Bog Myrtle & Peat

As I pluck and gut the first grouse of the year and prepare them for the oven, I can’t resist a quick note about grit. Recent posts reveal that I’m getting a little obsessed with grouse grit at the moment, and I was interested to see what grit was being used by the birds on the hill.

One cock was shot with a few feet of one of my grit piles, but when I opened up his gizzard I found nothing but natural granite and quartz grit. I rinsed these stomach contents and laid them out for a photograph (above), showing a total absence of any flint. The little stones had been stained purple by blaeberry juice, and I was surprised to see that the individual stones they were generally much finer than the grit I have been putting out for their use.

This is slightly disconcerting, but I also take some solace from the fact that the pieces are quite rounded and may well have been much larger when they were eaten. Grouse gizzards grind stones up along with roughage, and the grit soon becomes rounded and small. At this time of year when the grouse are not taking on much new grit, perhaps it’s no surprise to find what may be fine grit heavily ground down after several weeks or months of use.