Gamewise Spring 2014

RESEARCH | CONSERVATION | POLICY | BIODIVERSITY | EDUCATION

Gamewise Research-led conservation for a thriving countryside

A coup for farmland birds

Spring 2014

Top crops The definitive guide to cover crops

Farmers unite for Big Farmland Bird Count

Passing phase for migrants?

The extraordinary journey of a salmon parr

Also in this issue Advice you can trust: muirburn; rat control; pollinator patches Pioneers of their time New and improved website SGA’s Year of the Wader Freshwater habitats under threat

www.gwct.org.uk www.gwct.org.uk

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 1

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www.gwct.org.uk

Contents Spring 2014

INSIDE THIS ISSUE |

10 Farmland bird count

20

Passing phase for migrants?

Regulars 5

WELCOME Teresa Dent calls for a wildlife revival

7

30

Letters, membership survey results

Conservation Features

28 OUR WORK IN SCOTLAND

16 BUCKING THE TREND

Scottish Fair early bird offer, policy,

Moths are flourishing at the Allerton Project

volunteering, education, news and events

despite declining nationally

39 COOKERY - COUNTRYSIDE FORAGING

19 OUR CONSERVATION PARTNERS

Mike Short shares his recipe for hot and sour

Alex Hogg from the SGA explains why 2014

woodland soup

is the year of the wader

40 WAYS TO SUPPORT US

20 PASSING PHASE FOR MIGRANTS?

Hopper appeal, credit card,

42 REGIONAL EVENTS A round-up of events around the UK

46 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY Plan your spring - events from March to June

47 MARKETPLACE What’s hot

50 THE FINAL WORD Winning a Purdey Award and implementing GWCT advice is all in a day’s work for Chris Musgrave

Pollinator patch, rat control Q&As, muirburn

36 SHOWING YOU COUNT FOR WILDLIFE Improving your biodiversity contribution

HAVE YOUR SAY

easyfundraising, GWCT shop

34 CREATING THE ULTIMATE...

Conservation News

The journey of a salmon parr and the

9

extraordinary timings of its migration

CONSERVATION COVENANTS Custodians of the countryside

10 A COUP FOR FARMLAND BIRDS Farmers unite for Big Farmland Bird Count

11 GWCT STAR RETIRES We say goodbye to Ian Lindsay

12 MEMBERS RECOGNISED Purdey Awards recognise GWCT members successes

13 ENERGY EXPERT ON BOARD

22 FARMING RESEARCH CONFERENCE Can we still achieve wildlife revival?

24 NEW AND IMPROVED WEBSITE Our redesigned website gives you access to the latest news, research and advice

25 COUNTING RODING WOODCOCK Results of the 2013 breeding woodcock survey

26 FRESHWATER HABITATS THREATENED Water in the landscape under huge pressure

New trustee John Shields

14 PIONEERS OF THEIR TIME

50

The life and achievements of Charles Coles and Hugh Van Cutsem

Expert Advice 30 TOP CROPS

Member offer Take advantage of our early bird offer and buy a family ticket for our Scottish Game Fair for just £34, saving 10% off the gate price.

See page 28.

The definitive guide to the top cover crops, kale and neonicotinoids, cover crop corner

33 SPRING ACTION PLAN Expert advice for March to June

www.gwct.org.uk

On the cover Yellowhammer, one of the birds counted for our Big Farmland Bird Count (see p10). © Dave Kjaer.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 3

On the plus side, Freddy didn’t have worms

For high fliers.

Use Flubenvet every 3 weeks to combat the threat of worms ®

1

®

Flubenvet

1. In the presence of Gapeworm infection (Syngamus trachea) treatment may be necessary every three weeks on infected premises Flubenvet 5% w/w Premix for Medicated Feeding Stuff contains 50 mg/g flubendazole. Legal Category POM-VPS . Flubenvet is a licensed trademark. Advice on the use of Flubenvet or alternative medicines must be sought from the medicine prescriber. BASC Trade Member, NGO Trade Member, GFA Trade Member and Trade Member of The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. USE MEDICINES RESPONSIBLY www.noah.co.uk/responsible

Further information is available from Elanco Animal Health, Lilly House, Priestley Road Basingstoke RG24 9NL. Telephone: 01256 353131 Fax: 01256 779510 Email: elancouk@lilly.com

www.gwct.org.uk UKLAYFBV00025

WELCOME FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE |

Teresa Dent CHIEF EXECUTIVE

Your membership benefits You can join your local county group and have exclusive access to advisory events.

The chance to visit our pioneering Allerton Project Farm at Loddington.

Free copies of Gamewise, our feature-packed magazine.

Your own free personal copy of our annual Review.

Participation in the exclusive members’ prize draw raffles.

An invitation to our Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace and our members’ area at the popular CLA Game Fair.

Regular email updates of all our latest news and research.

Pleasure from the knowledge that you’re helping the British countryside thrive both now and in the future.

he State of Nature report, published last summer by a number of UK conservation charities, illustrated that what we need is a wildlife revival. The challenge is how to do it. The GWCT is rooted in game conservation, which is all about managing a species to create a surplus, whether it be habitat, food supply or protection from predation. It does not mean creating a surplus of one species at the expense of the survival of others; but it does require one to think at a population not individual level. As Mike Clark, CEO of the RSPB, said in the pages of Country Life soon after the State of Nature report was published: ‘these declines reveal the sharp edges of nature conservation...

Maybe we are seeing a revival in a game management approach and provide nature conservationists with to conservation to help waders like the golden plover. tough choices’.

So maybe the first revival we are seeing is a revival in a game management approach to It will still take enormous determination and conservation. Gamekeepers of course resolve to achieve a wildlife revival – so we need no revival to adopt welcome the Scottish Gamekeepers this approach. Farmers find it initiative on wader revival (see page ...what we straightforward too – its principles 19). Nature reserves are wonderful need is a mirror livestock husbandry – food, things but we will need much more shelter and protection. done in the wider countryside, and wildlife revival It is encouraging to contemplate. projects like the Marlborough Downs I joined the Trust 12 years ago Nature Improvement Area, which and by then we had done the research that we have been involved in since the start, give a put game management options into agriglimpse of how that might be done in the future. environment schemes, but no-one else was I like to think Charles Coles OBE, who ran of the view, or prepared to acknowledge, that the Trust until 1981 and died last year, would game management had lessons of benefit for be proud of these changes, though to him it mainstream conservation. Since then a lot more would probably simply represent a reversion to research and many miles of corridor treading a previous era of common sense conservation. have gone into making the case. So it is good He is certainly a man of whom we are proud to see views changing, to find people prepared and on page 14 we give an account of our to listen to the evidence, to see more proactive personal debt to him. polices of wildlife management adopted. Some of the time we need to manage wildlife so that we can protect it.

T

“

”

Director of Research Professor Nick Sotherton PhD Deputy Director of Research Nicholas Aebischer Lic ès Sc Math, PhD Director (Scotland) Adam Smith DPhil

Key dates for your diary Diary

27 March

For a full list of events taking place near you please see page 46

Highland auction The Storehouse, Evanton Chris Swift 01463 831381

26 April Nottinghamshire dinner Kelham Hall, nr Southwell Lottie Meeson 07976 207113

10 May Cambridge Clay shoot Wadlow Farm, Six Mile Bottom Richard Pemberton 07748 636564

22 June Buckinghamshire gundog day Waddesdon Manor Jennifer Thomas 01844 343477

www.gwct.org.uk

Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust Fordingbridge, Hampshire SP6 1EF Tel: 01425 652381 Fax: 01425 655848 Email: info@gwct.org.uk Reg: Charity No: 1112023 Reg: Company No. 05579632 Vat No. 665 2959 92 Patron HRH The Duke of Edinburgh KG, KT, OM, GBE President The Marquess of Salisbury PC, DL Chairman Ian Coghill Chief Executive Teresa Dent FRAgS Director of Fundraising Edward Hay Director of Marketing & Membership Andrew Gilruth Director of Policy & Public Affairs Alastair Leake PhD, FRAgS

Main contact numbers Advisory T: 01425 651013 E: advisory@gwct.org.uk Accounts T: 01425 651017 E: accounts@gwct.org.uk Marketing T: 01425 651021 E: marketing@gwct.org.uk Membership/donations T: 01425 651024/651016 E: membership@gwct.org.uk PR and media T: 01425 651000 E: press@gwct.org.uk Research T: 01425 651025 E: research@gwct.org.uk Shop T: 01425 651016 E: shop@gwct.org.uk

Get in touch

Other offices The Allerton Project T: 01572 717220 E: allerton@gwct.org.uk London/Fundraising T: 020 7290 0110 E: london@gwct.org.uk Scotland T: 01738 551511 E: scottishhq@gwct.org.uk Salmon & Trout Research Centre T: 01929 401893 E: fisheries@gwct.org.uk Editing, Design and Layout Louise Shervington 01425 651002 E: editor@gwct.org.uk Advertising, Production Mark Brown, Fellows Media Ltd, The Gallery, Manor Farm, Southam, Cheltenham, Glos GL52 3PB. Tel: 01242 259249 Email: mark@fellowsmedia.com ISSN 1757-7357

Printed on chlorine-free paper from sustainable forests

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 5

© Laurie Campbell

Welcome

An open letter from Ian Coghill, Chairman of Trustees Dear GWCT Member, Occasionally I wonder what my friends and family might remember me for. Or what, in my twilight years, I might look back on as my proudest achievements.

How about helping to protect the game management practices which safeguard Britain’s rich biodiversity, unique woodland, productive farmland and the best countryside traditions? ,W¡V D OHJDF\ WKDW , KDYH VRPH FRQÀ GHQFH LQ DFKLHYLQJ DV DQ +RQRUDU\ )HOORZ RI WKH *DPH :LOGOLIH &RQVHUYDWLRQ 7UXVW Join me as an Honorary Fellow today 1R GRQDWLRQ LV QHFHVVDU\ WR EHFRPH DQ +RQRUDU\ )HOORZ 7KHUH¡V QR PHPEHUVKLS IHH HLWKHU ,QVWHDG +RQRUDU\ )HOORZV are individuals who have mentioned (or intend to mention) the Trust in their Will. Gifts in Wills are a very important VRXUFH RI LQFRPH WR D FKDULW\ OLNH WKH *DPH :LOGOLIH &RQVHUYDWLRQ 7UXVW DQG WKH\ KHOS VXSSRUW VRPH RI LWV PRVW groundbreaking work.

3URMHFWV VXFK DV VKRZLQJ KRZ JDPH PDQDJHPHQW KHOSV NHHS ELUGV OLNH À QFKHV ZDUEOHUV URELQV ZUHQV SKHDVDQWV DQG partridges in the countryside.

The Allerton Project at Loddington has been famously successful, improving farming methods, in ways that are being adopted all over the country. ,W LV WKH GHVWLQ\ RI WKH 7UXVW¡V +RQRUDU\ )HOORZV WR KHOS VDIHJXDUG WKHVH WKLQJV Enjoy a complimentary tour of one of our most prestigious projects *LIWV LQ :LOOV KHOS XV WR VDYH DQG SURWHFW ZLOGOLIH IRU IXWXUH JHQHUDWLRQV WR HQMR\ :KHQ \RX EHFRPH DQ +RQRUDU\ )HOORZ by making a gift in your Will to our work, you will be invited to a special annual event where you can hear presentations from our different projects. You will also be able to meet like-minded individuals and ask us any questions you may have about our work. ,I \RX ZRXOG OLNH WR NQRZ PRUH DERXW KRZ WR EHFRPH DQ +RQRUDU\ )HOORZ SOHDVH HPDLO OHJDFLHV#JZFW RUJ XN or telephone Corinne Duggins on 01425 651012.

