Bog Myrtle & Peat

One of the main obstacles to the process of encouraging black grouse back onto the Chayne is the fact that there is only one small wood on the entire farm. The birds come out of the neighbouring forestry, find the heather and blaeberry they are looking for, then return to the cover of the trees. With a little work this could change and the Chayne could make better use of its resources.

The woodcock strip contains food and cover for black grouse, but surrounded by seven hundred yards of exposed farmland on every side, it is of little use to birds who do not like to travel too far from cover. Establishing a basic network of wooded paths and tracks all over the farm could be precisely what we need.

Short on cash for fencing materials to protect young trees, it recently occured to me to use existing boundaries, particularly where barbed wire and sheep netting have been used to provide added back up for collapsing drystone walls. The small gap between the rough stones and the wires is just wide enough for trees to be planted, and all it takes is to block off the ends with rudimentary arrangements of posts and rails and you have a relatively strong and extremely long stock proof enclosure.

Ultimately, the fields on either side of these “highways” can be loosely planted up to provide black grouse with a complete diet on the farm, but to start with, it seems important to encourage bird traffic to move out from the forest margins and back onto our undergrowth. As far as I can see, even nutritionally bland tree species like ash and sycamore would bring shelter and cover to help grouse feel more secure as and when they feel like they want to explore the wide open spaces in search of existing stands of heather and blaeberry.