Caledonian pines

The last day of our camping weekend in the Cairngorms. The plan was to get up early to see the black grouse on their traditional lekking grounds on the big grassy area between the river and the pinewoods. And we did manage to get up at 0430, break camp in fresh snow, teeter with full packs over the river on a fallen pine, and walk the mile down the valley by 0600. Simon crawled through the heather to the top of a small vantage point over the lek. Nothing. Then we spotted the gamekeeper's Land Rover. And later we saw the man himself, with a gun and dog and what looked like a wealthy client. They were earlier than us, had parked up in full view of the lek and headed off into the forest - the shy black grouse had given up for the day and left.

So we headed back down the valley towards Braemar in intermittent snow and sunshine. This was the view back to Glen Quioch, through the falling snow (it isn't a filthy sensor in my camera). The shot illustrates something we had been talking about, the pinewoods are slowly dying. There is not a tree that is less than a 100 years old, many are standing dead, and others have toppled over. The culprits are the red deer, there are just too many of them eating all the seedlings, the only predator left being a man with a gun, and the men with the guns are not culling enough of them. There was some cause for optimism as we walked out, there were areas outside the main forest where there were large numbers of seedlings, so perhaps the landlord and shooting tenants are beginning to make a difference to deer numbers.

We were too early for breakfast in Braemar, so it was on to Blairgowrie and brunch in the Dome. Then the long drive home, tired but happy, weary but energised.