I've been struggling to think anything of interest to tell you about. The weather has been really dreich for the last 4 days. Heavy cloud, mist, cool winds, drizzle and rain have had us all biting our lips and gnawing our fingernails worrying about our grouse chicks.
We've been keeping away from the hill. The last thing they need is to be disturbed when the chicks are sheltering under the hen. Even worse, some of the early chicks are at the fluttering stage and if you were to scatter them in a strong wind they could get lost and quickly succumb to the wet conditions.
So instead we've been getting round our traps and catching up with more odd jobs.
I made a start at strimming along the length of an electric fence today. The strimmer itself has a finger-numbing buzz. However, that's the only buzz to be had; the task is mind-numbingly dull.
Between that and digging up a blocked sewerage pipe, I would say I've single-handedly exploded the myth of the romantic lifestyle of the gamekeeper.
Maybe D H Lawrence should have called him 'Smellors'.
Fingers crossed for chicks across all the hills!
ReplyDeleteWould you say these are the key weeks for defining the season or do later broods have an important impact?
Keep up the great work, love reading this blog!
Hi James
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. In answer to your question, yes THESE are the crucial weeks!
I'm hoping we just weren't finding all the chicks and that the picture isn't as bad as appeared.
Three of us walkied a bit of ground yesterday and saw a lot of coveys that all seemed to be doing well. Here's hoping...