February 2010

JANUARY has seen more snow and bitterly cold temperatures. Some of the original snow still lies on the higher ground, blocking tracks and burying traps under drifts against stonewalls. It got so cold that the diesel in our trucks thickened and they would not run – an expensive fault that the manufacturer has now put right.

I am delighted to report that we have managed two days’ heather burning on the last day of January and the first day of February. Looking at the long-range weather forecast, though, it looks as if that’s all that we can hope to achieve for some time.

It was bitterly cold at the beginning of January when, like most of the rest of the UK, snow covered the entire moor and the grouse continued to pack together. The largest pack I saw contained about 70 birds, although this is not a lot when compared to some of the figures that I have been quoted. But for us, at this stage, a pack of 70 is a good number. One day, I saw pack after pack of grouse whizzing about as a buzzard moved across the moor.

Now that the snow has melted on the lower parts of the hill, things have settled down again for the time being and the grouse are back in pairs. But the harsh winter weather will have taken its toll on several moorland species. Many creatures are hungry and we are finding numerous grouse kills, which has increased my collection of plucked carcass photographs. Seeing a barn owl hunting in the day can be a sign that food is scarce. I have not yet picked up any dead owls, but young birds are always very vulnerable in a long period of cold weather, because their main sources of food – voles and mice — are hidden under the white blanket of snow.

Now that the snow has melted, it’s possible to see what looks like little piles of spaghetti, which are in fact the remains of the pithy centre of rushes: the field voles having stripped away and feasted on the tasty green outer casing in perfect safety.

It has been so cold that the River Esk that runs through Langholm nearly froze over and provided another example that, in times of hardship, some creatures take more risks in pursuit of food. While making a trip into the town to do our own food shopping, we saw an otter eating a salmon on the ice at the edge of the river — with another large fish beside him – which was a 200% increase on my own fishing success, and he hadn’t had to pay the £70 license-fee for the privilege.

Our black grouse population is becoming more obvious, too, with almost daily sightings of the birds at the Newcastleton end of the moor. And, at Lodgegill, five black cock and four hens were flushed in the area in which I saw a brood last year.

I have also seen our first returning hen harrier of the year: a mature male flying low over Broomholmshiels. Last year, I saw the first cock hen harrier on 25 January, while this year’s sighting was on 30 January.