Written by Holly Appleby, Uplands Ecologist
We have translocated a further twenty black grouse to the North York Moors to bolster the twenty birds released last October. Black grouse have had an excellent breeding year at donor sites in the North Pennines, meaning that a small surplus could be moved.
We caught birds at night during the new moon phase in October and immediately transported them to the release site two hours’ drive away. All ten females were fitted with GPS-GSM tags, funded by a Farming in Protected Landscapes (North York Moors) grant, to allow us to remotely follow their settlement patterns, and identify breeding and nesting sites. Initial observations show that the females are settling in well around the release area.
Results from the initial translocation have been very promising. Of the ten males and ten females moved last year, eight males and eight females were fitted with VHF radio tags and followed. The seven tagged males present in the spring established leks in and around the area where they had been released, where they displayed to attract females and encourage them to mate. The seven tagged females around in the spring nested, with five nests hatching and two being abandoned. Four of the five females that hatched chicks fledged broods of one, two, four and five chicks.
The translocation was carried out under a licence from Natural England and could not have been possible without the help of kind donor estates in the North Pennines helping to locate and move the birds. We are also incredibly grateful for all the help we have had from the keepers on the North York Moors, who have been looking after the birds released last year, providing us with information on sightings and lots of photos!