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GROUSING ABOUT THE GREAT BRITISH WEATHER!

25th July 2011

grousewallThe British trait of soldiering-on regardless in our unpredictable weather is mirrored by the wild Red Grouse; a game bird so British it is not found anywhere else in the world, says the Moorland Association. The breeding season for this bird, found high up on the beautiful but exposed heather moorlands, has been a roller coaster with temperatures rocketing only then to plummet, winds blowing from wild to mild, and the hot, dry spring causing crucial insects to hatch too early to feed the chicks. All this follows a harsh winter with deep snow and temperatures of – 20? C and below, and yet prospects for this shooting season still look good.

In the lead up to the start of the shooting season – 12th August – the grouse moor managers have to work out how well the grouse have survived and bred before they can decide how many days of grouse shooting should be held to harvest a sustainable surplus for the plate.

Explains Edward Bromet, Chairman of the Moorland Association whose members manage grouse moors covering over a fifth of the uplands in England and Wales: “As always, the weather this year has played a huge role in the success of breeding for the wild red grouse and other important ground nesting birds. Despite another very harsh winter, the grouse have come through it in healthy condition helped by strong populations left from the very good 2010 breeding season. In April, counts of pairs of grouse getting ready to breed were very good, even surpassing last year’s ‘record counts’ in some places in Yorkshire and Durham.”

From then on, the driest and warmest April on record brought several problems. The first was that the fantastic weather and additional bank holiday for the royal wedding attracted many extra visitors and their dogs to enjoy honey-pot moorland locations when the red grouse and other iconic moorland birds were incubating their eggs. Unintentional disturbance by visitors and their dogs can cause the hidden birds to desert the nests leaving the eggs to chill and die.

Second, the moorlands were so dry that the threat of wildfires was severe and scores of fires blazed in the uplands consuming all wildlife in their path. If these had badly affected grouse moors, renowned for their wildlife conservation, up to five times as many ground-nesting birds, like the curlew and lapwing, would have been destroyed.

Third, the good weather is thought to have triggered the annual insect hatch to happen early, leaving chicks up to 10 days old with little to eat in mid to late May.

Continues Mr Bromet: “By late May, just when the chicks had hatched, the weather turned on its head. Temperatures plummeted from the mid 20s to just 5 or 6?C in the day with night frosts, lashing rain and hail, and storm force winds blowing remaining insects out of reach. The chicks are tiny and only weigh a few grammes at this stage so searching for food in these conditions would have been very hazardous.”

Despite everything the British weather has thrown at the wild red grouse, it survived the winter well and in good numbers thanks to its sub arctic plumage, feathered feet and ability to burrow in the snow to find the heather that the adults rely on for food and shelter. Many pairs means many broods, and fantastic parenting skills have helped five or six chicks per brood to survive through to adulthood meaning that shooting prospects for the season remain positive.

The final scientifically based decisions on how many shooting days will be run per grouse moor will be made in the next few weeks following grouse counts using highly trained pointer and setter dogs. So far the word from the moors is as follows:

North Pennines: Generally good populations of grouse across the area with a few localised patches that report brood sizes have been reduced. Durham, in the east, not so badly affected by the wet weather and looking promising.

North York Moors: Spring counts were as good, or better, than last year but hatching success has varied across the North York Moors. The brood sizes have varied significantly in parts but generally there is cautious optimism for an average or better than average season. Being in the East of the country the wet and cold weather was not so severe.

Yorkshire Dales: Many moors reporting high populations of grouse and broods of 5 or 6 for a good, if not very good shooting season.

Derbyshire: Very good Spring pair counts with large broods seen at first, but latterly, there have been reports of brood sizes now varying greatly following localised very wet weather recently. Smaller brood sizes particularly in the west.

North West. Spring pair counts were generally very good, but the dreadful weather from May 12th until mid June seems to have greatly reduced or wiped out many broods. The moors in this region are at very high altitude and being in the west catch most of the wet weather. There are exceptions with pockets that look good, even very good, but generally an average season for most and poor for others.

People and businesses involved in a grouse shooting day, such as local accommodation providers, catering staff, beaters, flankers, loaders, gun dog handlers, drivers and local shops, all now hold their breath and cross their fingers that their services will be required for many days of shooting boosting their own pockets and that of the local rural economy.

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Did You Know?

75% of Europe’s remaining upland heather moorland is found in the UK – but this area declined alarmingly over the latter part of the last century. The Moorland Association was set up in 1986 to coordinate the efforts of moorland owners and managers to halt this loss, particularly in England and Wales.

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