The Exorcism

This was always going to be a time of change. Our old head keeper would have been due to retire in a couple of months. As it was, cancer cut him down before that was allowed to happen. Although he is gone, I can still feel his presence. We all can.

When the time came to look for a replacement, I applied for the post. As did two of my colleagues. Altogether that represented about 5 decades of keepering experience.

So it's safe to say that we were all a bit surprised when it was announced that a 30 year old from outwith has been offered the job. As you might imagine, I've since pondered this decision.

Maybe it's because he doesn't believe in ghosts.

Infamy

Happy New Year to you, one and all.

Over the Christames break, my colleagues and I have been praying for some harder weather to 'bring the deer in' a bit. It didn't happen.

I also though that, with my ground left quiet for a fortnight, the deer might have settled down a bit. I even thought the big herds might have broken up and spread out a bit. Didn't happen.

We're now 2 days back in the yoke. And both days we've had mist and rain and very little to show for our efforts. Personally, I'm getting extremely windy about how far I'm behind with my cull. The problem is, there is very little any of us can do about it. Even if we were to get the hard weather now, I really don't think we could make up the numbers we need to.

I can't remember if I mentioned it in a former blog, but I had a(nother) cameraman out with me a few weeks back. This one was filming for an internet programme called The Shooting Show.

As it turned out he also (I say also because this is the second cameraman I've had out with me recently) had very poor conditions to film in. All I can say is that the camera never lies- this is what we've been having to put up with all season.

You can catch the programme (dated 7.1.13, I think) on www.theshootingshow.tv.

Enjoy.

On The Silver Screen

Well I managed to survive until the Christmas break. Out of the last 6 working days, 5 have featured mist, wind and lashing rain.

On the last stalking day I managed to bag 4 beasts. Although it was a refreshing change to get more than one shot off, it did come at a price. That price was that this required 2 trips with the horse.

 I got so cold waiting for Eric and Fergus to return that any distraction would do....like taking pictures of  my misery, for example.

On a similar note, I had a filmmaker-Rob- out with me a few weeks back. He was doing a promotional video for wild venison. As luck would have it, the day he came out was a fair representation of what a days hind stalking entailed.

As we trundled away from the larder in the morning, Eric asked as to whether he had a rain cover for his (rather expensive looking) camera. When he responded in the negative, Eric offered to fetch a bin-liner.

By the time we came off the hill, that bin-liner was in tatters. Those tatters, however, were still being carefully wrapped around the camera after each sodden attempt at a take. By the time the stalking party was down on the flats of the glen, the misted lenses rendered the camera useless. Which was a pity as a pair of salmon were putting up an excellent display of spawning in a shallow pool just a few yards away.

As it turned out Rob returned for another day and managed to get the shots he needed. You can get a sneak preview of the drier parts of our first outing on http://vimeo.com/53165007 . Hopefully I'll be sharing the second outing with you soon.

Finally, I'd like to thank all you folk out there in cyberspace for your continued support. My last blog must have had an air of despondency about it. It garnered a few comments of encouragement which were just the tonic I was needing.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and all the best for the coming year.

 

Army Fatigues

As I suspected, that's been a full-on week. The snipers have now vacated the village hall and I suspect they'll be near the end of their journey home by now.

As for me, I feel near the end of my tether. Sure, it's been a busy week. And there's no doubt it takes more energy and effort to take a guest stalking than to just do it yourself. But it's more than that. Stalking red deer on the open hill is not something you can do half-hearted. Do that and you'd be as well not bothering.

I've been stalking nigh every day since the start of October. Every day I've been giving it my level best (to use a particularly inappropriate expression for the hill) and I'm starting to feel a little.....frazzled.

It's been a day of rain, sleet and snow. High winds and low spirits. As I type this the storm is still raging outside. But for now I'm sat in front of a roasting fire. I've a glass of wine at hand and Lil'Lots asleep at my feet.....and the whole weekend in which to recover before I do it all again.

