Strawberries and cream in the wind

Apologies for not making my blogs more personal but working and doing my tours gives me limited time to put together blogs per evening. So, in the interim I’m trying to just do a weekly update.

On Monday I had a revisit to the hide from Kate, Ed and their pal Jayne. Showings were brief and intermittent to say the least, not helped by a number of folk milling about. However we still saw the family. Great company and some good laughs had by all.

Tuesday was something else, a total scream. I was joined by Adam and Scott. Now Scott has a wee puff on one of those vapour things. The flavour was apparently “strawberries and cream”, and I must admit it was a sweet smelling smoke. Anyway, Scott was having a wee toot and blowing the vapour out the back window but the smoke was drifting back over our heads and into “Martenville”. Within a few minutes we had Martens appear, sniffing the air then they started munching away on the various bait. Scott was well chuffed as it was a childhood wish of his to see a Pine Marten and he witnessed “3” of them. They didn’t stay long but as we were waiting for a return visit, I said to Scott to fire up his fag thingy. This was hilarious; the smoke coming out of the hide was immense and looked as if someone had fired a musket!!!

But believe it or not, the animals returned within minutes and we were treated to an excellent show yet again. We took a diversion on our way home looking for Hen Harriers and/or Short Eared Owls but instead we saw a Merlin, absolutely stunning. I had a great evening with two top guys and incredible wildlife yet again. We also enjoyed a magnificent sunset, really romantic in all honesty. Unfortunately I had to dismiss Mr Caird's advances and point him towards the sheep!!!! Enough said, what happens on the moor stays on the moor ;-)

On Wednesday I had Mark and Rhona, great guy and girl; and though we waited for a good time we were still treated to a great display from the beasties.

On Thursday I had my good friend Kenny. I burst his cherry with a good few sightings even though they were on the late side and light wasn’t great. Top notch bloke that I really enjoy spending time with.

On the Friday I had “rumbling” Ross and “windy” Dod along with “pumping” Pippa. Oh my!!!! The evening was like a Bohemian brass section, well certainly the trumpet bit. I won’t dwell on the past but suffice to say, I preferred the “strawberries and cream” to the “Rhapsody in Brown”. Anyway, we had a brilliant night, with all getting their first photo’s of Pine Martens and we even managed a trip to the river to see the beavers. Another first for Windy Dod, so a VERY successful evening yet again.

Saturday evening threw up a wee surprise in all honesty. I was joined by an old and totally eccentric mate Russell and his cohorts Barry and Robin. We set up a mini hide and baited the usual spot and we were quickly treated to not 1, 2 or 3 martens but 4 of them. Brilliant, Awesome, Mind blowing and VERY Special