I look forward to seeing you at one of our events soon.

Yours,

Ian Coghill Chairman of Trustees *DPH :LOGOLIH &RQVHUYDWLRQ 7UXVW

PS. Please take a moment, perhaps when you’re next enjoying the British countryside, and think about what your vision of our countryside 100 years from now should be. And then consider a legacy for the future of our game and wildlife WKURXJK D SODQQHG JLIW WR WKH *DPH :LOGOLIH &RQVHUYDWLRQ 7UXVW

www.gwct.org.uk

LETTERS |

90% of our members believe that our top priority is to inform Government policy with scientific research

Let us know your views

Have your say

Email: editor@gwct.org.uk Letters to: Editor, GWCT, Burgate Manor, Fordingbridge, Hants, SP6 1EF Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) @Gameandwildlife

© David Mason

Win a Musto GWCT Jacket

STAR LETTER

A need for partnership Dear Editor I wholeheartedly agree with Ian Lindsay that there is a need for a partnership between conservation agencies and sporting interests (Gamewise Aut/Winter 2013).

However, few parties seem to be interested in finding common ground on which to build solutions that enhance sound shooting practices while also benefiting nature.

We cannot afford to placate members’ vested interests by maintaining a ‘carry on and keep your heads down’ stance when science is pointing towards a decline in biodiversity – which

Thanks to Musto, we have what we believe to be the ultimate lightweight game shooting jacket available as a prize for the star letter. Not only is it incredibly light, it also incorporates thermal insulation and a GORE-TEX® drop liner.

Silent moors includes some quarry species.

Once shared ideas are discovered, it is then healthy to argue over the differences but without incessant finger-pointing from either side centred on ideals that require compromise.

The State of Nature report was based on a mere five per cent of species and it is down to all of us to provide data to build up a realistic picture of the remaining 95 per cent of wildlife around which policyholders can then propose practical solutions.

Rob Yorke, Abergavenny @blackgull

Dear Editor I have just read Ian Lindsay’s alarming article in the last issue of Gamewise – Where have our birds gone? I have shot grouse in Wales for more than 40 years, until 10 years ago when I gave up mainly due to seeing too many single and barren pairs and hardly any coveys. I still like to carry out my spring count but sadly I am now greeted with total silence on the moor. Only sights of carrion crows, ravens and buzzards, whereas 20-30 years ago it was a joy to listen to cries of curlews, displays of lapwings and even drumming of snipe.

Please send your letters to: The Editor, Gamewise, GWCT, Fordingbridge, Hants, SP6 1EF Email: editor@gwct.org.uk * Please state your size if you would like to win a Musto coat. We reserve the right to edit letters for inclusion. Best letter is in editor’s opinion. Letters are the opinion of the writer and are not necessarily the views of the Trust.

Ian Lindsay quite rightly told us it would need a massive investment to halt the decline of our upland birds. Scrap the High Speed 2 and let’s have some of that money before it is too late.

RL Dean Kircudbrightshire

Top three most read countryside magazines

What you think hank you to all our members who took the time to complete the 2013 Membership Survey. Over 650 of you responded, which gave us an interesting insight into how you feel about many of the issues the Trust deals with. We have included some of the results below and, as ever, welcome any further feedback you have.

T

Top five bird research topics

Game shooting

Pheasant

Fishing

Woodcock

Farming

Songbirds

Birdwatching

Grouse

Stalking

0%

25%

www.gwct.org.uk

50%

75%

100%

%

0%

The Field Shooting Times Farmers Weekly

Top three priorities 1. Informing Government policy with scientific research 2. Conducting research to the highest level 3. Promoting and advising on best practice

Top five countryside activities

Partridge

1.

2.

3.

Top three causes 1. Predator control 2. Sustainable shoot management 3. Wildlife friendly farm management 25%

50%

75%

100%

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 7

Dropping anchor uro versus ster ing outlook Increasingly unconventional monetary policy from the developed world’s central banks has meant that large fluctuations in the world’s major currencies has become a key feature of the past few years.

In the UK, the value of sterling fell sharply in 2008 after the onset of the global financial crisis and the Bank of England’s quantitative easing programme has subsequently helped to keep sterling relatively weak by historic standards against the dollar and range bound against the euro, though sterling rebounded marginally at the height of the eurozone crisis last year.

There are some downside risks for sterling versus the euro in the near term, given the commitment by the new Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, to strengthen policy support for the economic recovery through a continuation of easy monetary policy. This will mainly be achieved, he hopes, by introducing so-called forward policy guidance, a policy already adopted by the Federal Reserve and designed to offer greater transparency about the future direction of interest rates. In contrast, with its much narrower mandate, the European Central Bank (ECB) has been presiding over a de facto tightening of policy via a shrinking balance sheet, a result of the region’s banks repaying loans issued during the ECB’s long term refinancing operation. Eventually, the latter is likely to reverse, but in the absence of any new eurozone crisis, the balance of relative policy factors is likely to keep the euro marginally stronger versus sterling.

Economic data has improved in recent months in both the UK and eurozone, although neither economic region has yet to achieve a clearly sustainable recovery path. The UK is somewhat better positioned in the short term, as growth is picking up while there is continued weakness in the periphery economies of Europe, where most regions in the south remain in recession.

Nevertheless, relative positioning and sentiment is supportive of the euro versus sterling. Neither reading is so extreme as to warrant a contrarian stance. Overall a neutral position on the euro/sterling on a 6-12 month horizon appears the likely outcome. The Bank of England is likely to continue to favour policies that will anchor sterling against its main trading partner while economic growth remains weak. Both currencies are likely to drift lower versus the US dollar, given the better relative growth prospects and policy signals across the Atlantic.

Christopher Bates t: 020 7131 8131 e: christopher.bates@smith.williamson.co.uk

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The euro/sterling exchange rate has been range bound since 2009

Important information: The value of investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and investors may not receive back the original amount invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

8 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

www.gwct.org.uk

IN FOCUS - CONSERVATION COVENANTS |

Conservation covenants will encourage landowners to enter a voluntary agreement to protect habitats and species such as the great crested newt. © Dave Kjaer

Custodians of the countryside Alastair Leake submitted a response to the Law Commission’s consultation on conservation covenants recommending that they are a legal agreement that landowners can enter into freely Alastair Leake is our director of policy & public affairs and head of our innovative Allerton Project. He formulates the Trust’s policies on a range of issues from Stewardship to lead shot.

www.gwct.org.uk

conservation covenant is a long-lasting, voluntary agreement between a landowner and a responsible body (charity, public body or local/central Government) to do something on their land ensuring that its conservation value is protected for the public benefit eg. an agreement to maintain woodland and allow public access to it, or to refrain from using certain pesticides on native vegetation.

At present we protect habitats and species through a range of legislation which includes designation. One of the most widely used is the designation of Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), where

A

a landowner becomes legally bound to uphold and implement a management plan drawn up with the relevant national conservation body.

However, very often sites of high nature value exist because of the actions of the landowners, many of whom share an affinity for the flora and fauna of the site and are keen to see the legacy preserved. Therefore, a conservation covenant could allow a landowner to enter an agreement with an appropriate partner of their choice to work together to voluntarily conserve the wildlife or habitat. This approach should encourage landowners to become champions of conservation areas.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 9

Innovative research The latest news and advice that matter to you

GWCT in numbers

Conservation

A coup for farmland birds

£3.5m spent on research in 2012

63 politicians have attended our APPG and briefing meetings

35,000 T

Henry Lang was one of the first farmers to undertake our farmland bird count and was featured on BBC Farming Today.

people attended our Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace, Perth

32 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals

he Big Farmland Bird Count, which ran from 1-7 February, was one of the most successful initiatives that we have organised in terms of media exposure, social networking and industry support.

The Big Farmland Bird Count certainly took on a life of its own and proved to be hugely popular with farmers, with more than 900 farmers and gamekeepers registered to take part. Jim Egan, our head of training and development, said:

“We understand the crucial role that farmers and gamekeepers play in the survival of farmland birds and we want to give them the opportunity of showing what their conservation efforts deliver on the ground. The Big Farmland Bird Count is also a satisfying way for people to discover the different range of birds that are on the farm and the results can be surprising. We hope it will spur people on to do even more work for their farmland birds and will act as a catalyst for

them to start building their own long-standing wildlife records.”

The media certainly embraced the idea of the Big Farmland Bird Count and coverage was exceptional.

This was heavily supported by our membership and marketing team who took social networking to a new level.

The Twittersphere was alive with the count and our new website buzzed with people downloading information.

18,989 vi visitors to our ne new revamped w website in January w www.gwct.org.uk

10 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

More than 900 people registered to count their birds during the Big Farmland Bird Count week.

7,500 people clicked to the Big Farmland Bird Count section on our website.

All main farming titles supported the count, including BBC Farming Today, Farmers Guardian, Farmers Weekly, British Farmer and Grower plus many regional farming titles.

Unprecedented regional coverage across the country with more than 100 regional titles carrying in-depth feature articles.

Featured in the HRH Edition of Country Life published on 13 November and lead article in

The Field as well as extensive coverage in Shooting Times.

Story covered widely online including BBC Countryfile, Birdguides and Farmers Guardian.

The initiative received support from a range of farming and industry organisations. Grateful thanks go to: BASF, Kings, LEAF, Soil Association, NFU, CFE, CLA, Heather Trust, FWAG, Countryside Alliance and Conservation Grade.

www.gwct.org.uk/news

© Steve Round, Laurie Campbell

The Big Farmland Bird Count facts

NEWS |

Spring counts

remember to count your grey partridges and see how they have fared over the wet winter

an Lindsay, our popular director of advisory and education retired at the end of 2013 following a remarkable career that spanned three decades. He will be fondly remembered for his extensive knowledge by the many hundreds of farms and estates that he has visited over the years and will be sorely missed.

Ian qualified with a degree in zoology in 1976, and one of his first jobs was working for the Sultinate of Oman on the Arabian White Oryx Project, where he was responsible for monitoring the reintroduced oryx in central Oman and liaising with the Bedouin. This equipped him with the necessary diplomacy skills to become an advisor when he joined the Trust in 1983, a job he readily admits is the only one he has ever wanted. Ian was well known for his work on the Welsh Grouse Project in 1996 where his passion was to see wildlife flourishing once more over the

I

Welsh hills. He also led several big fisheries projects including the successful River Monnow Project, which improved 60 kilometres of riparian habitats for fish and a range of Biodiversity Action Plan species. He took over the Advisory director role in 2006 and under Ian’s guidance, the Advisory Service has become both more business-like and profit-focused. By developing closer working links with the research department, it enabled both departments to launch a new style of technical services for both grouse and other wild game.

He also helped mastermind an expansion of our tertiary education programme. Under his leadership we have been at the

forefront of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment and forged more effective collaborative partnerships with FWAG and many other organisations.

Paying tribute to Ian, Teresa Dent said: “We will miss Ian, both as a colleague with immense knowledge and wisdom, and as a friend.”

A recent letter in The Field thanked Ian for all he has done over many years for landowners and shoot managers in terms of shooting, conservation and the countryside generally, saying that his advice has been invaluable and invariably successful.

Ian has made a huge contribution to the Trust and we wish him a very happy retirement.

Successes

WENSUM, one of 24 woodcock tagged last spring, left Norfolk last March and has flown 4,500km and is currently in the Netherlands. www.woodcockwatch.com

BLACK grouse chick survival in northern England in 2013 was the highest recorded since our records began in 1989.

