Well I finally made it back last night after about 30 hours of travel and dealing with some real "class acts" at the US customs in Toronto. Did get the birds back and wanted to share some pics of the red grouse and red legged partridge hunt next. Now offering these hunts for anyone interested in experiencing a truly traditional and history rich hunt. Also available are hunts that can be combined or separate for red legged partridge, pheasant, european woodcock, pink footed geese, ducks, and wood pigeons. Plus the Roe deer for the mammal guys out there.

After arriving in Dufftown in Scotland I took in the scenery of my new environment.


The next morning it was time to meet up at a local French resturant to head off towards the hunting ground.


The city was small but a beautiful place


As we got to the top we were now in Red grouse country! The moors are just full of heather (what the grouse feed on)


Great views to start a mornings hunt


Here is the Heather plant. That place was such an interesting type of habitat. Very sponge like and just overall a crappy kind of place to live in it were me.


These hunts are done by rough shooting or walking them up for US terminology. Each hunter is separated by an guide and all walk in as straight of a line as possible. In this pic you can see the stand for hunters doing driven grouse shoots that cost amounts of money that insane. 200 GBP per 2 birds (a brace). Imagine the bill after shooting 100 grouse!


Walking along waiting for the famous grouse to make an appearance


Here is the first red grouse for the trip, guy made a great shot and I was excited to finally see my first red grouse


Couple of action sequences for the dog picking him up

For the first drive the one hunter bagged three nice red grouse and I got the mountain hare.


On the next drive I was able to knock down two great ones right before lunch. Probably my favorite picture!


Closeup of one the grouse, really cool reddish hue those birds have. Not to hard to understand why they call them that.


Here's me holding a grouse and just enjoying the moment to hold something with so much history with it.


Nice closeup of their rump area,


Here we are in front of the days bag, 10 red grouse and some mountain hares.


Here are my three from the trip, great start to the Scotland trip for sure.



Hope you enjoy, many more editions to come

Eric

Congrats and great pics.

One word. WOW!

i love the overseas P/E the best!

how are upland bird numbers holding up in scotland over the years

Thanks Guys! It was a great time and still have lots of other pictures to share. Bird numbers are doing really well. Like anywhere else the places that spend time "money" to manage their birds for the property have the strongest numbers. Red grouse is very expensive normally but they also put in a ton of money to manage the bird for the best numbers. I feel fortunate to have the hunt setup for these birds for such a good price.

Eric

A few more of Mr. Red. Can't wait to mount these guys up!

Nice feathering on the belly, each one had varying marks here especially.


Head shot showing the eye combs.


Different pose for the birds on the over/under.


Eric

Great pics! What a trip of a lifetime!

Beautiful country, story, and pictures. Congratulations on finding success in a great hunt.

Looks like you had a nice hunt. Thanks for sharing. I spent several years there and was able to hunt many estates. Brought back some great memories.

nice post AAR!

Eric,

beautiful pics! That photo while taken across the world is very similiar to a pic of my blue grouse hunt in New Mexico last month. Nice job and awesome birds!

It's good to put a feather with the face.




My, how I'd love to get me wee hands on those skins (feathers).


— SurfTalk

Nice pic Cable! That is very similar for sure. Love the red grouse picture Swellcat, believe me I enjoyed some Red grouse many of times while in Scotland.

Eric

Wow, something to add to the bucket list. Amazing photos.

Amazing, but $400 a day for bird hunting will be out of my price range for a while........I'll just enjoy the pics