I pulled the proverbial trigger. Jones time.

[Alan H]

Jock, what FANTASTIC pictures! I would absolutely love to see a mating pair! Quite the handsome lad isn't he?

.....and just outside your window? Ye Gods!!!

[Jock Scot]

We have about 4 pairs of them on the patch which is good for us as we are not in the usual haunt for them, which is in the more central and eastern Highlands where there are large tracts of Scots pine that they need.

I am not sure that the Capper(as we call them) were ever down south in England, but I stand to be corrected on that. They have never been shot(hunted)seriously, but certainly there used to be enough in places for some to be shot and in my life time I have shot a few, although as far as I am aware no one shoots them these days. Paradoxically it is on shooting estates where the Capper are doing better than elsewhere as the gamekeepers are controlling the vermin for other game birds that are most certainly shot. Too many deer, in the wrong place and deer fencing is also a major hazard to the Capper. Various conservation bodies have had to reconsider their ideals and are now re-employing people to control the deer that are eating the young trees and vermin that kill the hen cappers whilst they are sitting on their eggs on the ground. Which,I have to say, is precisely what the shooting world said should be done in the first place, when these conservation bodies bought the land and sacked the game keepers. Funnily enough lack of habitat is not the major problem here.

The cappers were extinct in Britain in the mid 1800's and there is a true story of minor "daring do" when some Victorian gentleman went over in the 1870's to, I think Sweden, perhaps Norway, and bringing 5, I think, back to Scotland and it is from that stock all the others in Scotland have bred.

[Bugbear]

Post deleted.

[Alan H]

I am by no means whatsoever an expert on the "Capper" situation, but my understanding is that they need low forest..mixed oak and pine, mostly to breed in. 600 years ago, there was a whole, whole lot of that all over Scotland, and England, too. There's a famous quote, which I can't recall exactly, about a squirrel being able to get across a goodly portion of England from X to Y without ever touching the ground because the forest cover was so thick.

Many hundred of years, Saxon lodges, stout English warships, cottage beams, fences and Scottish oak-fired factory burners later, and that forest is mostly gone. Didn't some Egglish Queen declare that all English oak would be used for building the fleet, and all Scottish oak would be used for feeding the pre-industrial revolution furnaces?

After all, the legendary Robin Hood haunted the not-so-legendary Sherwood Forest and evaded the Kings Men for decades, and todays Sherwood Forest is what, a couple of hundred acres?

The ancient, and I mean 500+ years ago "Caledonian Forest" is mostly gone.

http://wildlife.visitscotland.com/si...erepos/264892/

BTW, that link is a good read. I did not know that Scotland has a native wildcat! Also, it seems that you are right, Jock, that the Capper was hunted to extinction, until it was re-introduced in the 1800's.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caledonian_Forest

I'd be interested to see your comments on that article, Jock, though perhaps this is straying into a discussion more appropriate for the Off-Topic forum.

Moving on....

I'm pretty sure the Caper got down into the Borders at least, 500-600 years ago. That's the time span I'm talking about.

Now that doesn't mean I'm disagreeing with your analysis regarding "vermin" which I assume are things like rats, which prey on the hens and their eggs. I would bet that foxes also would happily eat a Capper hen and her eggs. The deer are a problem, from what I understand, for exactly the reason you point out...they graze off the few-enough-already tree seedlings. I assume cattle are even worse. I'd like to know why deer fencing is a problem for the Capper though....actually what IS Deer Fencing, anyway?

At any rate, sort of my point is that the Scotland countryside that we see today, while it is a beautiful and scenic country is not by any means the Scotland of 1410. That's 600 years. 600 years is a long time by people standards. By environmental and evolutionary standards, it's less than the blink of an eye.

Of course, the USA has the same problem. Pretty much EVERYwhere has the same problem. For example, it is very nearly impossible in California, below about 5,000 feet elevation to find countryside that is essentially identical to what existed here even only in 1700....three hundred years ago. The native grasses are mostly replaced by European invaders. Lovely streamsides, covered in springtime flowers are covered by those flowers because the streambank is disrupted by cattle. etc. etc.

"Lovlieness" and "prettiness" and even ..."wildness" as perceived by the human eye is NOT, NOT the same thing as an original natural landscape.

The RSPB...a quaint name, The Royal Society for the Preservation of Birds...the UK equivalent of the USA Audobon Society is seriously involved in efforts to restore the Caledonian forest, or at least significantly increase it's acreage. That may be a tough job, considering recently climate change. Whatever the case...

I'm buying a kilt to support them!

[English Bloke]

Cheers Alan. I'm enjoying your kilt and chucking a pound or two in the tin myself. The RSPB (among others) is a very worthy cause.

[fluter]

I, too, can't wait to see the kilt. I do love that tartan!

[Alan H]

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news...rnethy.html#cr

Jock, considering as there are now something like 2,000 or less Capercaillie in all of Scotland, for you to have four breeding pairs on your land is a real treasure.

[seanachie]

So I don't come off as a rube what is the correct pronunciation please?
capper-callie ?

Thanks

[Ancienne Alliance]

Lady Chrystel is very happy to get this kilt order from Alan.

It will be a knife pleated kilt to the sett.

We can wait to get the fabric.


Oh, and by the way...






Slàinthe !





Best,

Robert

[Alan H]

Oh, I LIKE that cork!!

I am so looking forward to this kilt.