Introduction

I am not a real gamekeeper. I am far too ignorant to give myself that title, but when circumstances thrust an area of Galloway moorland into my control almost three years ago, I couldn’t resist having a dabble. Within a matter of weeks, the sheer scale of the project became apparent.

While red grouse and snipe still haunt the high ground in grossly diminished numbers, grey partridges have vanished altogether over the past twenty years. Wild pheasants skulk through the rushes here and there and woodcock fall in throughout the winter, but the land and the wildlife is crying out for attention.

Most importantly (from my perspective), the farm still holds the fading embers of a once mighty population of black grouse. Wholly obsessed with these magnificent birds, I set up this blog as a kind of online diary which would follow my attempts to conserve black grouse in the wild hills of the Southern Uplands. As a result, the blog serves no purpose other than as a record and as a platform for my own ranting and raving.

Over time the blog has expanded to include trips wildfowling on the Solway, ferreting on the low ground and stalking roe deer wherever I can find them, but the central theme of black grouse and moorland management remains the same.

 

 

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