The last couple of years the deer count has not been done in the traditional way over two days. Covid put an end to our regular count and since then we have used observations from the end of the hind season whilst out and about to assess the cull potential.
This year we had planned a big effort to find out more or less exactly how many deer we had, but circumstances yet again did not allow for a good group of people to be out over two days walking the Island. So yesterday it was down to two, myself and Mark (on holiday) who has helped many times before. Grant is away on a course and Wayne who was wanting to come back could not get away from his Estate with commitments backing up there.
As it happened we went out yesterday on a grey cold day, not expecting much as the deer would be sitting tight, however the sun did come out occasionally and it turned out a good day after all.
We headed North into the wind and parked the bike in the valley running North, we walked out to the North East immediately spying deer, a good sign. The ground is pretty dry by Rona standards but it has been a kind winter here in the West.
We headed up the North East side keeping to the tops, unlike stalking we were looking to ‘lift’ the deer. Walking a distance apart and in radio contact we would let each other know if anything scarpered.
Heading North East I spotted quite a few hinds calves and followers dotted about, walking over a ridge onto a couple of groups lying down in the small copses of birch almost immediately. Thinking about the current craze for rewilding/regeneration and trees planted it seems anywhere. I mused how this walk had not changed at all in the 22 years of my time on Rona. Quite simply there is no real regeneration with little herbivore impact. There were at one time 500 sheep on Rona and then a gap, quite a gap where trees would have certainly got away. Of course when it was heavily populated in the 1900s all sorts of stock would have been resident, but I guess more cattle. However they did not and now with a good population of Red Deer now it would be easy to blame the deer for this but that is simply not the case and the reason the trees do not grow is because of several factors, exceptionally poor ground and the weather for a start. The photo ‘Poor Ground’ is exactly as it was all those years ago when I came. There had been a big fire the length of Rona in the past 30 years which should have helped at least the Birch and possibly was part of the reason birch are very slowly colonising the ground but as I say, very slowly. The point being that on this type of West Coast hill ground, which is bvery common, the chances of any major tree cover is simply not there.
Moving on to the settlement of Braighe, passing either salt sprayed or windburnt birch that had made an effort to get out of the ground but eventually suffered at the hands of the elements (not the deer). On looking down on the settlement of Braighe, it is fascinating to see the workings of the settlements there and take in the tough life the people that lived there had to endure. On the third photo here there is a sole Scots Pine growing at the edge of the slope, LHS, possibly a cone was dropped by a bird or a seed was airborn from some distant tree, but there it is a Scots Pine and in good condition as I guess it is reasonably sheltered. Just round that corner in another sheltered valley is a stand of Aspen, with easy access for herbivores. It is common to say that Aspen were lucky to be in non accessible areas because I read about such stands but on Rona they grew well in easily accesible areas where sheep and cattle had been present. So it is not all doom and gloom for regeneration, but given no seed source anywhere near here, how did that Scots Pine happen. No deer to be seen in this area but plenty marks.
On musing about peatland restoration, here are a few images of the workings from a hundred years ago of peat banks far from the houses. It must have been quite a carry to get the peat home over such poor terrain. I hear that diggers are grading, filling in and shaping some if these old peat workings, crazy! The whole principle of peatland restoration is in my opinion madness, a read of the work of Dr James Fenton would be a reasonable place to start before sending diesel guzzling diggers into the hills to play at gardening. For sure there are drains that were dug in the last century in an attempt to turn moorland into farmland (unsuccesful) that now are part of the increased reason of flooding. There are places but filling in and shaping peat hags that occurred naturally, not sure that is doing any good. Doing the same to old peat workings and blaming deer for peatland damage is nonsense, I see these statements coming from the conservation lobby all the time. Just look around and take time to think about it. But therein lies the problem. Those shouting loudest will not get out onto these hills much and if they do they certainly will not get into the many corners your average stalker (or deer counter ) will, week on week, year in year out.
The last picture there is a deer wallow, a bath in other words. Now the conservationists yet again would scream, DAMAGE! But this is a totally natural thing for deer to do, the same as pigs/wild boar would do. For me it screams a perfect environment for the most beautiful dragonflies that Rona produces in spades year on year. Give me the dragonflies, leave the gardening digger at home.
