Bog Myrtle & Peat

Just worth noting that the leks seem to have suddenly gone off the boil in the last three or four days. Speaking to friends on Deeside, the concentrated numbers of blackcock are suddenly breaking up into smaller groups, and even in Galloway it has been harder to see greyhens than it was ten days ago. I tend to find that the peak of greyhen activity at the leks is usually in the third week of April, and this is generally later depending on how far North you are. That said, I’ve seen greyhens being covered at Galloway leks well into the middle of May, and these are just as likely to be latecomers as birds who have lost their first clutch of eggs and need a second sitting.

Even when we’re past the peak of excitement, the cocks will carry on lekking for a few weeks yet. Some of them lek right into the start of July when their hormone levels change and the moult begins, but the excitement and drama of the “real” displays is probably more or less past.