Round Potholm On My Own

As everybody else is either on holiday or away it was a case of walking on my own today so I decided to look at some of the work being done on Langholm Walks network by Ranger Ross Gemmill. The steps from the Potholm road end needed fixing and Ross has made an excellent job and has also changed the arrow on the signpost to the correct direction. 

The new steps. Most of the work being done is now complete and this was just one of the smaller tasks. He has put in new stiles, new duckboards, non slip patches on bridges etc, and several other improvements. 

After the rain overnight and into this morning it cleared up dramatically for my walk round Potholm. This field of Barley is looking good so hopefully a period of dry weather will enable the farmer to harvest it.  

The river Esk at Potholm Bridge. The river seems to have been in a permanent flood for many weeks.

Some of the many young Pheasants released into the woods

The rearing of Pheasants is big business and the shooting of them in the autumn and winter brings much revenue into the area and creates a good number of jobs. They may have a short life but they are well looked after and quite a number of them escape the guns. 

A solitary tree left for the raptors to perch on. Much of the wooded are of the walk has now been felled and it has opened up the area. Next spring there should be a good display of wild flowers where there used to be trees.

Mr Grumpy having a rest at the Kilngreen

On the road to Potholm is this bird scarer. I stood for a while watching a lot of Sparrows feeding of the grains of Barley and then the scarer went off and they immediately left only to return a few minutes later.