FEEDING pheasant chicks insects or Roger Draycott has now replaced Ian Lindsay as our Head of Advisory. Roger joined the Trust in 1993 specialising in wild game. He became a part-time advisor last year and has a strong farming and shooting background.

wild seeds during the rearing period can improve their foraging behaviour when released.

Setbacks

Policy

Asulam use granted for 2014 ur director of policy, Alastair Leake, has been chairing the asulam working group, and after a swift turnaround of the Group’s application by the Chemicals Regulation Directorate, he can confirm that a Notice of Authorisation for the use of asulam to control bracken for the 2014 season has been agreed. This is expected to be identical to the 2013 Notice apart from the slight difference in start and finish dates.

The Notice of Authorisation will not be issued until May 2014 and therefore details are provisional at this stage. However, it is expected that the dates for 2014 will be as shown below: 19 May 2014 - Start of the Emergency Authorisation period of 120 days. Storage, promotion, sales, and transfer authorised.

1 July 2014 - Application of asulam products can commence.

16 September 2014 - First expiry date: for sale and distribution of stocks. Application can continue. www.brackencontrol.co.uk

IN the River Frome the 2013 run of grilse (a salmon that has been at sea for one winter) was low as a result of the poor 2012 smolt run.

© Laurie Campbell

O

www.gwct.org.uk/news

Research

© Martin Clay

GWCT star retires

Asulam can continue to be used to control bracken in 2014.

THE average 2013 grey partridge pair density on our Partridge Count Scheme sites decreased by 39 per cent following the bad weather in 2012.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 11

| NEWS

In brief

Find out

the vital role moths and caterpillars play and why we need to reverse their decline – see page 16

Purdey Awards

Thank you WE HAVE RECEIVED donations in memory of Mr E P Foden CBE, Gordon H Wilkie, Colin F Baker, John Trevor Trenchard and James Anderson. We are most grateful for their foresight and thank their families for their kind support.

(L-R) Richard Purdey, Sir Barney White-Spunner, Konrad Goess-Saurau (Gold award), Phil Holborrow, Chris Musgrave; Konrad Goess-Saurau and Nicholas Watts (Silver award); Richard Purdey, Sir Barney White-Spunner, The Countess Sondes (Bronze award), Rhodri Thomas

Members recognised for conservation e were delighted that all three winners of the Purdey Awards are GWCT members and have also had help from our Advisory Service. Count Konrad GoessSaurau won the Gold Award in recognition of his conservation

W Norman Rolfe WE WERE SADDENED to hear of the passing of Norman Rolfe last year. Norman was the Trust’s janitor during the 1980s and 90s.

He was a true gentleman who had a cheery word for everyone, and he was also a passionate countryman and naturalist and loved the New Forest in particular. Like many of his generation, Norman had a distinguished military career, and was a proud member of the Burma Star Association.

Gun draw winner THE 2013 GUN Draw proved extremely popular and the lucky winner was George Ponsonby, who will be receiving a pair of guns worth £14,750 from EJ Churchill.

The 2014 Gun Draw will be announced shortly – please visit www.gwct.org.uk/gundraw to find out more.

2014 AGM OUR ANNUAL GENERAL meeting will take place on Thursday 10 July at our headquarters at Fordingbridge.

Members are entitled to attend the AGM as observers if they wish.

Please contact Teresa Dent on 01425 651001.

12 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

Research

Research funding o you know of a Charitable Trust that might support our valuable work or a Trustee who sympathises with our work?

Much of our fundraising comes from Charitable Trusts and Foundations and has helped support research such as woodcock origins and lapwing predation. Such donations can range from large one-off gifts to more modest annual donations of £1,000. If you can help us fund future research please contact Lynn Field on 01425 651025.

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work at Temple Shoot, transforming a 2,000-acre prairiestyle arable farm into a haven for birds and wildlife (see page 50).

The Silver Award was presented to Nicholas Watts, of Vine House Farm, where he was cited for his outstanding wild game

and habitat management. Lady Sondes, owner of Lees Court Shoot, was awarded the Bronze Award, in memory of her late husband, to nurture and improve the shoot. To enter for this year’s awards go to www.purdey.com/ shooting-life/purdey-awards

Uplands

New director for Moorland Assocation he Moorland Association, which protects more than 850,000 acres of heather moorland, has appointed Amanda Anderson as its first full-time director. Expressing her delight at being given the role, Amanda said: “I believe that careful management of heather moorlands, with grouse shooting as the linchpin, can produce the best benefits for wildlife, landscape and local economies.”

Amanda will be replacing Martin Gillibrand, the association’s secretary, who retires in May. Paying tribute to Martin’s hard work over the years, Teresa Dent

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Amanda Anderson, new Director of the Moorland Association. said: “Martin has worked incredibly hard for the Moorland Association and its members. We have really enjoyed working with him – always robust, challenging and committed.

It is a huge credit to Martin to witness how the Association has expanded its role and relevance in that time. We wish him a restful retirement, and look forward to working with Amanda in the future.”

Competition

Send us your countryside images e are now looking for entries for the third annual Julian Gardner Award photographic competition.

The winning photographs are judged to be those that best encapsulate the beauty and wonder of the natural landscape around us. Split into two categories, adult and 16 and under, entries close on 31 May 2014. For full details go to www.gwct.org.uk/photocompetition

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Winning images from last year’s competition.

www.gwct.org.uk/news

NEWS |

Get involved

your local committee would love to hear from you or you can volunteer at the Game Fair

Top 5

Energy expert on board e are delighted to welcome John Shields as the latest newcomer to our trustee council. John, who is a long-standing member, has already become involved in our research at Allerton.

The fact that he wrote a well-received MSc thesis on anaerobic digestion proved fascinating to Alastair Leake when he was investigating the use of treated waste on the farm’s fields at the Allerton Project.

After originally reading languages and working as a lawyer, John completed an MSc and became Energy Director of familyrun Longcliffe Quarries, one of the few independent hard rock quarrying companies left in England.

John explains the environmental ethos of the business: “We have very pure limestone deposits, and so many of our products are put to environmental uses: animal feedstuffs, agricultural lime, flue gas desulphurisation, and rectifying acidity in lakes and watercourses. But in the Derbyshire Dales, it’s important to look after our immediate environment as well. Quarries and their surrounds can be a haven for wildlife. We work with the South Peak Raptor Group monitoring our peregrine falcons, and as part of our Biodiversity Action Plan we are running wetland and hay meadow restoration projects, and grassland establishment trials in conjunction with Harper Adams.”

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As well as working with the family business, John takes an active interest in his family’s Our new trustee John Shields. sporting estate in Scotland and, like all our trustees, he is passionate about the countryside, wildlife and the environment.

He said: “The Trust plays an important part in reconciling the competing pressures on the UK countryside, helping us live with nature, rather than in isolation from it. I agree that the aim of conservation is not for the benefit of individual animals or an obsession just with our more ‘charismatic’ fauna, but the responsible and level-headed stewardship of the ecosystems on which we and our natural heritage rely. This thinking is central to the Trust’s research and policy work – and continues to be vital to environmental conservation in this country.”

Our trustees have a broad range of skills and attributes that we can call upon to help us make important decisions about our future strategic direction or the research projects that we undertake. Teresa Dent says: “It is good to have a mix of skills and knowledge on our trustee council. John’s wide interests in energy, climate change, environment and the law will prove invaluable.”

Farming

Money cut for wildlife ur director of policy, Alastair Leake, has worked tirelessly over the last year on the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Unfortunately the amount of money available to English farmers through the new agri-environment scheme, which begins in 2015, has been reduced.

While England has fared better than Scotland (12% compared with 9.5%), only Wales made the full sum available (15%) with Northern Ireland receiving 0%. The money saved is being given away as part of the Basic Farm Payment (BFP) to farmers who in return need to do no more than observe the environmental protection legislation they are legally bound to observe.

© Laurie Campbell

O

www.gwct.org.uk/news

At a time when many of our wildlife species are struggling, this surely is a missed opportunity.

However, the proposals set out by the EU Commission last year under the reform of the CAP require national Governments to introduce compulsory ‘greening’ measure requirements to the BFP. We were originally keen that these should be voluntary as people are much more likely to make a success of it. But as there will be less money available for those who want to put in environment options, it may be that we now have to push for compulsory greening measures, which are more demanding and deliver something meaningful for the environment.

Things to do this spring

1

Sign up for your Biodiversity Audit

Find out how to improve the biodiversity contribution from your shoot. It only takes a few small projects which enhance the environment to make a substantial difference overall (see page 36).

2

Volunteer at the CLA Game Fair

Would you be interested in helping us at the CLA Game Fair at Blenheim Palace in mid-July? We are looking for volunteers to set up and help on our stand. Please email marketing@gwct.org.uk

3

Attend an event

From shoot walks and clay shoots to game dinners and gundog masterclasses, we are holding a full calendar of events to suit everyone. Come and enjoy a fun, social event this summer (see page 46).

4

Keep spring feeding

Supplementary feeding provides vital food for pheasants and farmland birds through the hungry gap.

Keep feeders topped up until May (see page 33).

5

Shoot benchmarking survey

Contribute to the Shoot Benchmarking Survey – this survey provides a wealth of up-to-date information for managers on the economic aspects of running a shoot. Go to www.smithsgore. co.uk/publications to download the form.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 13

| OBITUARY - CHARLES COLES AND HUGH VAN CUTSEM

Pioneers of their time Morag Walker looks back at the life and achievements of Charles Coles, biologist and founder of the ICI Research Station, and Hugh Van Cutsem, GWCT trustee harles Coles OBE, VRD and former Director General of the Game Conservancy Trust (now the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust) died recently after a short illness.

Charles Coles devoted his professional life to game management and conservation, in particular the survival of game in the era of intensive farming. He was Director General of the Game Conservancy Trust from 1960 to 1981, co-founded the International Union of Game Biology in 1954 and played an active role in the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation based in Paris.

He embarked on his career in the 1930s, becoming personal assistant to Major HG Eley, who had founded the I.C.I. Game Research Department, funded by Eley cartridges. His main responsibility was the Partridge Trials Unit at Knebworth, which was investigating a serious outbreak of strongylosis in grey partridges.

His career was interrupted by World War II when Charles joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve. After service in Malta and the North Sea he was given command of an MTB capable of 47 knots, in which he broke the speed record for a transit of the Suez Canal. This was just the start of many challenging operations in the eastern Mediterranean. Unfortunately, these were brought to an abrupt end by the sinking of his second MTB and his subsequent internment in PoW camps in Italy and then Germany.

In 1947 he re-joined ICI and was appointed manager. Then began a varied and highly productive period in which he initiated training courses, lectured, wrote articles and frequently appeared on television. He also authored many books including Shooting Pigeons (1964), Game Conservation in a Changing Countryside (1968), The Complete Book of Game Conservation (1971) plus many more besides.

C

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Under the slogan of ‘Turning words into birds’ he became director of the Eley Game Advisory Service and travelled extensively visiting every country in Europe and many far beyond, including behind the Iron Curtain.

In 1969 he became the first Director General of the Game Conservancy Trust and was responsible for expanding the Game Conservancy’s Sussex study on grey partridges.

This was ground-breaking research and led by Dr Dick Potts, this important study was one of the first to identify the detrimental effects that pesticides were having on wildlife, particularly grey partridges. The Sussex study continues today and remains a lasting legacy of Charles Coles.

Charles retired from the Trust in 1981 and was awarded the OBE for services to game conservation in 1984. He retired from the CIC in 1989.

Charles Coles was an excellent raconteur and had many interests, including the arts and music. His private letters were punctuated by little drawings of red wine glasses at various stages of depletion.

