March 2009

The moor is coming back to life, after a winter that has delivered more snow than in many recent years.
Hearing a skylark sing for the first time can only make you happy. We are also seeing more of the less vocal meadow pipits on our daily rounds.
Trundling around on a quad checking our traps, walking the same paths looking for signs of foxes in the form of scats or pads, gives the keepering team the opportunity to spot or hear many changes on the moor as they happen.
Field voles are becoming more active and I have noticed the odd one dashing from tussock to tussock. If you look carefully you can see where they have been feeding in the rushes, and what looks like little piles of spaghetti is in fact the pithy centre of the rush after the green outer casing has been stripped away.
Both voles and pipits are important prey species for many predators and, in particular, for hen harriers. The vole population is cyclical and peaks about every four years here at Langholm; however scientific monitoring predicts that there will be a crash in numbers this year.
If you approach any pool or puddle quietly you will see a hive of activity and, if you listen carefully, you will hear the frogs singing. It’s mating time for the frogs and we have got lots of them; however, venture a little too close for their liking and they soon disappear into the mud, the only evidence of their presence is a bucket of marvellous spawn.
In the bird world, ravens have started to nest; we had five nest sites on the Project area last year.
The keepers have mounted a good campaign against the carrion crows, but we are now awaiting the arrival of the next wave of incomers eager to snap up those vacant territories.
Lapwing and Golden Plover have also made a welcome return to the moor. I hope they notice the hard work that has been carried out since they were last here; the many fires we have had should open up the moor and provide more nesting sites.
We have radio tagged several grouse in bid to closely monitor their movements. Wandering around at night with a lamp and a net in long heather trying to catch elusive grouse, especially when we don’t have many about, can be a testing exercise.
However, it’s well worth the effort as radio telemetry lets us know — warts and all — about what the grouse get up to and, sometimes, their unfortunate fate. So far we have lost two of our radio tagged birds; one looks as though it was taken by a fox, and the other by a bird of prey.
Although the hen harriers are yet to return, there are a number of goshawks and peregrines about. I recently put a goshawk off a kill, which was a woodcock. Woodcock have been numerous this year and it was interesting to track them in the snow and to see the stab marks they had made with their beaks in the thick, white carpet. This wader is getting fit to leave the moor, as many other members of the clan arrive.