News

GROUSE STRONG DESPITE RAIN

2nd August, 2007

The Glorious 12th will be silent on the moors with not a shot fired - it is a Sunday!

Despite the wettest June and July in England since records began, the grouse shooting season will get underway on Monday 13th August. Most areas of Upland England are looking forward to an average or even good season, which will boost the beleaguered summer tourist trade. The British Red Grouse, a totally wild and hardy bird found no where else in the world, is well suited to the harsh moorland climate and has bred surprisingly well thanks to a warm and dry April and May this year.

Said Simon Bostock, Chairman of the Moorland Association said: “Shooting customers arriving from every continent will not be disappointed and nor will the restaurants hoping to serve grouse this year - all to the benefit of our rural upland communities and businesses.”

The number of shooting days offered by each grouse moor will depend on how many broods of grouse were reared during the favourable Spring and then survived the dismal weather of June and July.

Continues Bostock: “Until fully fledged, chick plumage does not repel water well and as the chicks grow, fewer can be protected under the wings of the hen bird. Those left out in the prolonged rain and cold this summer will have perished. However, grouse are superb parents, and it is an extraordinary testament to the hardiness of this bird that we are hearing of some good counts with big strong broods.”
Gamekeepers manage the habitat to produce fresh heather shoots on which the grouse feed and further increase the grouse’s chances of survival through legally controlling their predators such as, foxes, stoats, weasels and crows. This protection also helps other vulnerable ground nesting birds such as Lapwing, Golden Plover and Curlew which, surprisingly, appear to have bred with reasonable success. However, rare birds that hatch later, such as Grey Partridge, Black Grouse, Montague Harriers, Hen Harriers and Merlin are thought to have all been badly hit by the weather.

Jeff Rooker, Minister for Sustainable Food and Farming said: “It is good news that the enormous all-year-round effort that moorland keepers put into managing the habitat for red grouse will be rewarded with a good harvest this year, despite the extreme weather. Grouse moor management is an excellent example of a sustainable form of farming, balancing grazing and careful heather burning in line with the new Code and Regulations that Defra has just announced. Good practice of this sort leads to wider benefits for landscape value, the rural economy and wildlife – all very apparent in our iconic heather uplands.”

Regional Round-up
The Northern Pennines, have some big broods with counts averaging 9 or 10. Some broods in the areas worst hit of around 10 chicks have been dashed down to one or two, or lost altogether. Grey Partridge and newly increasing populations of rare Black Grouse have been hammered by July rain.

North Northumberland, contrary to early predictions of a ‘wash out’, reports say that there is a shootable surplus of birds - good news after most days had to be cancelled last year. Central Cumbria moors have had very few breeding pairs for the last two or three years and no shooting has taken place. This year they seem to have bred better and one or two ‘walked up’ days have been confirmed. Numbers in the Yorkshire Dales remain optimistic with the number of shooting days on offer thought to be average or better in Wensleydale, Swaledale and Coverdale.

Nidderdale moors reported a very strong start to the breeding season with broods of 10 and 11. However, 155 mm of rain fell from 14th – 16th June with a further 100 mm for the month – recording half as much again as the record breaking June average for England (140.2mm). Prospects have fallen back with average brood sizes of 6 although some big broods are being seen. Hopes are for an average year, with some moors looking better. Outbreaks of Heather Beetle, which devastates swathes of heather, have been reported but the population of a small wasp, whose grubs feed on the beetle larvae, will build up providing a natural biological control.

The North York Moors. The drier and warmer East of the country usually escapes much of the poor, wet weather but this year the North York Moors had cold snaps in late Spring and very intense soakings in June, killing chicks and so halving the number of shooting days planned. 100mm of rain fell in one day (25th June) at Fylingdales with 55mm of hammering rain falling across the moors elsewhere in just 4 hours causing flooding and death to many vulnerable young birds. Merlin - Britain’s smallest bird of prey – has a traditional strong-hold on grouse moors of the North York Moors, but its breeding success has also been affected this year.

In the Forest of Bowland, breeding pairs in March remained at an all time low. Despite a perfect April and May producing good brood sizes they were depleted by rain that started on 11th June for 19 consecutive days with 176mm recorded in that time. The moors of the Forest of Bowland remain the strong-hold for England’s breeding Hen Harriers population with around 11 successful nests this year. Many breeding attempts have failed due to poor weather, disturbance from walkers and predation by foxes.

In the South Pennines, the indications are that prospects are better than the last two years although rain will have affected the later broods. In Derbyshire, the atrocious weather has left the picture more patchy. Spring came early, as did the hatch so the majority of young birds were on the wing well before the rains hit. Prospects for the Eastern moors in Derbyshire are well up on the last two years with 50% of shooting days planned to go ahead. The moors on the Western side are more cautious and outbreaks of Heather Beetle are compounding an uncertain picture.