Last year was a struggle for Pennines Black Grouse, so researchers hope for better fortunes in 2025

                                                       

Fingers crossed Pennines Black Grouse fare better this year than last

RESULTS from an exercise to monitor the breeding outcome of Black Grouse in the North Pennines have proved disappointing.

In spring last year, a team netted and fitted solar-powered tags to seven females, known as Greyhens.

One bird lost her tag and another was found dead by the roadside.

The other five all nested, but only three hatched chicks. 

All the broods were lost, two within the first week, and the third at 27 days. 

In a press release for the Game &Wildlife Conservation Trust,  species recovery officer Holly Appleby writes:

"We think that chick losses were linked to low numbers of insects during the chicks’ first two to three weeks." 

She continues: "Over the past winter, a further 17 Greyhens were tagged, and these birds will be monitored through the 2025 breeding season to investigate how  brood survival rates relate to insect abundance, plus the height, structure and composition of their sward habitat.

"This information can then be used to help inform grazing regimes to create the desired brood-rearing habitats in rough grasslands on the moorland fringe." 

Concludes Holly: "Deployment of these tags and subsequent monitoring would not have been possible without funding from Natural England’s Species Recovery Programme, Farming in Protected Landscapes, and BASC Wildlife Fund.

"And gamekeepers have been fantastic at helping us to locate Greyhens for this study."