Heather Burning

I could see the trail of smoke from a long way away. I knew exactly what was going on and sniffed a good blip! It's easy to forget that the beautiful heather moors here are not a totally natural feature of the landscape. If left alone the heather would become overrun with shrubs and trees. The heather is burned in a controlled way to create a patchwork of different ages of plant. It's driven mostly by the need to create a healthy range of habitats for the grouse, young heather to feed on and older heather to hide in. The irony, of course, is that all this love and attention for these wild birds is so that they can be shot - and people apparently pay huge sums of money for that dubious privilege.

I asked Michael here whether it's an art or a science, this burning of the heather. He said it was a bit of both. There is certainly a science to burning back the heather quickly and in a controlled fashion, but also an art in creating what he called a mosaic pattern in the landscape. He takes great pride in his work. He's apparently been waiting for the right wind for a week or so. Today was the first time there's been much of a breeze for what seems like ages. Coming from the East it was definitely a little colder today.