It’s grim up north… for grouse shoots this season

The grouse season that started on Monday is unlikely to be a vintage one, according to sporting agent William Powell. “In short, this is going to be overall a pretty grim grouse season,” said Mark Osborne, managing director. 

Alongside the high worm burden, the enormous amounts of rain in upland areas during peak hatching time around 21 May are cited as a leading cause of the failure of many broods. 

Although grouse are subarctic birds, hardy against dry cold, their young are extremely susceptible to wet weather. Chicks’ down is ineffective for insulation when wet, and some broods have been decimated in the north of England where some moors received more than 5in of rain within 24 hours this spring. 

William Powell projects that the Peak District moors are going to show a modest upturn, as will the North York Moors. But the agent believes the Cheviots will have a poor showing and the Lammermuirs will be patchy, with some grouse, but generally disappointing. This follows an unhealthy population from last year. 

Angus grouse numbers look all right but down the west side of Scotland, where it has been very wet, William Powell is not at all optimistic. The same applies for most of the Highland moors, including Morayshire and Invernesshire. Grouse in some parts of Perthshire, however, are looking more promising. 

The North and Western Pennines are predicted to be extremely poor and the Trough of Bowland appears to have seen exceptionally low rearing productivity this year. 

Lindsay Waddell, former chairman of the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation, told Shooting Times: “It is going to be a pretty miserable season for many grouse keepers this year, with little to no shooting planned on many of the high Pennine moors. 

“Although there are reports of a few grouse on the North York Moors and further south, it appears that no one has what could be called a good season in prospect,” he continued. 

“Some lost old birds in the run up to and during the breeding season, some have simply lost most of the young but still have a stock of sorts of old. For most moors this will be a season of managing what they have for next year and it remains to be seen, after the horrible winter of last year, if this one is going to be any better.” 

BASC chairman Eoghan Cameron said: “Despite the lower grouse numbers, the dedicated efforts of moor owners and gamekeepers, and the considerable private investment that goes into supporting biodiversity, wildfire mitigation, restoring habitats and promoting conservation will carry on. 

“The fact that work continues, even in the absence of a sustainable harvest of grouse, is to be celebrated.”