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FRUITFUL FRINGES

7th December 2012

partridgeMark Avery has reviewed a new book, Partridges, by Dick Potts on wild grey partridges; a red listed game species in steep decline due to changing land management and use.

In his review printed in the December 2012 issue of Birdwatch, Mark says: “Dick has studied partridges, and worked with people who shoot them, for decades. Many of the experiences and studies that he cites come from large shooting estates, which have done a good job for grey partridges, and where management for partridges has benefited wider biodiversity. There is no doubt that the best end of the shooting industry can deliver an awful lot for wildlife in our countryside, and this book provides a useful reminder of that.”

New and exciting evidence from a study being conducted by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust is emerging on what the fringes of red grouse moors are doing to help the plight of our native wild grey partridges – a priority UK Biodiversity Action Plan species. In just a relatively small study on the eastern edge of the Pennines encompassing Swlaedale, Teesdale and Weardale, scientists using dawn and dusk call-back survey techniques in spring found densities of seven pairs per km2 with an estimated 4000 pairs in the 570 km2 study area. The vast majority of these were found on the fringes of heather moorland managed for red grouse.

National estimates show that grey partridges in the UK have declined by 36% in ten years from an estimated 70,000 pairs in 2000. This study shows that the upland fringe is an important refuge for these birds.

Moorland Association members actively carry out predator control on over 400,000 acres of moorland fringe across the North of England including rush pastures and rough grazing which is the preferred nesting habitat o f the birds. As a result, the ground-nesting birds have a far better chance of survival and benefit from the protection from predators provided during the vulnerable breeding period.

Just like the rare English black grouse population, of which 95% is found on the fringes of moorland managed for red grouse, wet June weather is a disaster for survival and beyond the land manager’s control. In further efforts to balance the equation of losses and gains, land managers in these areas are encouraged to offer the birds supplementary feeding in very poor winters. This poses additional cost for grouse moor managers and is labour intensive but is the sort of effort shooting estates are prepared to put in for wider biodiversity gain, as Mark Avery has underlined.

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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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