Black grouse thrown lifeline with £830,000 rescue project

MORE than £800,000 is to be spent in Scotland to help one of our most majestic birds, the black grouse, The Scotsman has learned.

Famed for its spectacular courtship ritual, the black grouse was once widespread across the UK but is now one of the most rapidly declining bird species.

The Forestry Commission Scotland has revealed the largest ever project to help the bird, in a bid to restore numbers to the same levels as ten years ago.

Black grouse need areas of open space for their mating ritual, known as lekking, which involves the male parading with its white tail fanned open, while the hen looks on.

Some £830,000 will be spent between now and 2012 improving 50 sites important for the black grouse, mainly in the south of Scotland where habitat loss has been worst.

Populations will be monitored, predators such as crows, stoats and foxes controlled and fences – which can be lethal to black grouse when they fly into them – removed.

There will also be two large-scale trial management projects in Galloway and Fort Augustus.

And two viewing hides are planned for Galloway and Aberforyle, so members of the public can watch the fascinating lekking ritual, which usually takes place at about 4:30am. Gordon Patterson, biodiversity policy adviser for Forestry Commission Scotland, said: "We want people to enjoy and understand and be more aware of the wildlife and that will feed into more interest in conservation.

"Black grouse are spectacular to see but it has to be done sensitively so as not to disturb the birds."

There are about 3,500 males of breeding age in Scotland, down 29 per cent compared to a decade ago. The main reason for the decline is thought to be loss of suitable woodland habitat.

The plans to boost numbers are just one part of the Forestry Commission Scotland's aspirations for woodland, set out in its new biodiversity programme, which was due to be launched today by Mike Russell, the environment minister, during a visit to Galloway Forest Park.

The commission hopes to extend its 400,000 hectares of native woodland by 10 per cent by 2015, and manage more areas of privately-owned forest by tackling threats such as too many deer and invasive rhododendrons.

Mr Patterson said: "It's management that sustains the range of habitats and species that we have come to expect."

FACT FILE

THE black grouse is on the Red list of species of high conservation concern.

Over the past ten years numbers of the popular game bird have fallen by around 29 per cent in Scotland.

But numbers have dropped far more in certain areas – by 69 per cent in Lothian and Borders and by 49 per cent in Dumfries and Galloway and southern Argyll.

Black grouse prefer a mosaic of habitats, where relatively small areas of woodland, moorland and grassland meet.

Loss of suitable habitat means populations are becoming isolated into small pockets, which it is feared will result in areas of local extinction because black grouse tend not to disperse very far.

The weather can have a significant effect, as young chicks are very susceptible to cold, wet weather between mid-June and mid-July.