Shooting's role in a thriving moorland ecosystem

Counting and Understanding Grouse Moors

There is a huge amount of emotional discussions going on about grouse moors at the moment. I can respect and understand that shooting does not sit well with some people, but it is very dangerous when emotions overshadow the ecological and economical facts.

Every year I use my pointer dogs to help with the grouse counting in Scotland and I see well-managed grouse moors and poorly managed moors. The fact is, that it is extremely costly to manage a grouse moor as you need to employ gamekeepers to muirburn and to control predators. If this is not done, the heather grows tall and rank and it then supports very little wildlife.

One of the worst predators is the crow, not the birds of prey that everyone gets so worked up about. Crows are clever and they love eggs. They love eggs from grouse and they love eggs from our iconic waders that are under real threat.

I live quite a simple life and I am so very grateful that there are still wealthy individuals, who are prepared to spend a vast amount of money on the upkeep of our Scottish shooting estates. This year I spent three big days on an estate in Angus Glens where I had never been before.

It employs six full-time gamekeepers and it was one of the most fantastic experiences of a well-kept grouse moor. The grouse were lucky here as the weather had not had as devastating an impact on the broods as we have seen in other places, especially further west, but this was only half the story.

No Crows

What struck me was that I never saw one carrion crow while I was there. On the contrary, I saw all the waders you could dream of. Speaking to one of the ‘keepers, he could report that on his beat there is quite a large wetland patch and he had followed all of the curlews getting on the wing along with the lapwing, oystercatcher and snipe offspring. He described one particular curlew nest to me in great detail as he had followed the parents bring up the entire clutch to the point of flying.

The sheer delight you see on the gamekeepers’ faces tells everything you need to know about the true attitude on grouse moors. There is no blinkered grouse work going on. It is all about creating a fantastic habitat for a wide range of species. And with huge pride.

One of my dogs had a point on a snipe at the very top of the hill and as the bird lifted reluctantly, I looked in the little grass bit. Sure enough, there was a tiny chick. Beautiful little creature and it was worth it all when I saw the delight this caused the gamekeeper on this beat. We took a photo and left it alone with its brothers and sisters.

The estate does not put pheasants down, but I saw several wild living pheasant hens with chicks. They get a chance to breed naturally in an environment like this.

Also, blatantly, on the wall of the cottage I stayed in during the counting days, a fly catcher had built a nest in full view of any spying crow, if there had been one. Where my home is in Aberdeenshire, the farmland is full of crows and no bird-nest like this would survive.

Amazing Muirburning

With an MSc in plant biology, I do understand the moor I walk on. I can see that when I walk in knee-deep, rank heather there is very little life underfoot. When I walk across the managed moors over many different stages of muirburning the flora and fauna are fantastic. Each burnt patch is giving priority to different plant species, supporting different insects, mammals and birds. The first thing that starts to grow well along with the new heather shoots are the cowberries and the blaeberries.

Some grasses, sphagnum moss and ling heather come along with both bell heather and cross-leaved heather. The number of bugs in these environments is staggering. Lots of stuff to eat for a whole ecosystem.

Politics of Envy

Instead of channelling ones envy of people with financial means into a war against shooting, it would perhaps be better to understand the bigger picture and see how well our waders and insects are doing on the managed moors.

Luise Janniche regularly works her pointers on the moors. Luise is also the owner of Tuffies dog beds.