How are you?

You know that opener, 'do you want the good news or the bad news?' Well, I'm just going to go right ahead with the bad news first because then I can still end on a positive note.

In these times, positives are all-important. 

Logan

You may remember that Logan, our Scottish peregrine, has been out at tame hack*. About a month ago, we thought we'd lost him and we ended up with two peregrines - his brother (Moffat) and Logan!

Since then, Logan's been around every day, roosting at the house each evening and flying loose during the day. But on Thursday evening, Logan made a major error of judgement and got caught buy Altai, our Golden Eagle.

Altai had been out on his block all day, sitting beside a bank of dog roses and under tall pines that host several birds to roost each evening, including sparrows and pigeons. I was away from the house for a few hours and when I went out to put Altai away at the end of the evening, I could see he was surrounded by feathers. Ah, he’s dabbed a pigeon - I thought.

As I approached, Altai was keen to protect his catch and had it stashed just in the edge of the bushes next to him. That’s when I saw the bell. For a few seconds, I was in disbelief. Then my heart sank. My birds wear a bell to help me locate them if they wander off and I know each bell by site and by sound. This was Logan’s bell. Altai had caught and killed him.

When I went inside to tell Debbie, she was also shocked. She’d had a Logan fly-by just a couple of hours earlier, when he’d followed her out into the orchard as she walked the dogs. He’d been in top form: circling, swooping, performing circuits, shouting, and then settling down to watch from the telegraph pole.

This is pretty much how he’s over been the past few weeks - supremely fit, flying fast and smooth and in full command of his East Neuk sky, out for most of the day then back home to roost at night. He was still very vocal - calling to us morning and evening - and happy to just hang around, whether watching us from barn roof or the telegraph pole when we were outside, or sitting nearby on the workshop or woodshed roof or sleeping on the windowsill when we were inside.

So, what on earth happened to Logan?

Altai has been out every day since Logan was put out to tame hack and he knows better than to go anywhere near the Goldie. But, somehow, after dusk, when he’d normally be tucked up and roosting, Logan has put himself in harm’s way. The best guess we have is that Logan has been tempted into a flight for a pigeon - or perhaps, a collar dove - both have nests in the trees above where Altai was sitting on his block. If Logan caught prey and tussled or landed with it, he won’t have been paying attention to where Altai was. But Altai will have been paying attention, And he’s lightning-fast.

The only compensation is that neither Debbie nor Pete (our Patterdale) heard any commotion from the house, which makes us think it must have been a quick execution and we hope Logan knew nothing until it was too late. Poor guy.

It’s weird not having him about anymore. It’s really sad that we lost him. And it’s horrible that he died the way he did. He was a lovely wee fella and we’ll miss him hanging around. But we have got wonderful memories of him.

Up and running

With the move into Phase 3 of the easing of Lockdown about 10 days ago, I am relieved and delighted to say that I have been busy. There have been lots of enquiries and good numbers of bookings and people are travelling from across Scotland to come and have an experience at The Scottish Countryman.

So far, I’ve hosted fishing trips, owl experiences, bird of prey and (most of all ) archery experiences. It is just fantastic to be operating again and I am very grateful for the support and interest I’ve had.

For up-to-date info on what I can offer and how I operate within the guidelines, check out this post: https://www.thescottishcountryman.co.uk/blog-posts/lockdown-phase3.

All about archery

I’m not the only outdoor activity provider that offers archery, but - from what my guests tell me - my archery experience makes for the most fun! Here’s a wee clip from me to tell you what I do and how it all works. Unlimited arrows, all ages from 6 up, and all experiences from none to lots. Just £20 per head (discounts for groups of 5 or more - please just ask) and a great way to get together with friends, colleagues or family.

Feather feature

Debbie’s creating an article (4-part series?!) all about the wonders of feathers. Part 1 will be shared later this month but, if you have any questions about feathers, drop us an email or comment below so that we can make sure we’ve covered your question. We’re talking about evolution, shapes, purposes, values, colours and more.

Live at 5

We started our Live at 5 sessions on our Facebook page at the outset of Lockdown and have really enjoyed doing them. It seems you’ve enjoyed them, too, as we get some great feedback about them. So, we’re planning to keep going with them but we’ll miss the next two weeks because Debbie’s away and I am expecting to be flat out with bookings. So we’ll be back on again on Sunday 09 August. We will have some videos to share with you before then and there may well be a newsletter coming out before then, too.

Meantime, take care and stay safe and keep in touch.

Best wishes

Steve

P.S. If you’d like to catch up with my previous email/s, you can find them all here.

*P.P.S What is tame hack? To read more about hacking, start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_(falconry)#:~:text=Hacking%20is%20a%20training%20method,to%20become%20an%20independent%20hunter.

Over on Instagram recently…