Lagopus Edit 1 Everyone

[Leanne]

Lagopus

Lagopus lagopus scotica,
chuckles at shortening days. -- this I don't get.  What's he got to be happy about, unless he's ignorant?  Or unless he thinks it's pretty grouse fun to be running from death...
Winter is coming but so are the guns… -- perhaps you'd consider "winter comes, but so do the guns"
Blat blat blat, through  heather-hushed heath, -- the alliteration works nicely as a quiet contrast to the onomatopoeia, but you also get the rush of air from the "h" which is almost onomatopoeia itself -- very clever
echoing down in the valley beneath, 
filling the wind with knots in air. -- I had to read this line a few times to get the image straight, but it's all good now
Sky-line beaters  black on grey, -- is the extra space deliberate?
bent to the rain, halooing away,
Lagopus lagopus scotica,
this will be your last day. -- for meter, I'm not so keen on this line.  It's a half-beat short, or a half-beat long, and I think I'd shorten it for effect.  Even just "this is" could fix it.  

There are a couple of things that confuse me about the poem, but then I've never seen/participated in a grouse hunt so I am probably missing subtleties.  I gather there are beaters ahead of the hunt to flush the birds out -- this is fairly clear and nicely illustrated.  What I don't quite get is the "chuckles" bit, and whether it is the "last day" for the species (i.e. are they endangered by hunting/ climate change?) or just this one unlucky chortler?  

Otherwise, the heath is quite alive beneath the (always) grey sky, with the ubiquitous drizzle -- I suppose in such conditions it's rather a relief to be able to shoot something.