Charles Leslie Coles OBE, VRD, is survived by his wife Wendy and his son Julian and daughter Sarah.

“The Sussex study

continues today and remains a lasting legacy of Charles Coles”

14 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

ugh Van Cutsem, who was a council member and Vice President of the GWCT for many years, died in September after a long illness. He played a vital role at a critical time when the Trust’s financial position meant that funding of essential research work was seriously threatened. As a consequence his chairing of the very successful 1991 Appeal committee raised several million pounds.

When he bought 3,000 acres of the former Hilborough estate, near Swaffham, in 1986, Hugh began a 25-year programme to create the best conditions for game and wildlife. Overgrown hedges were cut back, and replanting was planned to produce good driven partridge shooting. Three gamekeepers were employed to implement the estate’s integrated game management strategy. It paid off and numbers of grey partridges increased at a rapid rate – as did the other farmland birds.

The winner of the Laurent Perrier Wild Game Award in 1997, his Hilborough estate was home to the country’s highest density of breeding stone curlews. He demonstrated that good farming and conservation could thrive on the estate, which was also designated as a site of special scientific interest and part of the Breckland Special Protection Area. We used Hilborough as a study area for grey partridge work and we always received the fullest collaboration. Hugh’s knowledge and love of the wildlife at Hilborough shone through and he was always experimenting with new designs of cover crops.

In 2004, Hugh Van Cutsem led the Trust’s Norfolk committee’s efforts to raise £130,000 to fund a five-year project to boost the grey partridge. He received further recognition for his work on grey partridges when his estate won the Mills & Reeve Grey Partridge Award in 2011.

Hugh Bernard Edward van Cutsem was born on 21 July 1941, the son of Bernard van Cutsem, a racehorse trainer and breeder. He married Emilie van Ufford in 1971, who survives him with their four sons.

www.gwct.org.uk

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GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 15

| ALLERTON PROJECT - INNOVATIVE FARMING

Thriving

Bucking the trend

Green Carpet © Robert Thompson/Butterfly Conservation. All other moth photos © Peter Thompson

Dingy Footman (+1,851%).

The larvae feed on lichen and may be benefiting indirectly from improvements in air quality.

Green Carpet (+230%).

This population rise may be due to its tendency to be double rather than single brooded in recent years. May also be responding to a warming climate.

Nationally moths are declining, but these important species are flourishing at our Allerton Project.

John Szczur and Peter Thompson shed some light

(Above) The stunning elephant hawk moth; (middle) The straw dot moth; (bottom) Merveille du Jour that is flourishing in our oak woodland.

report last year by Butterfly Conservation and Rothamstead Research assessed the status of Britain’s larger moths and showed a 28 per cent decline of moths nationally, in contrast with our moth trapping at the Allerton Project. The report evaluated the results from 40 years (1968-2007) of moth trapping at approximately 100 widely distributed sites, in a range of habitats. This is one of the longest-running national population trends of any insect group known anywhere in the world and the main findings showed: Across Britain total abundance of moths had declined by 28 per cent.

This decline is more marked in the south (south of a line from York to Lancaster) at 40 per cent.

In contrast, no significant change occurred in northern Britain.

Two thirds of the 337 species investigated had declined over the 40 year period, of which 37 per cent did so by at least 50 per cent.

One third of species showed increased population trends, with 16 per cent more than doubling their abundance over the recording period.

A Garden Tiger (-92%).

Possible reasons for decline are loss of uncultivated ground, spraying of weeds on farmland, and wet then freezing winter periods.

Buff Arches (-80%).

An attractive moth whose larva feed on brambles.

A species dependent to a large extent on scrubby areas, including woodland managed sympathetically for wildlife.

At risk 16 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

John Szczur is an ecologist at the Allerton Project and has an in-depth knowledge of songbirds and farmland habitats.

We have been operating a Rothamstead moth trap at our Allerton Project farm at Loddington since 1995, and our 18 years of data paints a rather different picture. Over this period the catches increased by 76.5 per cent, and of the 302 species showing trends, 181 increased and 121 decreased. In addition, the number of species captured per year showed an upward trend.

Typical examples of moths that have experienced major population changes include the garden tiger (-92 per cent), buff arches (-80 per cent), the green carpet (+230 per cent) and the dingy footman (+1,851%) a lichen feeding species (see figure left). Interestingly, several other lichen feeding species have shown similar increases, including the beautiful hook-tip, which has recently colonised Loddington.

Some moths are now flourishing on our Allerton Project farm. Nationally the straw dot moth has not increased dramatically, but at Loddington, 25 were caught in the first nine years of trapping and 1,202 in the second nine. We believe this increase was in response to

www.gwct.org.uk/allerton

ALLERTON PROJECT - INNOVATIVE FARMING | Food chain Caterpillars and moths are an important link in the food chain as many other species feed on them

We created ponds in a grass margin for the straw dot moth; (middle) the beautifully coloured large emerald.

creating the species’ preferred habitat close to the trap, in the form of a 20 metre Stewardship grass margin incorporating three small ponds.

The stunning Merveille du Jour moth has also started to appear.

This may be because we are planting a lot more oak (the larval food plant) in our woodland, a surprisingly scarce tree when we began managing the estate in 1992.

Over 2,400 species of moth have been recorded in the British Isles, of which about 900 fall into the larger moth category (macros), while the rest are placed in the small category (micros). If you are one of the many people who think that moths are boring, brown and offer little benefit to anything, then think again.

Take the Silver Y moth (below), probably our most common migrant which comes from as far away as north Africa to spend the summer months here. They select the fastest and most favourably directed airstreams, to enable them to migrate distances of between 300

kilometres (km) and 400km per night, flying at speeds of more than 50km per hour.

Many moths are spectacularly beautiful, such as the large elephant hawk moth and the garden tiger moth. Also moths are a hugely important ‘link’ in the food chain as so many other creatures such as bats and birds feed on them or their caterpillars. Many species time the hatching of their chicks to coincide with peak caterpillar numbers. A blue tit chick, for instance, can eat up to 100 caterpillars a day, so to feed a brood of 10, the parents may need to find a staggering 1,000 caterpillars a day.

So, why not start to find out about moths?

It does not matter where you are in the country; you can easily get to see them. Just by leaving an outside light on or using a light bulb and a white sheet you can attract moths. But ideally you need a moth trap, which you can buy ready made, or build yourself by getting hold of a few fairly cheap parts from the recommended retailers below. It is a fabulous way to get children involved in wildlife as they thoroughly enjoy the excitement of checking out the ‘catch’ in the morning. There is an amazing ‘mothy’ world out there waiting to be discovered.

Many species, such as the blue tit, time the hatching of their chicks to coincide with peak caterpillar numbers.

Sustainable energy The Allerton Project’s eco-visitors’ centre was designed to be energy efficient. Here are some statistics of how it has performed in terms of its energy consumption and usage after just one year.

£3,352 saved on oil costs. Instead 14.5 tonnes of wood has been burnt by the woodchip boiler, cutting our CO2 by 13.8 tonnes.

£225 the cost of producing our own fuel – 90 tonnes of woodchip. Based on chipping cost at £15 per tonne.

More information Butterfly Conservation also has lots of information on moths www.butterfly-conservation.org UK Moths will help you identify the moths you come across: www.ukmoths.org.uk Suppliers of entomological equipment, including moth-traps: Anglian Lepidopterist Supplies www.angleps.com and Watkins & Doncaster www.watdon.co.uk Best moth book ID guides: Field guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Waring & Townsend ISBN 978 0 9531399 8 9 and Field guide to the Micro Moths of Great Britain and Ireland by Sterling & Parsons ISBN 978 0 9564902 1 6

www.gwct.org.uk/allerton

5,930 kilowatts of electrical power have been produced by our solar panels, saving us £711 compared with purchasing from the grid.

It has also brought in income through the Feed In Tariff payments, which have generated £2,490. This has reduced our CO2 emissions by 3.11 tonnes.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 17

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GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 15

OPINION - OUR CONSERVATION PARTNERS |

How others see us What do other organisations think of our work? This column offers an opportunity to hear their views and helps offer insight into our relationship with them. Here, Alex Hogg from The Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association (SGA) gives his opinion

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www.gwct.org.uk

“Having the scientific basis to support what skilled land workers know...”

If gamekeepers on grouse moors can demonstrate that legal predator control and heather management are still producing the results for wading birds (as is observed), while their decline is continuous and marked elsewhere, then perhaps those involved in land management can effect a positive change for the sake of these threatened species.

Responsible game management may be part of the solution to reviving the fortunes of these birds in Scotland. Therefore it is only right that we stand up and do what’s possible.

By maintaining close links with the GWCT, we will be able to guide our members as they gather the data required, so that the records can be admissible and presented appropriately.

Having such advice has been invaluable in the past and will continue to be so, to meet the challenges ahead.

The Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association represents gamekeepers, stalkers, ghillies, wildlife managers and rangers and promotes their professional role in the management of the Scottish environment.

2014 is the SGA’s Year of the Wader.

© Laurie Campbell

his year, The Scottish Gamekeepers’ Association (SGA) is asking all grouse moors to record numbers and productivity of wading birds on their ground at two critical stages of the year. The aim is to establish a future baseline for the numbers of curlews, lapwings, plovers and oystercatchers that are present on land managed for game shooting in Scotland.

As we know from the GWCT’s benchmark Upland Predation Experiment at Otterburn, ground-nesting birds fare better on land where proper legal predator control is undertaken by gamekeepers; in some cases up to three times better.

This science has helped gamekeepers and representative organisations, such as our own, to quantify the benefits of responsible land management, not only in providing a sustainable surplus of quarry for shooting, but in improving the fortunes of other key species.

Having the scientific basis to support what skilled land workers know through their own round-the-clock observations enables the public and law-makers to see the benefits more clearly in the data-driven landscape of today.

This is why the advice of the GWCT will be sought as we embark on the 2014 SGA Year of the Wader.

Latest British Trust for Ornithology statistics, released last year, indicate worrying declines for wading birds.

In only 17 years, 56 per cent of Scotland’s curlew and lapwing populations have disappeared due to predation, altered farming practices and weather-spoilt breeding seasons. This is of real concern for the keepers who have lived their working lives with the call of the curlew in their ears as they look after heather and grouse health and undertake the continuous cycle of jobs on the hill.

www.scottishgamekeepers.co.uk

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 19

| SALMON - AUTUMN MIGRATION

Passing phase for migrants?

Rasmus Lauridsen takes us on the journey of a salmon parr and the extraordinary timings of its migration

onitoring stocks of Atlantic salmon takes place on a number of rivers in the UK, Europe and North America. The most common way to assess the population is to estimate the number of returning adults and/or the number of spring smolt leaving the river using either electronic fish counters for adults or traps for adults and smolts.

Our state of the art research facilities on the River Frome at East Stoke include electronics that enable us to record the migration history of individual fish. Each September, since 2005, we have fitted 10,000 salmon parr with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags that transmit an individual barcode when a fish swims past one of our antennae. Approximately 10 per cent of the Frome salmon population is fitted with PIT tags, and this technology, in conjunction with the electronic adult counter and the smolt trapping work, makes the River Frome salmon population one of the most comprehensively studied in Europe.

The use of PIT tag technology enables us to map the migration strategy of individuals, ie. when they go to sea and when they come back, and we can also

M

20 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

study the factors that affect their migration strategy and survival. One of the first interesting observations that we made after beginning the tagging programme was that a substantial number of young salmon (parr) migrated past East Stoke in the autumn. Autumn movement of parr has been observed in other rivers in the UK, Europe and North America. However, the scale of this migration on the River Frome was surprising, averaging more than 30 per cent of the down-stream tags recorded (see figure). Previous records of such autumn movement have been observations of young salmon moving out of the smaller tributaries where they were born, into the main river in the autumn.