I would just like to say that this is only a tiny part of what the average Sporeting Estate Stalker does, it is an enjoyable part as is stalking or proper deer management. We are maintaining the herd in good order and putting in the hours doing that, not just going out and shooting the first deer that we see. Which is what a lot of Quasi Non Governmental Organisations consider deer management (also Forestry Companies/FLS), a shoot to kill policy. They do it on land where deer were managed as a herd for generations, there is no slow reduction of a totally natural animal with a social structure to the herd, the desire is to wipe out the herd. The reasons, in my opinion is nothing to do with the deer but everything to do with targetting Sporting Estates. Shame on them for using a wild animal to do this.
Finally on this subject, I am as likely to be fixing the internet, the boat, the generator, the million other things we have to do here. Do the quangos have staff doing this sort of work on their Estates, living on the land, connecting on the land, I think not a big percentage? Seems to me coffee shops are their big thing.
Moving on towards the Lighthouse for lunch, I swapped with Mark taking the West side, him the East, he quickly came onto hinds and calves. I got a call, so sat down to take it. Right next door to this impressive Juniper and then all around I saw more, quite green as the spring and slightly warmer weather seems to have woken them up. This one in particular was pretty vibrant. The valley is quite sheltered but yet again the trees fail to make any impression such is the sourness and wet ground. Whilst on the phone I spied across the valley onto some hinds on the peninsula East of the harbour. We would catch them later.
Coming over into the next corrie on the Easst side I spied hinds and a calf lying down, once I put the glass on them I spied my first big stag sleeping in front of a rock, He looked to have wintered well and was unaware that I was there despite the hinds being alerted and me coming over the Skyline.
We had our lunch and came back the way we had come so as to cross over into the wind to the North West corner for part two of the count. We came back along the path over the sleeping stag to find all of the deer still lying where I had left them. The hinds and calves took off but Mr Stag was in no hurry to go, how is it they just know it is not the seasaon for culling them (well at least not here despite Miss Slater’s open season). He evetually left but in no hurry. We had seen only three deer north of the lighthouse but were content with that knowing there were usually more out there. We would keep our energy for the next hike. Funnily enough the hinds were very flighty yesterday, maybe they got word of Lorna Slater’s plan to allow killing of them most of the year, looking at some of the big pregnant hinds it beggars belief that in Scotland so called conservationists would support the shooting of heavily pregnant hinds up to less than 9 days ago. What on earth are these people thinking of?
Birch copses present.
We got over the valley and pushed on up the hill, I thought I was getting fitter but that was a killer. But once up top the view was stunning and pockets of deer were popping up here and there, mostly hinds seen and looking none too bad. Good to see quite a few calves. A shower came in and we hunkered down, glad of the rest. But after it passed we got up and carried on past the Danish/Greek/Norwegian Princes/Princess’ grave. Pointing it out to Mark and telling him how the Vikings used to pull the boat of their fallen comrade up to a high point and facing North they set it on fire with the remains in it, a good story. But maybe why this pocket is so green, Certainly the ‘Ob’ lends itself to a very sheltered harbour and you wonder just what went on their becasuse there are workings at the narrows, a trap’, where I suspect fish would flow in to the round harbour there. Also the very flat piece of ground off to the NW of this harbour is intriguing, obviously worked and now a deer stand in the Rut. I guess we will never know.
With the wind right out on the North West, there was no chance of anything to see going home with it in our backs. So we were thinking of calling it a day but as we had seen quite a few deer approaching the spying point above the Big Birch Wood, we were keen to discount deer running forward whilst spying this area. But to our surprise it became deer central. With groups of deer reacting to our chatting moving about and we saw so many deer here I was even surprised. But the biggest surprise was a pack of good quality mature stags in exactly the same spot as myself and Bryn had seen in August last year. Ten or thereabouts, 6 of them very nice. This is encouraging for venison production in July and the stalking from September. The best bit was that this was only one third of the Island, counted.
86 deer counted over 6 hours.
10 km walked, a lot of spying.
Knackered, never been so!!!!
A footnote on Birch Regeneration:
A common occurance on Rona is, have the generations past that built the many dykes created the perfect seed bed for birch growth? Was it because of the soil disturbance all those years ago, the 500 sheep sheltering and dunging these areas, the shelter from the wind? The growth is phenomenol.
On to-day’s brief outing on the ATV to catch and count deer before the rain came I took a trip into the forest on the East side at Dry Harbour, this old Hazel has succumbed to the gales unfortunately but that is the nature of the forest that even in a dry year trees get blown.
isleofronalog 