Reedmace is a foragers dream as it is one of the few wild plants that provide food all year long and is easily identified by its distinctive chocolate-brown cigar shaped seed heads. They grow in shallow loch sides and slow flowing water.
Most people can easily recognise mussels, but not many harvest and eat them from the wild. This is largely due to fears over pollution and poisoning. While it is true that all filter feeders should be treated with caution, a little care and effort will minimise the risk and allow you to enjoy this superb wild food.
The pheasants we encounter in Scotland (Phasianus Colchicus) are neither native or truly wild. Indigenous to Mongolia, they may have arrived here with the Romans as ornamental birds and were certainly a common sight in Britain