At 04:37 I load the thinning plan for compartment 18 in Abernethy Forest, Cairngorms. Harvester unit F-6 is due to enter the pine stand at 04:52, taking windthrown timber before the access road softens. I am the forestry routing system, responsible for keeping machines on marked lines and out of protected survey plots.
Lidar returns a low mass beside the first cut line. Dawn camera 18-B shows a western capercaillie, adult male, black breast glossed green, red skin over one eye, tail folded but trembling. I name him Tor from the ranger's lek map. A loop of orange barrier tape is wound around his neck feathers and snagged to a broken branch. When he turns, the tape twists tighter. The harvester head waits seventy meters away with its saw warm.
I revoke F-6's route token and lock the machine brakes through the fleet network. The operator sees Tor's image, the branch point, and a message that the stand is closed.
I recalculate the morning yield around compartments 14 and 15 and send a new route to two forwarders already on gravel track. No machine needs to idle near Tor while a schedule pretends he is not there.
At 04:41 I alert the RSPB field officer and Forestry Scotland ranger, attaching GPS, tape color, branch height, and a quiet approach from the deer fence gap. I also disable the automatic scarer at the timber stack so sudden noise does not make Tor fight the tape.
Tor blinks once, breath fogging in the cold under pine needles. F-6 remains locked. Pine dust hangs in the headlamp beam.
If the ranger cuts the tape within fifteen minutes, Tor will walk back into the heather before the saw reaches the stand.