New Bloods

A couple of blogs ago, I mentioned that we'd behaving a different sort of group coming stalking for the week. Well they're here- and they couldn't be more different from the group who were staying at the lodge last month.
This lot are dossing down on the floor of the village hall. There's not a square inch of tweed to be seen. And, although a lot of them have never stalked before, they know one end of a rifle from the other.
They are a group of army snipers and this is 'Adventure Training' for them. When I hear that expression my brain automatically replaces it with 'Busmans Holiday'.
A lot of them were here for the first time last year (see blog of 16th December 2011) and it's great to catch up with them again. But it's also nice to see there are some new faces with them. This means we'll get to give the new bloods a blooding. As I've said many times, I love introducing 'virgins' to what I consider to be the most challenging and rewarding of all fieldsports.
It's also great to see that the weather has improved; although some would not see -10C as an improvement. As you'll see from the pics we've also had a bit of snow. Not enough to shove the deer right 'in aboot' but enough to have totally stymied the delivery driver who took his van down my drive to deliver one tiny parcel.
Speaking personally, my only regret about the snow is that I have to leave Lottie (my young terrier) at home. She's not yet steady enough not to dance about while I'm stalking in. This isn't too much of a problem on 'black ground' but she sticks out like a sore thumb on the snow.
The forecast sounds like there will be a lot of rain arriving at the end of the week so maybe it'll be 'business as usual' for us both come Monday.
In the meantime, there's a lot of miles to do with this lot. And they don't ever seem to need to stop for a 'breather'. Unfortunately.

 

Water Biscuit

Those of you who live in the uk will need no telling about the weather we've had this last week. Flood warnings are in place the length and breadth of the land.

For us, Monday was diabolical. Not a day for the hill at all, really. But with us falling behind further and further with our hind cull, I felt I had to go out and try.

Tuesday turned out to be even worse. And I had a guest out that day. I'd like to think we'd have had a result as well but the wind changed on us when we were only 200 yards of the beasts. Then later mist obscured another lot just at a crucial time. Excuses, excuses....

But Thursday really took the biscuit. And what a soggy biscuit it was. Again I had a guest and we were fortunate that, although we had lashing rain, the cloud base remained high enough to be able to see what we were doing.

As it was, we got a couple of beasts and a good soaking.

As I write this I can see a greyness to the very tops of the hills. But we're needing a lot more snow than that if the deer are to be shoved in to our more accessible ground.

I heard that some Danish scientists, monitoring sea temperatures off iceland, are predicting a very hard winter. Be careful what you wish for? Bring it on, I say.

For a wee while anyway.

Dark Days

Those of you who know this place may already know that our Head Gamekeeper recently passed away.

He was a connsumate keeper and a truly good person. I worked under him for 25 years and would have been happy to have done so for another 25. But that was not to be.

A new Head Keeper will be appointed in due course. In the meantime, the 5 keepers that remain here are 'holding the fort'. We all know what needs to be done and are sharing the load as best we can.

Our hind cull is now well under way, time-wise anyway! The numbers seem to be creeping up almost imperceptibly.

This isn't just because we are a man down. We've also had a lot of mild weather which allows the deer to stay as far away from us as possible. And relentless west winds have only encouraged them farther out.

We've had a fair few stalking guests as well. Including, for the first time, a party staying in the lodge. They were a young bunch and good fun but there were a lot of very inexperienced stalkers amongst them. Including some that had never shot before.

It always gives me a buzz to introduce someone to the sport. It's also fascinating to see how the reality compares to the preconceptions they might have. Almost invariably they find it much harder than they thought it would be. And therefore more rewarding.

The 'virgins' in this group were no different. They raved about the whole experience. If their livers recover, we hope to see them come back next year.

In a few weeks time we have another group coming. Of a very different sort. Yes, there will be a lot of them and, yes, many of them will never have stalked deer in their lives before. However, I'm sure it's going to be a very different week for us keepers...but no less busy.

Busy is good. It's fine to have a distraction from the cloud that still hangs over us. For me, it will take a long time to clear.