May 2009

THE last of the winter visitors have gone. I was surprised to see large flocks of fieldfares hanging about earlier in the month, feeding frantically to help them on their long journey back to Scandinavia, the former Soviet Union and the Baltic States. They have now been replaced by wheatears, swallows, martins and more, but the summer gang would not be complete without the cuckoo, here to take advantage of the abundance of meadow pipits and their inability to recognise imposters.

This year’s spring grouse counts are encouraging. The transect counts have worked out at 39 birds per sq km, up from 21 birds per sq km last year. The grouse are now laying and one of our radio tagged birds is sitting on 10 eggs.

In the meantime, after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing following the arrival of two cock hen harriers, one female and one juvenile cock, one pair has finally settled down. The scientists have started the pre-lay feeding with chicks and rats to encourage the harriers to use the feeding posts, so that they take food readily once their chicks have hatched. After sitting on the nest for 29 to 37 days, the hen is very hungry with a growing family to feed. This is therefore when grouse chicks are more likely to be eaten by harriers, but by putting out chicks and rats, we hope to offset predation on young grouse. Last year was similar in that it took a while for the birds to sort themselves out. However, when the hens returned, everything happened very quickly, as nests were built and eggs laid.

The heather burning season usually ends on 15 April but because of the amount of rank heather we have here and the limited number of days we have been able to burn due to the weather, we applied for a licence to burn until 30 April, and until 15 May on areas above 1,500ft. For the well being of the moor, it is vitally important that we get as much heather back into a productive state as we can. However, when you’re burning old, rank and beetled heather, everything doesn’t always go to plan. In early April, a fire got away from us and burnt a greater area than we had set out to do in one fire. The fire jumped what I thought was a good barrier, the type we had burned into with no problem before, but not this day, and went on to cross two streams and the Little Tarras river. It is quite frightening and hard work for all concerned when a fire gets away. To top it all, the fogging unit (a water system used for damping the flames) broke just when we needed it most, prompting me to summon extra help. Fortunately, the Langholm fire brigade and several Langholm Estate staff soon arrived and the fire was safely extinguished.

Earlier in the year, we had planned what we would do if this sort of situation were to arise and, on the day, the procedure worked well. I’m not sure, however, what would happen if we were burning on a less accessible part of the moor. Although it’s obviously not great when a fire gets away from us, and it was of concern at the time – especially as the area burnt looked so big and black – two weeks on, it’s starting to green up nicely like the rest of the moor. And, within two years, young heather will have replaced a lot of old stuff that was not a lot of good to anything.

Recently, Thomas Johnson (one of our beatkeepers) came across a Peregrine eating a cock grouse. On examining the carcase, it was interesting to see that the grouse’s crop was full of blaeberry flowers and new leaves, despite the fact that there are nice fresh shoots on the younger heather plants.

There has also been a hatch of crane flies. One sunny day I noticed a flock of rooks advancing in a line on the edge of the moor, hoovering up crane flies as they emerged from their leather jackets.

The only insect that I don’t like – the midge – has not appeared yet. I can still hardly believe that such a small creature can cause so much grief in the summer months, whether you are sitting out for a fox or trying to have a barbecue.

The bog myrtle is now in flower and the leaves will shortly follow. This year I am going to experiment with the plant’s insect – and hopefully, midge – repelling juices, as I don’t like the smell of Avon Skin So Soft.
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