However, East Stoke is only five miles from the tidal limit, so the autumn migrants we observed are destined for the lower river. The autumn migration appears to be triggered by increases in flow in October and November and occurs mainly at night. The autumn migrants that we have observed have travelled an average of 10 kilometres from the site of tagging (one to three months earlier), with some individuals travelling as far as 28 kilometres.

Rasmus Lauridsen is a freshwater ecologist in our fisheries research team at East Stoke.

He primarily does research on the migration strategy of young salmon and the drivers and consequences of different life history choices.

www.gwct.org.uk/fishing

SALMON - AUTUMN MIGRATION |

500

Life-cycle of an Atlantic salmon...

Autumn migrant and spring smolt run

Spring smolts

The autumn migrant run and the ‘normal’ spring smolt run 2005-2010

400

Tag detections per day

Adult Atlantic salmon return to their native rivers and spawn, placing their fertilised eggs in the gravel during the winter.

Autumn migrants

450

350

Records of 9,927 parr/smolt detected moving down stream past East Stoke

300 250 200 150 100 50

The salmon parr hatch and emerge from the gravel the following spring and redistribute to occupy favourable habitat for feeding and growth.

When the parr reach a threshold size (after one to five years), they undergo a physiological transformation into smolts and migrate to sea during the spring.

© Laurie Campbell

Salmon will remain at sea for one to four years before returning to their native rivers to spawn.

0 1 Oct

1 Nov

1 Dec

1 Jan

1 Feb

1 Mar

1 April

1May

1 June

Date

Our first thought was that this was an early migration to sea, but tests revealed that these autumn migrating parr were unable to tolerate saltwater. Because autumn migrants have been observed as returning adults, they must have spent the winter in the lower river before smoltifying in the spring. Analysis of the tagging data revealed that there was no difference in their size or condition at the time of tagging between the parr that were detected in the autumn and the spring. So why do some parr undertake this movement and what might be the ecological drivers of this autumn migration? There are some indications that habitat might be a factor and we are currently exploring this and other potential causes to identify the drivers and the benefits of this strategy to the salmon.

One thing is certain: a significant proportion of the Frome salmon parr population inhabit the lower river during the winter and this may also be the case on many other rivers. This has management implications in terms of what habitat should be protected to enhance the over-winter survival of salmon parr. Furthermore,

“...a significant proportion of the Frome salmon parr population inhabit the lower river during the winter...” most smolt monitoring programmes do not account for autumn migration into the lower river which may result in an underestimate of total smolt output, with consequential underestimation of marine mortality.

More information Join us at our Open day on Sunday 27 April, East Stoke, Wareham. £20 a person.

Call 01425 651013 to book your place. www.gwct.org.uk/eaststokeopenday Read the latest updates from our fish research team at www.gwct.org.uk/fisheriesblog MorFish - www.morfish.org.uk

Research in action... How to PIT-tag a salmon parr

1 The parr are caught by electro-fishing.

Two teams work on the river for three weeks until 10,000 parr have been tagged. An average of 400 parr are tagged each day per team.

www.gwct.org.uk/fishing

2 The fish is anaesthetised and the length and weight are recorded.

Scales are collected and are used to look at growth rate, age and to determine sex.

Open day Come and see fisheries research in action on Sunday 27 April

3

4

A small insertion is made with a scalpel and a PIT tag is inserted into the body cavity where it will remain for the lifetime of the salmon.

The fish is transferred to a holding tank to recover before being released into the 100-metre section where it was caught.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 21

| FARMING - RESEARCH CONFERENCE

Can we still achieve wildlife revival?

60%

of species have declined over 50 years with 10% at risk of extinction

With changes to agri-environment measures, our research conference asks whether we can still achieve our 2020 conservation targets Wildlife-friendly farming will rely on an efficient, scientifically sound set of agri-environment measures.

ollowing changes to agri-environment measures resulting from Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, we are holding a research conference for conservationists, policy makers and farmers to ask whether we can still achieve wildlife revival. Taking place on Tuesday 13 May at the Royal Geographical Society, it will be opened by Richard Benyon MP who will deliver the keynote speech and whose ‘insider insight’ will be invaluable.

Many of us in the conservation world are now starting to realise that to restore the fortunes of our declining wildlife rapid action is now imperative. The State of Nature report made gloomy reading with over 3,148 species of plant and animal studied, roughly 5 per cent of the 59,000 species found in the UK. Headline figures were prominently reported: 60 per cent of the species studied have declined over 50 years; 31 per cent have declined strongly and 10 per cent are at risk of extinction. Insects had declined more than any other group of animals with 66 per cent of moth species declining over the last 40 years and 37 per cent of moth species declining

Lapwing © Laurie Campbell, mixed birds © Dave Kjaer

F

22 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

by over 50 per cent (see page 16). There was one major and unavoidable conclusion of the report, which was that the attempts of the last few decades to target declining and endangered species have largely failed.

The latest CAP reforms will present a new set of challenges as we attempt to achieve our 2020 conservation targets.

Much of the delivery of wildlife-friendly management will rely on an efficient, scientifically sound set of agri-environment measures, but these are being reviewed and hopefully improved to ensure better delivery and wildlife recovery.

We have been using cutting-edge research to develop novel and practical solutions for species revival for more than 40 years. Our research has helped drive existing agri-environment schemes to achieve today’s wildlife-friendly farming measures, but now we wish to share our latest thinking and new research project findings.

The conference aims to act as the catalyst that will mobilise action by conservationists, farmers, policy makers and all those wishing to meet our future conservation targets. CAP reform will present new challenges but also new opportunities. It will

“The conference aims to act as a catalyst that will mobilise and inform those wishing to meet our future conservation targets” also tackle how we can inspire the continued revival of wildlife populations. As we move forward we must discuss: Where else have exceptional results been achieved?

From ordinary to exceptional – what makes a conservation success?

How can these conservation successes be best rolled out across our countryside?

Our farming members may find this research conference of particular interest, so to view the programme and reserve your place go to www.gwct.org.uk/revivalconference or contact Lynn Field on 01425 651025.

Tickets are £40 and limited to just 150 so book quickly if you wish to attend.

www.gwct.org.uk

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| MEMBER BENEFITS - WEBSITE

Fast access to your interests The website now has four key sections – Fishing, Farming, Game and Wildlife. These allow you to get straight to the key stories, research and activity in each of the areas in just one click. For example, if you are keen to see the latest game conservation news, simply click ‘Game’ and you will be presented with the main stories on your chosen topic. One further click on ‘News’ and you will access the most recent news stories on Game. www.gwct.org.uk/news

Easier to read Following member feedback, we have introduced larger fonts and clearer images, making the new website more comfortable for you to read and browse. We have also added larger, more colourful buttons so that the first steps towards booking events, donating and contacting the Trust are even simpler.

Have you seen our new and improved website?

© Charles Sainsbury-Place

Book events with ease Our all new Events & Courses section gives you the opportunity to book your place online at our advisory courses and social events and, for the very first time, you will be able to pay to secure your place instantly. Members can also sort events by county, category and type, and each event listing includes a map and the organiser’s contact details.

James Swyer takes us through the redesigned site that gives you access to the latest news, research, events and advice - www.gwct.org.uk

Improved Business Directory Searching for a local business? Our online Business Directory allows you to find a company that can supply you with goods or services you require with ease. Results include an address and contact details and all the companies listed in this directory support the Trust through their membership.

James Swyer is our Direct Mail Fundraising Officer working with our new digital media team helping to expand the Trust’s presence online.

Insight from our experts You will also find a number of new blogs on the site, each of which is regularly updated by our scientists. These include Peter Thompson’s popular wildlife blog, all the news on Woodcock Watch, a fisheries blog and the latest news from the Allerton Project. Visit www.gwct.org.uk/blogs to see our work up close.

Find us in the field

Looking for the latest information while on a shoot, working on your farm or enjoying the countryside? The newly designed website is mobile-friendly so can be viewed comfortably on PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. Using the powerful new search facility, you can find exactly the information you are looking for quicker than ever.

We would love to hear your views

Sign up Receive all the latest GWCT news straight to your inbox by signing up for our free email newsletter

The website is constantly evolving and we are always keen to make improvements to make it a better experience for you. Simply email marketing@ gwct.org.uk or write to us at Website Feedback, GWCT, Burgate Manor, Fordingbridge, Hampshire SP6 1EF. Sign up for the email newsletter at www.gwct.org.uk/newsletter 24 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

www.gwct.org.uk

WOODCOCK - BREEDING SURVEY |

Counting roding woodcock Thanks to the help of over 800 volunteers, around 950 sites were surveyed for breeding woodcock in 2013. Chris Heward provides an update Chris Heward is a research assistant in our Wetlands Research department and is currently working towards a PhD on factors influencing breeding woodcock distribution and abundance.

n 2003, together with the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), we conducted the first national survey of breeding woodcock, based on counts of roding males.

This provided the most accurate population estimate to date of 78,350 males for Britain.

This was about six times higher than previous estimates based on general bird surveys. However, given the contraction in breeding distribution reported by the BTO Bird Atlas 2007-11, a 10-year repeat survey to measure change in breeding population size seemed timely.

In 2013, northern Scotland and northern and eastern England remained stronghold areas, with between 50 per cent and 68 per cent of woods greater than 10 hectares supporting at least one roding woodcock.

The lowest occupancy levels were recorded in Wales (16 per cent ) and south-west England (20 per cent). It is now particularly noticeable in southern England that sites occupied by breeding woodcock are clustered in areas with extensive blocks of woodland such as the Forest of Dean, the New Forest and Thetford Forest.

Comparison with 2003 suggests a decline in overall site occupancy of 8 per cent in the last 10 years. We observed declines in site

I

occupancy in eight of 11 regions, with the most severe reduction of 17.5 per cent in south-east England. Small gains were recorded in northern Scotland (5.5 per cent) and northern England (3.5 per cent). The next step is to examine the change in woodcock numbers and to produce new national population size estimates, so that we can then start to examine potential reasons for the different regional trends.

Learn more about the migrations of woodcock visiting Britain and Ireland in winter at www.woodcockwatch.com

Help us monitor woodcock trends We are grateful to the many volunteers who participated in the 2013 Breeding Woodcock Survey and to the small band of woodcock enthusiasts who have surveyed a site annually since 2003.

Please consider monitoring a wood near you on an annual basis and help us understand the decline of this enigmatic species.

Contact Andrew Hoodless ahoodless@gwct.org.uk for more details.

Support our woodcock research

© Steve Round

Without the generous support of our members, our satellite-tracking work would not be possible. Our recent appeal has raised more than £33,000 so far and gives us the opportunity to track more woodcock in 2014. To support this work, please contact us on 01425 652381 or visit www.gwct.org.uk/woodcock2014 for further information.

www.gwct.org.uk

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 25

| FRESH WATER - BIODIVERSITY

Freshwater habitats under threat The British landscape has become a much drier place, with the water that remains under huge pressure. Peter Thompson explains

W

26 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

also use, then our water consumption increases to about 3,400 litres a day. For instance, it takes 170 litres of water to produce just one pint of beer. This massive reliance on water is resulting in excessive groundwater and surface water abstraction, often leaving waterways with slow flow rates and many headwaters that no longer hold water at all.

Pollution, including eutrophication, acidification and chemical contamination, all take their toll on the quality of water that flows through our countryside, while urban and industrial development has often taken place in inappropriate places such as flood plains, producing further conflict.

