Blogs

As spring arrives in the Scottish Lowlands and the mornings start to creep earlier and earlier, it means it’s time for the Lowlands team to complete the annual partridge spring pair surveys at Balgonie Estate.

It is well known that grey partridges have ‘decided’ that a monogamous relationship suits them best; but could they be even one of those unusual birds where partners are faithful to each other?

The grey partridge was once common in the British countryside, but it has suffered a dramatic 94% decline since the 1980s. Grey partridges have been on the UK’s Red List since its inception in 1996. The bird is now essentially gone from Northern Ireland, the entire western coast of Britain, except in Anglesey, and continues to disappear locally throughout the rest of its former UK range. It is five to midnight for the grey partridge!

As an incentive to encourage more people to get involved in partridge conservation, every year the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) awards a series of regional Grey Partridge Trophies.

Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust Scotland’s Fiona Torrance recently took Dougie Vipond from BBC Landward on a grey partridge count around the fields of Balgonie, where conservation efforts have seen numbers of this iconic farmland bird soar in the last 10 years.

There's a cause that is close to our hearts at the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. The grey partridge, not only our emblem but also a vital biodiversity indicator species, is in urgent need of help.

Over the last few weeks, the Scottish Lowlands team has been busy completing the tenth year of spring grey partridge pair surveys on Balgonie farm.

It’s been a busy start to the new year for the Scottish Lowlands research team. We’ve spent the last few weeks setting up gamebird feeders to carry out research into supplementary winter feeding for farmland birds.

This October, the GWCT’s Head of Wildlife Recovery Dr Francis Buner, accompanied by placement student Jasmine Canham, was invited to give a keynote presentation on grey partridge conservation in Europe, on the occasion of the national launch event for a German-wide grey partridge recovery project called ‘Rebhuhn retten – Vielfalt fördern!’ (‘Save the grey partridge – Promote biodiversity!’).

The RSPB Scotland has nominated the GWCT’s Balgonie Biodiversity Project for the 2023 Nature of Scotland Awards. It is one of four projects shortlisted in the Food and Farming category for its excellent work at the arable demonstration farm near Glenrothes in eastern Scotland.