The Scottish Highlands
- Moray is a land of barren moorland, mountains, forests and water
Much of the Scottish Highlands are covered in Grouse moors; the grouse deserts.
Grouse are game birds that provide moving targets to the ultra-wealthy,
and a meagre income to the area where they are shot.
Pretty when the heather is blooming purple, this landscape is artificially denuded of vegetation and wildlife: anything that moves is killed by ‘game keepers’ intent on preserving the precious Grouse shooting.
The tragedy is that the area is unbelievably beautiful and the missing creatures; the Hen Harriers, Golden and White-tailed Eagles, the Lynx and the Scottish Wildcat would bring in far more tourists and their associated income and prosperity to this feudal area than Grouse are ever capable of.
A Red Grouse in detail and in context, on the moorland that is managed exlusively for the shooting of them.
Osprey
An adult male Osprey patrolling for fish over the mouth of the river Spey, on the Moray coast of Scotland.
An adult Osprey puts a juvenile female in its place over the bay of the River Spey.
Osprey feed up and put on as much weight as possible before their long and arduous migration south from Scotland, across Europe to the area south of the the Sahara desert, where they remain for the course of the European winter.
