No, the shortage of stags didn't have me committing sidieways in despair..... although after another totally blank week following my last blog, it was definately looking more attractive. Rather, 70mph winds and a resulting fallen tree made a broad band out of our phone line.
Fewer blogs, more logs.
I eventually broke my stalking duck (eh?) when I came home with a borderline stag last Monday. (Borderline as in 'iffily young', NOT smuggled in over the march in a suitcase.) Thereafter it was like the Rut Button had been pressed. Suddenly there were roaring stags everywhere- and not just the same old 'feeders' (our pet stags and definately out of bounds) that had been holding my hinds and I'd been visiting day in and day out. It felt so good to see the ground restored to how it should be at this time of year and I finished the week with 7 in the bag. Not before time!
It really is feeling Autumnal now. Last week we could see a dusting of snow up towards the Cairngorms that stuck around for 3 days and on the Friday we had our first sleet (well ok, it was rain with pips in ). There's little green to be seen on the hill now and the bracken is reduced to brown, withered crisps. (Not nice to crawl amongst, the broken stems can cut you or, worse, give you 'skelfs'- splinters that nag like fishwives. (Apologies to any female readers involved in the fishing industry.) But with the hills alive with the sound of the deer, the rivers full of salmon arriving at their spawning redds and the leaves and berries on the trees blazing golds and scarlets, it has to be my favourite time of year.
But it also heralds the approach of the end of the stag stalking season. Soon the lodge will be closed and the only guests will be hind stalkers who come on 'day lets' and stay at one of the not-so-local hotels. Hind stalking-it's the same but different. Same principles, but less romantic and a lot more business-like.
But, until that time , I'll be concentrating on the here and now.
Fewer blogs, more logs.
I eventually broke my stalking duck (eh?) when I came home with a borderline stag last Monday. (Borderline as in 'iffily young', NOT smuggled in over the march in a suitcase.) Thereafter it was like the Rut Button had been pressed. Suddenly there were roaring stags everywhere- and not just the same old 'feeders' (our pet stags and definately out of bounds) that had been holding my hinds and I'd been visiting day in and day out. It felt so good to see the ground restored to how it should be at this time of year and I finished the week with 7 in the bag. Not before time!
It really is feeling Autumnal now. Last week we could see a dusting of snow up towards the Cairngorms that stuck around for 3 days and on the Friday we had our first sleet (well ok, it was rain with pips in ). There's little green to be seen on the hill now and the bracken is reduced to brown, withered crisps. (Not nice to crawl amongst, the broken stems can cut you or, worse, give you 'skelfs'- splinters that nag like fishwives. (Apologies to any female readers involved in the fishing industry.) But with the hills alive with the sound of the deer, the rivers full of salmon arriving at their spawning redds and the leaves and berries on the trees blazing golds and scarlets, it has to be my favourite time of year.
But it also heralds the approach of the end of the stag stalking season. Soon the lodge will be closed and the only guests will be hind stalkers who come on 'day lets' and stay at one of the not-so-local hotels. Hind stalking-it's the same but different. Same principles, but less romantic and a lot more business-like.
But, until that time , I'll be concentrating on the here and now.
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