It's been two months since the blogger last saw his favourite black grouse cock.

Despite the fact that reliable sources told me that I should expect him to vanish during his moult in July, I felt certain that he had been killed and eaten by some coarse and unwelcome predator.

Finding his feathers in early July provided evidence for both possibilities, but the pessimist in me was convinced that the fantastic gentleman in black had fallen at last to the enemy.

I was trying not to think about it.

On Tuesday, I nipped up to the farm to inspect a patch of larch trees I planted in March, and exchanging my aged car for a quad bike, I followed the path up to the trees.

A short way off the road, the black cock emerged from a patch of rushes like a typhoon, but what a changed spectacle!

When I last saw him, he was in his first year plumage; his wings were dusty brown and his tail fan was incomplete. Now, his wings are jet black and glossy blue and his tail has fallen off altogether.

His new tail will come in with stunning curls by October and he will be a mature cock by the lek next spring.

Most remarkable of all was the fact that his upper body has completely changed colour.

When I saw him on Tuesday, his head and neck were a rusty brown colour, with scruffy and overlapping feathers giving him an ugly appearance when compared to his immaculate black wings.

It is so, so exciting to see that he has made it through the dangerous days when his moult made him vulnerable to predators, and now I realise how important it is that I look after him and the others over the coming winter.

The views expressed on Patrick Laurie's blog are the author's and not the views of Shooting Gazette, ShootingUK, IPC Media or its employees. www.gallowayfarm.wordpress.com