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Buzzard
The most common bird of prey in the UK, buzzards will be a regular sight circling high in the sky over the countryside, looking for prey. You might have heard their loud shriek as they fly over. Populations have flourished, growing 465% between 1970 and 2015. Buzzards can be found in a wi...
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Why feed gamebirds after the shooting season?
The leanest time for gamebirds are the late winter and early spring months. By January most of the harvest-spilt grain and weed seeds have been gleaned by birds and small mammals, leaving only green shoots and leaves for gamebirds to feed on.
Once t...
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Maize
Advantages
A wonderfully reliable crop for holding game and allows excellent control of broad-leaved weeds, so can be useful in a cover crop rotation.
Disadvantages
Can attract rats and badgers.
It is not funded within Stewardship and does not offer food for smaller birds.
Can only relia...
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Help drive up the conservation benefits of pheasant releasing
I am sure that you, like me, have found yourself locked in conversation about the impact of game management.
When it is done to the highest standards, the conservation benefits are there for all to see - more farmland birds, well-maint...
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The issues surrounding the release of millions of reared gamebirds (mostly pheasants, but also red-legged partridges) have come to prominence recently, prompting some inaccurate debate regarding the impact they have on their environment and on the animals and plants that share those environments ...
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For the first 30 years of the Sussex study, the number of grey partridges declined, with a gradual loss across the study area (Figure 1). In 1970, the density of breeding pairs averaged 11.3 pairs per 100 hectares (250 acres). This nearly halved to just under six pairs (5.9) per 100 hectare in 19...
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Song thrush
Early to rise and likes to repeat itself!
It was a grey January Monday morning as I drove to GWCT headquarters this week, and I realised that February had quickly crept up on me, which got me to thinking what species I would feature for this month’s instalment, but surprisingly the jo...
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Goshawk
The ultimate phantom arboreal predator, nimble and powerful and the largest hawk in Europe.
A lovely “old boy” I know, one of those true country folks, born and bred type who could read tracks and signs and spend hours telling you about the old days when he was a kid running about in the ...
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Key points
Capercaillie are a red-listed species found in old pine forests in Scotland, with populations declining since the 1970s despite efforts to help them.
National surveys are completed every six years, but annual lek and brood counts may be able to produce robust population estimates in t...
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Help drive up the conservation benefits of pheasant releasing
by Professor Nick SothertonDirector of Research, Advisory and Education
I am sure that you, like me, have found yourself locked in conversation about the impact of game management.
When it is done to the highest standards, the conserva...
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