[Mannix]

I was looking at a couple of Grey Partridges tonight and wondering whether farmers still shoot them. I know that they used to when I was a kid but knowing their status nowadays, is it still legal to shoot them? My guess is no it is not but nothing would surprise me these days.

[Enji]

Don't know about Britain, but here in Sweden they shoot them. In fact they still put out loads of Grey Partridges every year that's been raised for this.

I always wonder how they find them to shoot them, I very rarely see any. Pheasants on the other hand are absolutely everywhere. Maybe the Partridges simply hide better.

[Apodemus]

Yes they do. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they are at their strongest numbers in those areas where there are still active partridge shoots

[paulwfromtheden]

Originally Posted by Apodemus

Yes they do. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they are at their strongest numbers in those areas where there are still active partridge shoots

Presumably because they get bred and released there?

[Apodemus]

That and predator control

[citrinella]

OP first - yes, grey partridge are still classified as a game species in UK law. There is a defined season during which they may be shot, from about October to about the end of January.

Originally Posted by paulwfromtheden

Presumably because they get bred and released there?

Breeding and releasing grey partridge is not easy. It is much more common to breed and release red-legged partridge. Unfortunately this is often done in such numbers that it has a major impact on the greys. I wish this were banned at least in areas where RLP are not native. There are three major problems.
1. The number released produces excessive competition for the greys.
2. Even where shooters are only "allowed" to shoot RLP, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (a shooting charity) research shows that the major cause of winter adult mortality of greys is being shot.
3. RLP will lay their own nest, but will also dump odd eggs in other species nests. Where this is a pheasant, the pheasant (as found in the UK), being probably the stupidest of all birds bar none, will hatch and "rear" the young quite happily. A grey partridge, on the other hand, will abandon the nest. Terminated. And ... almost certainly does not attempt to lay again that season.

While predator control may have an effect, the main reason why grey partridge do well on shooting estates is probably the deliberate provision of habitat. Efforts are made (again following GWCT research) to provide food in winter and breeding season, and cover in summer. Food in winter is provided through planting cereal and seed mixes. These commonly contain a brassica such as bi-annual kale which provide insects in summer and the large leaves are supposed to shelter the chicks from wet weather. The latter only works if the cover is very open so that it does not retain huge amounts of water too, so the chicks can access it without getting soaked.*

GWCT have sponsored a Grey Partridge Project across the UK (concentrating on the arable areas mainly in southern and eastern Britain which are most suitable) to try to reverse the decline in this Biodiversity Action Plan priority species. This concentrates on provision of wild bird cover, though predator (fox and corvid) control is also recommended. In E.Lothian the project brought great success in the first few years, especially in north eastern parts of the county where numbers were previously virtually zero. In the last few years these gains have been more or less wiped out due to awful weather in the breeding season. I had been asking, from the outset, how to prevent this as I have seen similar over many years. To this end I built "partridge shelters" - sheets of corrugated iron on short stobs - a few years ago as recommended by an ex-keeper. Maybe they help.

GWCT have made much of the benefit wild bird cover brings to seed eaters - sparrows, finches and buntings - in the winter. While this is undoubtedly true, wild bird cover runs out of steam about the end of the shooting season (very well designed from the shooting point of view). Data from our own ringing project shows clearly that wild bird cover does not offer significant support in late winter, and Dan Chamberlain et al published a study recently which also shows this (maybe that was in Ibis). Personal experience shows that seed is gratefully received well into spring, normally up to about the end of May, so wild bird cover seems to me an inadequate solution for small bird support, though it is a major plank in the Scottish Government's environmental support systems, and (IIRC) in England too.

Mike.

Competing interests : I am a farmer and conservationist ... I participate in the Grey Partridge Project but do not permit sport shooting nor predator control (except grey squirrel if you classify that as a predator).

*Note to self, maybe I should try thinning it before its second summer with a tined cultivator. Probably won't work, but worth a small scale trial.

[Mannix]

Thanks for that really informative answer Mike.

[citrinella]

Originally Posted by Mannix

Thanks for that really informative answer Mike.

:-)

[Steve Dudley]

Mike beat me to it. I recently ran a fascinating conference for the BOU on lowland farmland birds. Two GWCT presentations illustrated what Mike has outlined. However, predator control was equally to play as was habitat creation. Habitat creation (in the form of cover, beetle banks, etc) increased local GP populations but they rocketed once predators (foxes and corvids) were controlled.

On the wider benefits of increasing wild cover, I agree with Mike that these are drained by the time we reach the critical time for granivorous species, late winter/early spring feeding. I live in the middle of the arable fen in Huntingdonshire and my bird numbers go up 5 fold from mid-Feb through to April as the local natural food supply is depleted.