But certainly not all is doom and gloom. Biological quality – a good indicator of the overall health of our rivers is improving, although they are not yet at a high enough standard. In 2008, 72 per cent of English rivers were classed as good or excellent – the best on record, up from 55 per cent in 1990. Also in 2008,

© Dave Kjaer

e have a wonderfully rich array of freshwater habitats in the UK, including fastflowing upland rivers, to more gentle chalk streams in the south-east and slow-flowing rivers of eastern England. Still waters are similarly diverse, ranging from little mountain lochs to ponds, lakes and reservoirs.

In and around these diverse freshwater habitats, there is a huge range of different species to be found.

Britain has about 56,000 miles of rivers, over 310,000 miles of ditches and approximately 500,000 ponds. It sounds a lot, but the British landscape has become a much drier place than it used to be and the water that remains is under huge pressure from a number of threats.

For instance, around half of our ponds were lost in the 20th century and 80 per cent of those that are left are classified as in ‘poor condition’. Only 15,000 acres of the original 250,000 acres of lowland raised bog is left in the UK and the majority of our farmland is now drained, racing water away to the rivers and out to sea as fast as we can send it. What is more, this has not just happened in the lowlands. Large areas of wet, boggy areas such as upland flushes and fens, which provide a varied habitat of sedges, rushes and grasses, along with carpets of sphagnum moss, where wetland flowers and nesting waders such as curlew, snipe and redshank breed, has also been ‘improved’.

Many of our water-based areas are also now reduced to small, fragmented habitats, making movement between them difficult for a number of species. For example, our remaining 12,000 acres of reed beds are made up of 900 or so sites, but only 50 of these are greater than 50 acres in size.

However, agricultural land had to be drained if we were to produce food for a rapidly growing population, and bogs were viewed as dangerous, miserable places which were infested with mosquitoes. Ponds were once important as drinking places for the one million plough horses, before mechanisation replaced them, taking away the need for ponds. Many of our waterways went through massive changes as we attempted to straighten and divert them, while they were also often viewed in the past as a place to get rid of waste.

Our growing population is now creating new pressures on our fresh water. Each one of us uses about 150 litres of tap water a day. However, if you include the amount of water used to create the products we

Main: Half our ponds were lost in the 20th century; only 12,000 acres of reed beds remain; high concentrations of nitrate were found in 32 per cent of rivers.

Above: The majority of our farmland has been drained reducing habitat for waders such as lapwing.

Right: Snipe and curlew are breeding waders that are associated with fresh water but have reached their lowest levels since the 1990s .

www.gwct.org.uk

FRESH WATER - BIODIVERSITY |

“...our water consumption per person has increased to 3,400 litres a day” 51 per cent of English rivers had high concentrations of phosphate compared with 69 per cent in 1990, and high concentrations of nitrate were found in 32 per cent of English rivers in 2008 compared with 36 per cent in 1995.

There is also a move to create new ponds across the UK, attempting to double their number to one million. So, although things are improving, there is still a long way to go.

Although predation is having an impact on many freshwater species, water quality is also key. The eel, for instance, has seen a massive decline of 90 per cent since the early 1980s and we constantly read about the complete disappearance from many of our waterways of species such as the water vole and the white-clawed crayfish. The latest figures from the Breeding Bird Survey show that four of our breeding waders have reached their lowest levels since the survey started in the early 1990s. Birdwatchers are reporting particularly low numbers of oystercatcher, snipe, curlew and lapwing – the last three all very much associated with fresh water.

www.gwct.org.uk

Peter Thompson is our biodiversity advisor and an expert on farmland habitat and wildlife. He is particularly interested in all aspects of land management.

In the next edition of Gamewise we will address some of these issues and show ways of re-wetting parts of the countryside.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 27

| OUR WORK IN SCOTLAND

Join us

at our Scottish Game Fair from 4-6 July and enjoy Scotland’s premier outdoor event

In brief Scottish politics THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT has been particularly busy considering a range of rural topics including the implementation of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), deer management and the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy. We have been working hard to keep up with developments particularly in relation to CAP Reform, providing a briefing paper on the key conservation outcomes to Labour MSPs. Adam Smith, our director Scotland, and Gemma Davis, our policy officer, also met the Labour Shadow Minister for Environment, Claudia Beamish MSP, to discuss wildlife and species management as well as practical conservation methods alongside modern-day farming.

2014 promises to be equally busy as we now have a seat on the Rural Policy cross party working group at the Scottish Parliament and also three seats on the Minister for Environment’s newly formed biodiversity committees, which will be considering the implementation of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.

Take advantage of our early-bird offer and come and enjoy our Scottish Game Fair.

Scottish Fair – early bird offer cotland 2014 is set to showcase some of the finest sporting events in the world and capturing the very essence of Scotland’s great outdoors, shopping and natural larder, the 26th GWCT Scottish Game Fair is not to be missed.

And to continue that feelgood factor, we have an earlybird offer – for just £34, a family of four (two adults and two children, aged 5-15 years) will enjoy a fantastic day out.

S

A LIMITED EDITION scarf designed

by Katrina Candy, our head of PR and education, has flown off the shelves of the shop within eight weeks of being put on sale. The accessory, which was inspired by the bird’s plumage and distinctive colouring, was sold at the end of 2013 to raise awareness and help boost funds to further our grey partridge research and advice. This was the first time we had produced such an item and the success has encouraged Katrina to develop new designs.

28 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

Scone Palace will once again host this year’s exhilarating and educational three-day Fair from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 July. To keep up to speed with the latest news, visit www.scottishfair.com or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Scottish Fair volunteers e have always relied upon and greatly appreciated the fantastic support of volunteers. As a charity, volunteers are a valuable resource and one which we certainly never take for granted.

In organising our 25th anniversary Scottish Game Fair in 2013, we widened our net to encourage a broader range of volunteers. Our resulting ‘catch’ comprised a wide section of the community – some with particular skills that were ably suited to specific tasks and others who simply wanted to be part of such a successful event.

Leading the charge in this new approach to staffing our biggest educational event was Celia Innes, herself a volunteer team leader at the London Olympics and who will be volunteering

W Scarf ace

This offer is available to buy online now and includes a 10% discount on the gate price as well as the added benefit of a free gold parking pass worth £10. Adult tickets can also be purchased for £16 with free gold parking available with any purchase of two or more tickets by 30 April. GWCT members already benefit from free parking and the Gold parking is just as close to the main gate as the members’ car park.

Member offer

at this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Assisted by Penny I’Anson, Celia collated, briefed, organised, deputised, encouraged and thanked her team of volunteers – most of whom are keen to continue their volunteering at this year’s Fair.

“I was managing about 300 people during the 2012 Olympics and this helped me to co-ordinate the team for the Scottish Game Fair,” explained Celia. “Being a Gamesmaker was brilliant and I was buoyed by that experience to co-ordinate the Fair’s volunteers. We had about 100 volunteers of all ages and from as far afield as Yorkshire.

They were given a variety of tasks, from selling raffle tickets to assisting with the gundogs and fishing competitions – a huge range of opportunities. Each

volunteer also benefited from free car parking and a half day to explore and enjoy the Fair.”

Celia has handed over the volunteering baton in 2014 to Andrew Ogilvy-Wedderburn and Fiona Watson. “Being a volunteer at the Fair is a great opportunity to boost your CV, be part of one of Scotland’s biggest events and have lots of fun,” said Celia.

To volunteer for this year’s fair please contact Fiona Watson on 07984 716275.

www.gwct.org.uk/scotland

OUR WORK IN SCOTLAND |

Grand grouse draw winners

Events

he lucky winner of the 2013 Grand Grouse Draw is Lindsay Marshall from Lockerley in Hampshire, a longstanding member of the Trust.

Lindsay and eight friends look forward to the most exciting sport available as guests of Charles Connell on his glorious Garrogie and Stronelairg Estates in Inverness-shire, during September 2014. They will also enjoy bed and breakfast, lunch and tea at the nearby Whitebridge Hotel.

The 2014 Grand Grouse Draw will be launched later this spring

Tayside auction

T

Winner of the 2012 Grand Draw, Ben Du Brow (holding brace) and guests enjoying their day on Robert Miller’s stunning Gunnerside moor in Swaledale.

with a top prize of a day’s grouse shooting on Clune and Corrybrough Estate, Tomatin

up for grabs. For more details please contact Hugo Straker at hstraker@gwct.org.uk

Capercaillie wins art competition erth Museum and Art Gallery was the perfect surroundings for the official prize-giving for the GWCT Scotland Schools’ Art Competition in December.

Now in its ninth year, 2013 was the first time that the competition was opened up to secondary pupils and the judges were incredibly impressed with the standard of entries. Ross Smith of Blackford School scooped the overall primary school top prize with his vibrant study of a capercaillie and won the coveted Michael Wolfe Murray (Above) Ross Smith’s Quaich, while Brooke Watson of Perth High School claimed winning study of a capercaillie. the top spot in the secondary category with an intricate pencil study of a pheasant. Brooke was awarded an engraved Brooke Watson’s glass trophy and both winners also received a fun-packed intricate pencil day at Living Well at the Hilton Dunkeld House to include a study of mini Highland Games for their whole class. a pheasant.

P

Trust (RHET). Letham Primary School from Perth enjoyed a morning with the farm manager, Brian Kaye; gamekeeper Neil Gunn; GWCT’s Alex Towns and RHET’s Anna Dickinson. The team described Beyond the farm gate allows urban school children to trapping techniques, experience a working farm. pond creation and uses, game crops and forestry before Neil demonstrated the work of his gundogs. The children also visited

R

www.gwct.org.uk/scotland

Many novel auction lots including a day tracking red grouse helped raise £20,000.

South-east drinks

Cool for school edmyre Estate near Dundee was the venue for another successful ‘Beyond the Farm Gate’ school visit, organised by the GWCT and the Royal Highland Education

ANOTHER EXCELLENT EVENING was held at the Strathmore Golf Centre, Alyth, when the Tayside Committee staged its auction and carvery supper at the beginning of November. A full house enjoyed the banter with rookie auctioneer Ross Fotheringham, who encouraged guests to up the bids to realise almost £20,000 on the night. Top-selling lots included an eight-gun day on five Scottish estates (£4,200), a mini driven day on Scone Estate (£3,500) and more novel opportunities such as a house on Diary For a full list of Tiree for a week and Scottish events a day with a GWCT taking place near you please see researcher tracking page 46 red grouse. Sincere thanks to sponsors Savills, Thorntons and United Auctions.

the squirrel hide and enjoyed a tractor and trailer ride round the estate to see various game conservation features and resident wildlife. The morning was warmly received and allowed urban school children the opportunity to experience first-hand some aspects of rural management.

We will be continuing our school visits this year and will have educational exhibits at the Royal Highland Show (1922 June) and our own Scottish Game Fair (4-6 July).

THE SOUTH-EAST committee held its annual drinks party, raffle and auction at Oxenfoord Castle in late October. The evening included a range of exciting activities such as laser shooting, rolling for a gallon of whisky and sampling delicious Loch Fyne salmon and artisan pies supplied by Mr C’s Hand Crafted Pies of Newburgh. The Demijohn liquid deli from Edinburgh was also on hand to help guests select a festive tipple along with Broughton Ales.

