Bringing conservation to Scotland's grouse moors

Tagging Hen harriers on Langholm Moor. Copyright Laurie Campbell

New legislation is aiding wildlife-friendly management

November 2011: New ways of integrating conservation and grouse moor management are being showcased at the Langholm Moor Demonstration Project.

Simon Lester, the project's head keeper, uses a range of techniques including predator control, heather recovery from heather beetle attacks, and burning practices to benefit grouse and other birds. Areas of the moor that were badly affected by the heather beetle, a destructive pest, have been burnt under muirburn licensing provisions brought in earlier this year - the first moor in Scotland to do so.

Testing diversionary feeding of hen harriers
The project is also testing the diversionary feeding of hen harriers. Hen harriers are known to prey on red grouse so scientists have been leaving alternative food sources, such as day old chicks and rats, near hen harrier nests for the birds to take. After four hen harrier breeding seasons, no grouse chicks have been detected being taken into breeding hen harrier nests, leading to a developing consensus amongst partners that this can be an effective management technique.

Satellite tracking
In additon, hen harriers are being tracked using satellite tags. One bird, nicknamed McPedro, which bred on Langholm moor in 2010, spent last winter in Spain. Two other birds tagged on Langholm and a north England moor are currently being tracked in western France.