Only a couple of months now until the Spring grouse counts.
The dogs and handlers line out; we work the same areas every year, carefully noting how many potential breeding pairs are on the ground, to help the gamekeeper manage the population.
Grouse, the fastest of all game birds, are truly wild and can’t be reared. All the estates can do is to support them, and populations will fluctuate according to disease, predators, and environmental conditions.
In this picture Cresta has pointed a pair, which I have asked her to flush, and can now be seen in the top right of the picture. I will have then radioed ‘one pair’ to the keeper.
It’s the first time we will have been out on the ground working the dogs, since last season, and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
The dogs and handlers line out; we work the same areas every year, carefully noting how many potential breeding pairs are on the ground, to help the gamekeeper manage the population.
Grouse, the fastest of all game birds, are truly wild and can’t be reared. All the estates can do is to support them, and populations will fluctuate according to disease, predators, and environmental conditions.
In this picture Cresta has pointed a pair, which I have asked her to flush, and can now be seen in the top right of the picture. I will have then radioed ‘one pair’ to the keeper.
It’s the first time we will have been out on the ground working the dogs, since last season, and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
