of the county is upland moorland and half of that mountain plateau. So, in reality only a small proportion could ever be suitable for so called rewilding ..... the rest is already wild enough!
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| Mountain Hare carcass 26/3/23 |
Down at the glen haugh levels where hill burns swell into land carving torrents we can see where heather moor diminishes into rushy bog and grassy, rough pasture begins to dominate. Alongside these grazing pastures we find the ancient, ruined dwellings that housed farming pioneers two centuries ago; built ghosts from the past still leave their mark on the land. These rough pastures are very important to wildlife, forming an area less severe in aspect when compared to the high heather slopes. Waders such as Curlew, Lapwing, Oystercatcher and Golden Plover all benefit from the rich, springtime feeding here before settling at breeding locations or moving higher up as in the case of the Golden Plover and Dunlin.
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| Red Grouse 26/3/23 |
Of course, many of these upland breeding zones fall under the auspices of the local shooting estates where ground predator control is carried out and this does improve the breeding success of the waders listed, and that is why these birds arrive here in their droves; it has become their 'genetic habitat'. The Angus glens are precious to me being, in a roundabout way, my own genetic habitat where a family tree stretches back to the Barony of Invermark and the croft of Dochty below the beetling crags of Craig Maskeldie in Glen Lee far beyond Loch Lee.
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| Golden Eagle 26/3/23 |
While I sit and sketch, two Golden Eagles fly over my head and my mind muses on their genetic links to the eagles that flew over Dochty two hundred and fifty years ago; I sense that they know me and if this is the only tangible ghost from the past that haunts my soul, then haunt on ..... I love it!
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| Red Deer stags 26/3/23 |
I also have the feeling that some of our wandering Red Deer stags are kind of lost, or have lost their instinctive, genetic place; yes that phrase 'genetic habitat' just keeps being abused. Years ago, stags congregated into huge herds at specific locations to find suitable grazing to over-winter and, in effect, migrated locally to one or two locations only returning to their home ground and hinds at the rutting time. Recently I have noticed small groups of stags remaining in one location over wintertime and I do recall one local stalker blaming the late arrival of his stags on the new electric fencing that some 'grouse only' estates had erected, and I presume physical barriers to natural migration alter behaviour in the long term.
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| Black Grouse 19/3/23 |
Over the years of walking the Angus glens and hills I have come to realise that certain bits of wildlife prefer certain bits of habitat that may offer up preferential feeding, occupation, nesting or indeed man-made protection. Muirburn scars that almost mimic tundra conditions, are bread and butter to the nesting Golden Plover nevertheless, and rush beds are the preferred choice of the Common Snipe, and the neighbouring heather margins are the bee's knees for a Curlew, and grassy pasture full of tufts is lapped up by the Lapwing, Skylark and Meadow Pipit, whilst the Mountain Hare seeks refuge amongst the deep peat gags of the high plateaux where the eagle forages.
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| Golden Eagles 19/3/23 |
In fact, one species occupation of a habitat can lead to another's presence like the Dunlin that shares the same high plateau habitat as the Golden Plover, and from my observations the diminutive Dunlin uses the taller Golden Plover as a warning lookout for danger. The Red Kite and Raven will shadow the hunting Golden Eagle with the prospect of some left-overs from a ready meal, and conversely the eagle will follow the deer stalker for a lick at some deer gralloch. So, unseen to many who declare that this glen system is broken ..... the opposite is true, but it works on an ethereal level beyond the data sheets and graphs, beyond the satellite tagging info and succinctly beyond the ken of campaigners against shooting estates; it is a living thing that occasionally limps but on its writhing back many creatures and folk rely.
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| Golden Plovers 19/3/23 |
Adders, love 'em or hate 'em, we have 'em ..... and I was surprised to see two emerging from their respective hibernaculums today in between prolonged snow showers. I suspect that they were mating, tail to tail, medusa like with heads well apart. The deep tan coloured female that is always resident at that particular configuration of boulders seemed to play host to the smaller grey coloured male. Both have yet to slough off old skin which is dark with outstanding scales.
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| Golden Plovers 19/3/23 |
Adders seem to prefer boulder areas with heather or fallen bracken nearby, the females tend to keep to one location where they can retreat below ground but the males wander in search of the females and presumably are vulnerable then. I have found the occasional dead Adder with its head missing, maybe preyed on by a raptor or ground predator but most are found dead on roads or estate tracks and, of course, there is always the nut job person or dog who kills them out of fearful spite.
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| Redshank 19/3/23 |
Above all of this is open sky where eagles dance to the clouds, yet share that heaven with the roaring jet high above and the flashing turbine blade below.
Beyond all of this the blessed mountain wakens to forsaken forest, all held in trust for the carbon gamble.
Within all of us the seeds of advancement are propagated, change is the future despite the past telling otherwise.
Below all of this the monied advocates for change beaver away to bring what is best for nature, and was it not the case that nature knows best in the first place?
"Nature knows best; the third informal law of ecology holds that any major man-made change in a natural system is likely to be detrimental to that system."
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| Lapwing 19/3/23 |
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| Red Kite 19/3/23 |
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| Oystercatcher 19/3/23 |
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| Skylark 19/3/23 |
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| Toad 19/3/23 |
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| Sand Martin 26/3/23 |
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| Common Frog 19/3/23 |
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| Common Snipe 19/3/23 |
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| Red Squirrel 19/3/23 |
All text, photographs and sketch done on 19 & 26 March 2023 (unless dated otherwise) and subject to copyright - no reproduction.
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 Lapwing, Curlew, Golden Plover, Dunlin, Dotterel, Snipe, Red and Black Grouse, Ptarmigan and many raptors nest on the ground, it is advisable to keep dogs on leads at all times especially 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 inquisitive disturbance to named species.
Canon camera 200D with optical zoom lens EFS 55-250mm used; please note that the zoom range ZR distance if given is calculated by OS map from subject location to camera.