I found the juxtaposition of the following two stories on the BBC Scotland web page quite amusing:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7555812.stm

and this repot of the glorious 12th:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/7555812.stm

Wheres the report on the glorious 12th??

We had a very enjoyable mornings walked up shooting - very encouraging for next year, if I can keep them alive over the winter!!

Oops, sorry. I win the dunce's hat today as I posted the same link twice.

What amused me was the the 12th report, to ensure balance of course, had a lot of wittering from the green vermin and I'll bet a penny to the pound that the idiots on Orkney were there living the good life, saving the earth and having a sustainable holiday whilst being offended by country life :-)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7554573.stm

Hopefully that is the right one this time, not a great report though i haven't listened to the audio item yet. Some years back the BBC did a nice pictoral item about the opening from the perspective of a gun with pointers, lots about the dogs etc. I imagine the green vermin must have been up in arms over it and certainly haven't seen anything similar since.

Thought this might interest some, sounds like all 'keepers are slaughtering and murdering b*#^@rds! But all the other wildlife seems to thrive on managed grouse moors - what about RSPB reserve at Geltsdale? what do they have - oh yes fat carrion crows!!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/...welfth111.xml&page=1