Bog Myrtle & Peat

After almost a month in their release pen, the moment came this morning to release the majority of my partridges onto the hill. They’ve done very well over the past few weeks, and overcame some nasty enteritis that they picked up when they first arrived. Now they’re fit and strong enough to take on the world, and I hope that they’ll be able to find my feed hoppers positioned all around the vicinity.

Plans are already afoot for me to start breeding english partridges next year, and within a reasonable time period, I’ll be able to change colour from red to grey. Having seen grey partridges and black grouse sharing a rough moorland fringe habitat in the Scottish Borders, I see no reason why I can’t recreate the same habitat on a smaller scale on the Chayne. It will involve a large scale re-assessment of how the land is being used up on the hill, but that is precisely what I need to do. Getting partridges up on their feet should give me a good starting point for a longer term overhaul in the name of black grouse, and while it will be a couple of years before the Chayne is suitable for releasing grey partridges, the foundations are in place and everything is heading forward.