The auction and superb raffle raised just short of £4,000. The evening was generously supported by Savills, Rathbones and Gillespie MacAndrew.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 29

| EXPERT ADVICE

Top crops Not sure which cover crop to plant? Peter Thompson gives his definitive guide to the top crops Maize Advantages

Fertiliser

Sorghum/dwarf grain sorghum

Advantages A wonderfully reliable Similar to maize so can crop for holding game be kept clear of broadand allows excellent leaved weeds. Does not control of broad-leaved weeds, so can be useful in have cobs, so unattractive to rats. Some varieties a cover crop rotation. of dwarf grain sorghum Disadvantages produce seed heads Can attract rats and and can be used in badgers. It is not funded Stewardship mixes (but within Stewardship and does do not count towards not offer food for smaller one of the three crop birds. Can only reliably be types needed) and they grown as far north as the stand well throughout Scottish borders, depending the winter.

All cover crops will need fertiliser if they are to succeed.

Millet Advantages A fantastic addition to any cover crop mix as gamebirds and small birds love the seed. Red millet ripens and sheds seed first, so is good for partridge cover. White millet seed lasts in the head much longer and can still be available to eat in January.

Growing

Drill at 20-30 inch rows.

Plant seed at 2-3 inches deep. Plant in May at about 45,000 seeds per acre.

Kale

Triticale

Advantages

Advantages

This crop, grown well is the king of game cover crops – especially if it is left into a second year. It provides warm cover, is very hardy, and produces stacks of small seeds that many birds love to eat.

Great to include in a mix – economic as it lasts for two years.

A hybrid wheat/rye crop which stands right through the winter – only heavy snow knocks it over.

It grows well on poor ground and does not need much nutrient to thrive. Excellent to use in a mix. Rabbits, hares and deer don’t like to eat it when it is growing. Offers a good food supply well into the new year for a wide range of birds.

Disadvantages

Disadvantages

Disadvantages

It can be difficult to establish, however, you can buy treated seed to help beat flea beetle attack.

Most varieties have no feed value, so hopper feeding will be required. Does not like cold, wet summers.

Does not like heavy, wet soils.

Growing

on the variety.

Growing

Drill at 22lbs an acre in May or June. Different varieties vary widely, so take advice.

30 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

Growing

Drill 11lbs an acre of seed at around half an inch deep in May or June.

Peter Thompson is our biodiversity advisor and an expert on farmland habitat and wildlife. In 2013 he was a finalist in the Farmers Weekly advisor awards.

Drill or broadcast (treated seed must be drilled) from April to mid-June depending on conditions. Rate of seed varies from 3-5lbs an acre depending on whether it’s drilled/broadcast or included in a mix.

Disadvantages It can attract rats, rooks and pigeons.

Growing

Drill winter varieties in the autumn, and spring varieties from March to the end of May. Check seed rate with supplier as it varies depending on a number of factors.

www.gwct.org.uk/advisory

EXPERT ADVICE |

Cover crop corner

* Stop press – key information Farmers growing kale would have been perturbed to learn of the EU Commission ban on neonicotinoid seed treatments, which protect the young, emerging kale plants from flea beetle attack. Previously we had to resort to spraying but timing is critical and many crops have failed when sprays were missed. However, kale seed treatments have been excluded from the ban by the EU and treated seed is available for the 2014 season.

See pages 36-37 for more conservation targeted advice.

Quinoa

Sunflowers

Fodder radish

Advantages

Advantages

Advantages

Easy to grow and ideal to plant as part of a mix.

Offers a wonderful sight through until the autumn and produces stacks of seed, which game and small birds love to eat.

Use as part of a mix.

Consider the dwarf, multi-headed varieties.

A fast growing brassica, which is ideal to include within a mix. The pods are slow to ripen, so seeds are not eaten until late in the year when many other seeds have gone. The seed is loved by many bird species.

Disadvantages Does not offer much cover and little remains of the crop by January.

Growing

Drill or broadcast at around 3.5lbs an acre from April through to June.

Grow quinoa as part of a mix.

It works well with kale.

Disadvantages Does not offer much cover, so should be included with other crops that provide warmth.

Growing

Can be sown in May and June, once soils have warmed up sufficiently.

Sowing rate depends on variety and what it is mixed with – talk to the supplier.

Disadvantages Can become too much of a good thing if too high a seed rate is used, dominating other species in the mix and collapsing into a soggy mess.

Growing

Easy to grow, but check seed rate with supplier as the sowing rate will vary depending on the other crops you are mixing it with.

ings Game Cover and Conservation Crops supports the Allerton Project at Loddington by providing on-going management advice and seed supply for the game cover and conservation crops on the farm.

The game cover and wild bird seed plots had developed well. However, the very dry period in the summer had held some of the kale within the wild bird seed mixtures back. Although a taller canopy would have been preferred, many of the plots will be kept for two years as the kale develops further. This helps to reduce the workload in terms of re-establishment, but more importantly, supplies valuable canopy and nectar flower in the spring and summer along with a great source of seed in the following winter.

A beneficial rotation is developing within the plots by growing brassica and cereal-based wild bird seed mixtures along with occasional strips of maize for game cover. This rotation helps to reduce the build-up of soil-borne disease such as club-root and provides weed control opportunities. Each of the crops planted has an agreed herbicide strategy prior to planting, which is essential if they are to establish successfully.

Supplementary feeding started in late December and will run through to the end of May. This option sees the provision of a seed mixture of wheat, oilseed rape, sunflowers, canary seed and millet along tracks and adjacent to areas of wild bird seed mixture three times a week. Farmland birds have responded well to this seed source with a wide range of species being seen.

With plans to improve existing margins and develop the on-going nectar flower and wildflower establishment trials, there is plenty to be working on this spring.

K

Game cover training day Come and see the cover crops for yourself at the Kings and NGO training day on Wednesday 26 March at the Allerton Project, Loddington, Leicestershire. Designed specifically for game managers, the day aims to give targeted advice on crop management techniques and how they can be incorporated into the latest farming initiatives.

To book please contact

Kings on 0800 587 9797 or email kingscrops@frontierag.co.uk

www.gwct.org.uk/advisory

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 31

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32 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

www.gwct.org.uk

EXPERT ADVICE |

Reintroducing grey partridges Joe Dimbleby from Shooting Times explains why our grey partridge reintroduction course has the answers ou don’t have to be HM the Queen or the Duke of Norfolk to achieve a sustainable wild English partridge population on your shoot. That was one of the central points I took away from the GWCT’s fascinating and practical course on reintroduction at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire. Of course, there were plenty of other messages: it will be extremely challenging, it will cost money and you need to be committed for the long haul (10 years at least). But you don’t need to be a millionaire, you don’t need 10,000 acres, and you will succeed if you put the

ACTION PLAN Count grey partridges

it spread from the isolated success stories on a few great estates and the 1,000 farms already participating in the Trust’s Partridge Count Scheme, the bird is at risk of coming off the quarry list and disappearing altogether. It is vital that we work together to save the grey partridge, and the rewards will be great.

To read the full article go to www.gwct.org.uk/shootingtimes

Dates for your diary Grey partridge reintroduction course - 3 March, Whitburgh Estate, Pathhead, Midlothian.

Grey partridge reintroduction course - 4 March, Clune and Corrybrough Estate, Tomatin, Inverness-shire.

To book please contact Lynda Ferguson on 01425 651013 www.gwct.org.uk/courses

Many farms that count successfully increased their partridge numbers over the last 10 years as well as their songbirds. www.gwct.org.uk/pcs

Keep spring feeding Supplementary feeding provides vital food for pheasants and farmland birds.

Move hoppers to woodland edges and hedgerows and keep topped up until late May.

Increase insect-rich areas To boost wild broods, increase your insect-rich brood-rearing cover in March by establishing 3-6m wide unsprayed cereal margins.

Larsen trapping in April Make sure you are up-to-date with the law and requirements regarding the Open General Licence. www.gwct.org.uk/larsensheets

Training For a full list of courses and training go to www.gwct.org.uk/ courses

© Keith Edkins

© Laurie Campbell

Y

right pieces in place. Above all, we mustn’t give up on these remarkable birds and the ecosystems that sustain them.

There is a wealth of information packed into this inspiring oneday course, not least about the bird itself, which is extraordinary, but sadly, it is increasingly vulnerable. UK numbers have declined by 86 per cent since the 1960s and promising recoveries were reversed last year because of the dreadful weather.

Indeed, unless efforts to conserve

SPRING

Shooting for the future In an exciting new initiative our advisory team will be working jointly with BASC to deliver a two-day course on shoot management and shooting skill. The course will take place on 25-26 April at the Allerton Project, Loddington, Leicestershire, and will cover many aspects of successful pheasant and partridge management, with a view to improving both the quality and sustainability of game management. The second day will focus on improving the individual’s shooting success with expert advice from specialised coaches.

Delegates can choose to come on one or both days. To book go to www.gwct.org.uk/shootingforthefuture or ring 01425 651013.

www.gwct.org.uk/advisory

Prepare release pens

Look out for...

Insects An abundance of insects is vital to help ensure wild game can thrive. Invest in an insect sweep net and sample your fields and margins in June to find out if they are providing chicks with the food they need.

Ensure release pens are secure from foxes and contain a habitat mix of onethird each of open ground, low roosting and ground cover.

Specialist advice For tailored advice please contact your local advisor on 01425 651013 or go to www.gwct.org.uk/advisory GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 33

| EXPERT ADVICE

Creating the ultimate... pollinator patch he word ‘pollinator’ seems to be mentioned in every Government document that is written on the countryside at the moment. A pollinator is anything that encourages the process by which pollen is transferred from one flower to another, allowing flowers to become fertilised and thus produce seeds and fruits. A number of plants, such as grasses, are pollinated by the wind. Bees, although important, actually perform only part of this process as a myriad other species such as flies, midges, beetles, wasps, thrips, bugs, butterflies, moths and even mammals all play their part too.

So planting the ‘perfect’ pollinator patch is often more difficult than you first thought.

To simplify it, I am going to concentrate on a mix for bumblebees, as they are the species that the Government is currently encouraging farmers to plant mixes for.

T

Peter Thompson is our biodiversity advisor and an expert on farmland habitat and wildlife. In 2013 he was a finalist in the Farmers Weekly advisor awards.

Clean the ground of weeds such as docks, ragwort and thistles. Although the last two species are great sources of pollen and nectar, they are part of the ‘Weed Act’, obliging farmers to keep them under control.

Rat control

Q&A

reduce this while still allowing the effective targeting of rats.

Q

In my experience poisoned rats are rarely found in the open, so how does rodenticide get into so many predatory animals?

A

Q

I have heard that rat poisons are being withdrawn for outdoor use.

Is this right and if so why?

© Laurie Campbell

A

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) has recently changed the approval for two Second Generation Anti-coagulant Rodenticides (SGARs), which are the most commonly used to control rats by gamekeepers and wildlife managers. As a result, they will no longer be available for use in open areas, but there are well-developed proposals for a ‘Stewardship scheme’, which should allow continued outdoor use. Exactly how this will work 34 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

is still being negotiated between user groups and HSE. Meanwhile, it is important to recognise that traces of SGARs are widely found in predatory wildlife, for example, in over 90% of barn owls. Although there is no significant evidence that these traces cause any harm, this ‘leakage’ into wildlife is clearly undesirable. The new Stewardship scheme will aim to

Birds like kestrels and barn owls rarely take rats. This and other evidence indicates that it is highly likely that the main problem is via non-target rodents such as mice and voles, which are contaminated by eating baits put out for rats.

Q

I would like to reduce my need for rodenticides to control rats on the shoot. What other methods can I use?

