English Partridges

[stalkinginengland]

Its not the releasing of greys thats the problem or the holding of them. Greys naturally move from there home in the winter and early spring when they pair. The only thing that will stop this is the correct habitat. Then you may get x number of pairs to the acre. The better the habitat the more pairs you will hold. Wild birds know the ground and they stay in the main on the same area from the time they are hatched until they move off in the late winter. If you have enough pairs you can shoot the surplus because they won't stay anyway and will possibly die as they are pushed away. I believe the optimum rate is 4 pairs to the acre. once hatched these birds will stay on the same field and cross it once a day from one side to the other.

The question is how to get these birds on the ground in the first place. The idea of broodies sounds good but there is some reserch by the GC that suggests that the alarm calls and behavier of these is not the same as if reared under english parents. Also English both hatch the brood with the cock bird sitting next to the hen and taking them under him to brood as they hatch.

I am convinced that the only way is to allow the pair of english to hatch and brood their own chicks in a pen in the area where you want to build up the stock and then release the whole family together after they are hardened off.

There is also a problem with worms and this can be treated by spinning corn with added panicure around the fields that they cross daily and like that they will find the medicated feed. With the use of conservation headlands to promote saw fly there is a chance . But releasing reared birds into the wild will never do the trick even if we all put some down.

Just a thought

Mark

 

[cookingfat]

I agree with Mark mostly,last season i did manage to foster out one brood of chicks which i reared under a broody, i put them out at about ten weeks old in a small rabbit type pen and after a few days a barron pair which i new about did come and take on, the key things are habitat and even more inportant is corvid and fox control in the spring.
This year i have four pairs nesting allow not seen hide nor hair of them for for a couple of weeks.

Tony

 

[jimbo123p]

With the upsurge of syndicate shoots ground vermin are rarely touched. Pheasants are usually passed the danger stage prior to release. However Grey Squirrels, Stoats and hedgehogs account for a high percentage of partridge nests. Also the decline of hedges does not help. Coveys may like the wide open spaces but hedgerows are a breading requirement. With large tracts unkeepered in the true sense and even the keepered areas on bare minimum numbers working practices has changed. In the past a feeder would not have been allowed on the ground. Birds were fed daily. Trap lines were checked. Hands up, how many syndicate shooters on here own a fen? How many work the shoot from 1 Feb to 1 July. (apart from a work day to get the pens ready) ? I am not talking about lamping foxes. JIm

 

[Chris Rob]

With Greys it’s all about habitat & predator control, you need nesting cover, brood rearing cover & winter cover for shelter & food. I belong to the GWCT & recently went on a local Grey Partridge farm walk, it was fascinating listening to the scientist carrying out the study there.

It’s been proven that released Greys do not fare well unfortunately, released birds disperse very quickly, survive the winter poorly, fail to stay in the spring or fail to breed. That said the GWCT has carried out work on releasing Greys & have met with some success but they have used differing releasing methods than the norm such as timings & ages of release, methods of rearing etc.

Chris