GWCT News Blog

The legend that Saint Melangell went to Wales to escape a forced marriage may be true but Jim Perrin’s claim that grey partridges run in the lanes around her church, is false (Country diary: no sanctuary for hunted partridge at Melangell’s church, July 14^th).

More than 50 people recently enjoyed a farm walk at one of the North Sea Region (NSR) Interreg PARTRIDGE project’s demonstration sites in the Netherlands.

Every year, in the third week of June, a team of GWCT scientists travel to Sussex, to roam a large area of farmland stretching 11 miles across the South Downs. They are collecting data for the Sussex study, a long-running project that is one of the cornerstones of the GWCT’s research. It all began in 1968 and has provided a wealth of important data on the impact of farming methods, policy and conservation techniques.

Eleven partners from the Interreg North Sea Region (NSR) PARTRIDGE project, led by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust, met in Germany between June 27 and 29 for their third meeting.

Tim Furbank encourages farms and estates to do more when it comes to boosting diversity on their shoots.

GWCT Head of Predation Control Studies Jonathan Reynolds and Wetlands Ecologist Carlos Sanchez look back at the important impact that the Salisbury Plain project had on understanding predation.

This week, insects are in the spotlight as we celebrate National Insect Week. Grey partridge chicks may not be celebrating, though. Their survival depends on chick-food insect availability around ground level and we fear that our late, wet spring means that insect numbers are low for many areas of the country.

Read our advice and download your free guide.

Neville Kingdon urges farmers, land managers and keepers who have greys to make a big difference by getting involved in our Partridge Count Scheme.