Cumbria Naturally
  • Home
  • Blog
  • My Books
    • Cumbrian Contrasts
    • A Lakeland Experience >
      • Introduction
      • Derwent
      • Langdale
      • Ullswater
      • Kentdale
    • About Scout Scar
    • Atlantic Odyssey
  • Other Writing
    • What Larks!
    • Further - Explore Shetland
    • Autumn Migration
    • Rydal and Nab Scar
    • Perspectives
    • The River Kent
    • Wings
  • Gallery
  • Contact

Red Grouse in the Yorkshire Dales

13/9/2022

0 Comments

 
PictureRed Grouse in heather

​From the moment a pair of red grouse raised their heads proud of the heather, they had our attention.  For a heavy-bodied bird, grouse conceal themselves well in their heather habitat- when they choose.  They’re ground -nesting birds and heather gives them shelter and cover.   Young heather shoots form much of their diet and we watch them dipping their heads to pluck seeds with bills slightly hooked at the tip. The fleshy red eye-combs  are distinctive and can be raised proud.   The head, neck and upper breast are rich rust coloured. 

​Red grouse are a speciality of these upland dry heaths in wild places of north and west England.   One cackles and some twenty birds fly up  with rapid wing-beats and whirring flight and  a series of long  glides.
A brown hare runs across the unfenced road, two more hunker down in long grasses.  We’re struck by the pale legs of red grouse and, using our vehicle as a hide, we watch one feeding in heather, then  seeming to ingest loose gravel at the side of the road.  We wait, hoping the bird will come into the open so we can see its white feathered toes clearly. And we’re in luck.
Red grouse are game birds and patterns in the heather  show where controlled burning creates a mosaic of skeletal burnt shrubs where new shoots will grow, intermixed with deeper heather that provides shelter and the cover needed for ground-nesting birds, both red grouse and moorland species. 
​Dry heath is of diverse quality, both in the mix of plant species and vigour of growth.   On the north-facing slope of Penhill biberry and heather are stunted and dwarf,  exposed to the wind we feel as we come off the southern side. Here,  a rabbit jinks away from a slope of soft soil and peat, riddled with burrows on a bilberry bank of lush plants spangled with  leaves in early autumn tints. Bilberry is  a deciduous shrub,  so how will it look in a month's time.
Dry heath is managed to provide habitat for game birds, and at best for curlew, lapwing, hen harrier, merlin and short-eared owl. And for the brown hare we see repeatedly.   
The importance of heather and deep peat with sphagnum moss is increasingly recognised for flood prevention,  and for carbon sequestration.  So the underlying science informs management and the reconciliation of sometimes conflicting interests. A lady at Masham Tourist Information tells us her son is a gamekeeper and she’s rather indignant that red grouse, as a game bird, is not included in the count of rare birds on heather moorland.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Jan Wiltshire is a nature writer living in Cumbria. She also explores islands and coast and the wildlife experience. (See Home and My Books)

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    November 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    April 2010
    January 2010
    November 2009
    January 2009
    January 2004

    Categories

    All
    A Local Patch
    Birdlife
    Butterflies And Moths
    Flowers
    Locations
    Views
    Walks
    Weather
    WIldlife

    RSS Feed

Website
Home
Blog
Gallery
Contact



​Cookie Policy
My Books
  • Intro - My books
  • ​Cumbrian Contrasts
  • A Lakeland Experience
  • About Scout Scar
  • Atlantic Odyssey
    ​
Other Writing
  • Intro - Other Writing
  • What Larks!
  • Further - Explore Shetland
  • Autumn Migration
  • Rydal and Nab Scar
  • Perspectives
  • The River Kent
  • Wings
Jan Wiltshire - Cumbria Naturally
© Jan Wiltshire 2022 All rights reserved
Website by Treble3