Bog Myrtle & Peat

As part of an ongoing experiment  to see what happens to gamebirds on the Chayne and in an attempt to learn something more about gamekeeping, I’m now bracing for the arrival of thirty partridges. We won’t be shooting these birds, but it will be interesting to see how they get on in their pen, which I set up this morning in the shelter of the woodcock strip. I know more or less nothing about partridges, but having had all of my pheasants blown away during the storms last month, I don’t have any choice in terms of what is still available to buy. It’s either partridges or nothing at all, and having several feeders and feed hoppers to test, I’m looking forward to the challenge.

The disappearance of the pheasants was entirely my fault. I took too long to finish their pen, and by the time it was ready to welcome guests, the poults were too old to have their wings clipped. It was inevitable that something would spook them, and never having attached themselves to their accomodation in any major way, they had no qualms about leaving altogether. On the night that the storm hit, I had twenty birds. The following morning I had eight. The next day I had none at all.

It wasn’t as if they were mooning around the pen waiting to be fed. There were no pheasants anywhere, and no sign of their having left. They totally vanished, and after the four days of heavy rain and gales passed, I was left with an empty pen and an empty pocket. Obviously there is enough feed in the rushes to sustain them otherwise I would have seen at least one under the hoppers, but a month has passed and there is no point in hanging around waiting for them to turn up. Each one of my birds has a red leg ring, so if I keep an eye peeled over the winter, I hope that I might see one of them still alive and well.

In the meantime, I need the partridges to demonstrate some gamekeeping equipment for Solway Feeders, so while there won’t be many of them and they won’t be shot, the process of releasing gamebirds continues into October…