Bog Myrtle & Peat

When it comes down to it, black grouse have little in common with their Famous cousins. While red grouse are tied to heather and form close knit family groups, black grouse wander widely across the countryside in large gangs in search of seeds, berries and buds. They are strongly gregarious animals, and the scandinavians buy American FUD decoys for shooting them in the winter in the same way as we would shoot woodpigeons.

What is so interesting about the black grouse in Dumfries and Galloway is that they are so thinly scattered. Small groups of birds behave very differently from the massed ranks of their brethren in well keepered spots in Teesdale and the Highlands, and this has become very noticeable during my observations over the last year.

It seems that when black grouse decline below a certain point, they become totally invisible. Lots of farms and moors still have black grouse, despite the fact that none have been seen for several years, and this is possibly because, for a bird so used to roaming around in packs, solitude breeds caution. Shepherds and foresters used to seeing conspicuous gangs are frustrated in their searches because they don’t understand that, once diminished into parties of twos and threes, black grouse are extremely secretive.

Despite the fact that my single bird is as bold as brass around the farm buildings, he increasingly leks under the cover of trees, and is becoming harder and harder to see. Given that predators patrol the land all around him, his caution is very understandable. In the North Pennines, packs of black grouse can be seen feeding far out in the open pastures, but single birds or small communities cannot afford to be conspicuous. Recent survey figures for black grouse in Dumfries and Galloway are fairly depressing, given the county’s former reputation as “the home of the blackcock”, and the largest lek is currently made up of a comparatively paltry eight birds.

On the basis of my blackcock’s behaviour, and that of others in the region, it could be that surveys are underestimating the total population because the few birds around are only surviving thanks to their ability to keep themselves to themselves.