Muse of the Month: March. The Hills are Alive
23rd March 2016
I've just come home from a wonderful trip to the Scottish Highlands where spring has certainly been sprung in full force. Late snowdrop clouds blend in with luminous swathes of daffodils and early lambs nestle against matronly ewes lower in the valley.
No better indication that all is well with the start of the frantic season than the sound of bubbling, gurgling and lusty crescendos coming from the dormant heather on the hills.
My eyebrows were raised in curiosity at the sound but it was another pair of red eyebrows I had come to actually find and photograph..those belonging to the male Red Grouse desperately seeking their own Maria by making the hills come alive with their rather splendid chorus and refrain.
The male Grouse is full of noise, colour and boldness in contrast to the shy and retiring female who hides beneath her veil of excellent camouflage plumage. From time to time one shakes off her nervousness and makes a dash for open spaces causing the ardent males to follow in her wake.
No better indication that all is well with the start of the frantic season than the sound of bubbling, gurgling and lusty crescendos coming from the dormant heather on the hills.
My eyebrows were raised in curiosity at the sound but it was another pair of red eyebrows I had come to actually find and photograph..those belonging to the male Red Grouse desperately seeking their own Maria by making the hills come alive with their rather splendid chorus and refrain.
The male Grouse is full of noise, colour and boldness in contrast to the shy and retiring female who hides beneath her veil of excellent camouflage plumage. From time to time one shakes off her nervousness and makes a dash for open spaces causing the ardent males to follow in her wake.