Sulwath Connections

Black Grouse Habitat

Partner:

• Forestry Commission Scotland

The black grouse is a large and charismatic bird of moorland and woodland fringes which feeds on a variety of buds, shoots and fruits of a number of plants, including heather, blaeberry, sedges, rushes, cotton grass, bog myrtle, birch, larch and willow, etc; and in the spring the young chicks rely on adult and larval insects which they find in wet areas.

In early spring these birds gather on traditional lek sites, where males engage in a spectacular display in order to impress the watching females prior to mating, one of the most distinctive and evocative occurrences in the British countryside and an unforgettable experience for observers.

Unfortunately, due to degradation of habitat through overgrazing and maturation of conifer plantations, numbers of these wonderful birds have been falling in recent decades and it has become the second fastest declining bird species in the UK, a red data list bird and of the highest priority in both National and Local Biodiversity Action Plans (LBAP).

Survey work carried out in 1995 -97 by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and Game Conservancy Trust confirmed that Dumfries & Galloway alone holds over 6% of the estimated remaining UK population, and in 1998 a project officer was employed by a partnership of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds , Scottish Natural Heritage and Forestry Commission Scotland to draw up dedicated Habitat Management Plans for the most important leks in the region. Kinharvie and Plascow Forest, is one of these areas.

This project aims to increase in numbers black grouse in Kinharvie, Plascow and Criffel forests by carrying out habitat management including:

• removal of conifers,
• feathering of forest edge
• planting of broadleaf trees
• creation of wet scrapes
• clearing vegetation from around the known lek
• heather swiping