A

Rats can be gassed using aluminium phosphide pellets, but you do need to be trained and have proper safety equipment to use this method. Also, the oldfashioned approaches of trapping and ferreting have their place in keeping numbers down. Keeping on top of the population is very

Keeping on top of the rat population is very important.

important too and if you deal with any small infestations before they get too strong a hold, you can often keep the problem at bay, therefore reducing the overall amount of rodenticide that you need to use. Similarly, running a tidy ship and keeping game feeders away from rat harbourage will help to reduce build-ups.

For more expert advice please contact us on 01425 651013.

Mike Swan is our southern regional advisor. An expert in his field, he has advised many clients to help them improve their shoots, and is full of advice and top tips.

www.gwct.org.uk/advisory

EXPERT ADVICE |

A mix for bumblebees could include red and alsike clover, bird’s foot trefoil, sainfoin, knapweed, cowslip, bugle, self heal, tufted vetch, musk mallow, meadow cranesbill and many more.

Strips can be planted in a sunny place, and as long as it is not in total shade, a sheltered place can be just as important. This strip is planted alongside a beetle bank.

Cut half of the area in June, as it will then encourage it to re-grow and flower again.

8 months of the year pollen and nectar needs to be on offer for bees to flourish

Checklist Choose your place to plant.

Clean the ground of weeds such as docks, ragwort and thistles.

Choose plants that flower for as long as possible throughout the year, ideally from spring right through to autumn.

Sow from April to September (the best time is July and August). Do not add any grass to the mix. If the area becomes very weedy in year one, you should consider mowing.

Once fully established, you can cut half the area in June, as this will encourage it to re-grow and flower again in the late summer and autumn, when not many other flowers are available.

For more advice on the perfect pollinator patch please contact us on 01425 651013.

Muirburn

Planning a successful muirburn ecognising that the Scottish Muirburn code is currently under review and due to report in time for the 20142015 season, the Wildlife and Natural Environment Act 2011 (WaNE) has made legal changes to muirburn procedures.

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Top tip Ensure all equipment is properly maintained and in working order before burning starts

Out of season licences: These

may be granted

by Scottish Natural Heritage ‘for the purposes of conserving, restoring, Greying of the heather showing enhancing or heather beetle damage. managing the natural environment’.

Heather beetle: It is advisable to burn mature

heather following a heather beetle attack to help restore the habitat. Apply for an out-ofseason licence to burn in September.

The Muirburn Season: The standard season

is 1 October to 15 April extendable to 30 April if authorised by proprietor of land.

Following WaNE the season is no longer extendable to 15 May above 450m (1500ft).

Timing: The majority of moors burn in the spring but don’t forget the autumn; fires can be more manageable in October. Prepare a thorough muirburn plan.

www.gwct.org.uk/advisory

code as revised in August 2011 as well as key amendments of the WaNE Act. The code embodies the fundamentals of good muirburn practice, while the WaNE Act adjusted the legal requirements on neighbour notification. Your own personal protection is paramount so ensure that you have the right equipment and clothing and your risk assessments, health and safety Remember documentation This code applies to any vegand insurance etation managed by fire, not just grouse moors. It also forms part of are in order. the compliance requirements for Single Farm Payments in respect of the land being maintained in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition.

Muirburn in practice: Ensure that you follow the provisions of the muirburn

More information For the latest advice on how to burn safely and effectively, attend a GTS heather burning course. This will ensure you are aware of all the factors involved as well as the legal framework. Ring 01738 551511 to book.

Hugo Straker is our Scottish and North of England advisor. An expert on upland issues, he has advised many clients and leads our Grouse Technical Service.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 35

| CAMPAIGN FOR GAME

© Laurie Campbell

Showing you count for wildlife

Mike Swan explains why it is important to improve the biodiversity contribution on your shoot

hese days we hear lots about ‘best practice’, but frankly I do not care for the term. Best practice implies that some ultimate goal has been achieved and that we can therefore sit back, but it seems to me that this is rarely true. Knowledge is ever improving and what seemed like the best way to do something 10 years ago, may well seem rather primitive today.

We know a great deal about good shoot management and good wildlife conservation these days, and yet our critics keep on attacking what we do. Over the last 20 or so years, we have published lots of work that shows conservation benefits from game management activities. Whether it is woodland management, growing cover crops, or managing fragile upland ecosystems, we know a great deal about how to improve our shoots and benefit a range of other wildlife.

But, no matter how good it all is, there is always the scope to do better: hence the Biodiversity Assessment Scheme from our advisory team. With a long history of providing carefully tailored advice to individual shoots, no one is better placed to set you up with an improvement plan. We will not just think about how to make the shoot

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36 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

run successfully, but how to maximise the broader wildlife benefit too.

For example, can you get a bit more value from your cover crops? Maize with sorghum is pretty much a mainstay in the south, but the value of these crops to farmland birds like linnets and yellowhammers is small. However, strips of small seeded crops like millet and quinoa would offer a valuable winter food source.

If these crops were part of a well thought through plan, they would probably make the

Biodiversity Assessment; what is involved A thorough on-site survey of your shoot Careful examination of release sites (if any) A review of the feeding system Examination of game and wildlife habitat and how it is managed A review of predation control strategy and practice A confidential report on the current state of the shoot An action plan for future improvement of both shoot and biodiversity

More information Contact us on 01425 651013 or email advisory@gwct.org.uk

Mike Swan is our southern regional advisor. An expert in his field, he has advised many clients to help them improve their shoots, and is full of advice and top tips.

“...small projects that enhance the environment can make a substantial difference” maize and sorghum blocks more attractive to pheasants and partridges as well.

Similar improvements are likely to be possible in most other habitats too. Small projects that enhance the environment may seem a little trivial, but the sum effect when added up over the whole shoot can be quite substantial. Spending a few days each winter cutting out woodland glades can make a big difference to the breeding warblers after a few years, as well as giving better flushing and holding habitat for the pheasants.

Make no mistake, shooting as we know it is under pressure, and that applies at the individual shoot level too. Having a designated conservation policy in place, with achievable but challenging targets, keeps everyone focused and helps to deliver a better future. So, why not book a visit from your local advisor, and see how you might improve the biodiversity contribution from your shoot this year.

See page 30 for advice on the best cover crops.

www.gwct.org.uk/advisory

CAMPAIGN FOR GAME |

© Laurie Campbell

© Dave Kjaer

Biodiversity Assessment – a shoot owner’s perspective by Barney Stratton

Far left: Woodland management will not only improve flushing and holding habitat for pheasants; it benefits butterflies and warblers (above right).

www.gwct.org.uk/advisory

Above: Strips of small seeded crops like millet and quinoa planted for pheasants offer a valuable food source for farmland birds such as yellowhammers (main picture).

I run a commercial shoot at Stockton in Wiltshire. We run a pretty intensive operation over a substantial acreage and employ five full time keepers. We believe we do things to a very high standard, offering high quality sport from professional management and we also do our best to conserve the wildlife that shares the ground with our game.

Last summer I had a biodiversity visit from Mike Swan and this turned out to be really useful. On a very simple level, it allowed us all to stand back and examine what we were doing as a whole. It was very reassuring to find out that we were working in the right direction and doing more beneficial things than we might have realised. Mike also pointed out one or two areas where the keepers would gain from a brief training session to bring them up-to-date with current practice.

In common with many shoots, we have been trying to reintroduce grey partridges but without much success. Mike suggested that our landscape had changed so much over the years, that we really no longer had sufficient good grey partridge habitat to warrant this.

The woods planted in the more open areas by previous generations have seen to that.

However, 2013 brought us a new success with the first breeding lapwings for several years on our cover crop areas. Mike helped identify what we had done right, and that we could probably build on this by putting together a set of proposals to further improve their prospects by providing extra habitat and enhancing predation control in the main lapwing area. We have high hopes that this will be a further little on-going conservation benefit that we can offer as a result of the shoot.

We had our first breeding lapwings last year. © Dave Kjaer

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 37

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www.gwct.org.uk

COOKERY - COUNTRYSIDE FORAGING |

Hot and sour woodland soup Mike Short shares his passion for food and foraging in the countryside egend has it that after betraying Jesus Christ, remorseful disciple Judas Iscariot hanged himself from an elder tree, which explains how the bracket fungus Auricularia auricularia-judae got its name.

Commonly known as Judas Ear, Jew’s Ear or sometimes Jelly Ear, this gelatinous, paleliver coloured fungus, which commonly grows on the rotting wood of elder, is indeed reminiscent of a floppy human ear, at least when the fruiting body is still young. Clammy to the touch and almost translucent, I can think of no less appealing-looking edible fungi, but it has a pleasant, mild flavour and its rubbery texture adds an interesting dimension to Asianstyle hot and sour soups. In China, it’s highly prized for such dishes and there is evidence that the Chinese were cultivating it during the Tang Dynasty over a thousand years ago.

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On a bitterly cold morning last year I was checking squirrel traps set in a small copse near a rotten elder tree that was covered in Jew’s Ear. With frozen fingers and lunchtime fast approaching, I began fantasising about a pipinghot spicy soup. Having reset my traps, a bold and colourful pheasant with inflamed red wattles approached me, picking through the young, wild garlic leaves, gleaning kernels of whole maize that I’d scattered to attract squirrels. Then I had a forager’s Eureka moment – a hot and sour woodland soup made with Jew’s Ear, wild garlic leaves and morsels of squirrel or pheasant meat.

Jew’s Ear grows all year round. Look out for dead elder trees and cut the jelly-like fungus at the hinge that holds it to the branch. If it is dried and shrivelled up, it rehydrates well after 15 minutes in warm water.

As an alternative, you could

Mike Short is a senior field ecologist specialising in mammal research.

He is passionate about harvesting wild food, and here shares his enthusiasm for tasty ingredients found in the great British countryside.

substitute it for shop-bought oyster or shitake mushrooms. If you don’t fancy trying squirrel meat, this consommé-style soup is a good way of using up pheasants lurking in your freezer, and fittingly salutes our sporting hero’s Asian origins.

Ingredients (serves 2) 50g fresh (or rehydrated) Jew’s Ear fungus 200g skinned pheasant breast or grey squirrel meat 30g small wild garlic leaves, washed 500ml good quality game or chicken stock Thumb-sized piece of root ginger, peeled and finely grated 1 red chilli pepper, de-seeded and chopped 10 spring onions, chopped 2 tbs rice wine vinegar 1 tablespoon light soy sauce 1 teaspoon vegetable oil Half a lemon

Method

Jew’s Ear fungi.

www.gwct.org.uk

1. Wash the Jew’s Ear thoroughly. Slice it finely and steam for 10 minutes.

2. Remove any sinews and cut the pheasant or squirrel meat into

thin strips. Stir-fry in vegetable oil to seal. (If you don’t seal the meat the broth acquires an unpleasant surface scum.) Don’t let the meat take on too much colour.

Remove it from the pan and pour away any juices.

3. Filter the stock through muslin cloth or coffee filter paper. Pour into a saucepan and simmer.

4. Add the steamed Jew’s Ear, sealed meat and all the other ingredients except the wild garlic leaves. Bring almost to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for five minutes.

5. Add the wild garlic leaves and cook until wilted. Serve the soup with a wedge of lemon juice, to squeeze in according to taste.

If you are uncertain about picking wild mushrooms please check with an expert.

Jew’s Ear fungi In the West, it was used in folk medicine as recently as the 19th century for complaints including sore throats, eyes and jaundice, and as an astringent.

Ideal for use in Asianstyle hot and sour soups.

Try using it in a venison casserole.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 39

| MEMBERSHIP - WAYS TO SUPPORT US

“The hopper appeal will help us look at the most efficient methods of winter feeding”

Easy ways to support us GWCT credit card

Making grain go further - support the hopper appeal

160,000 photographs of hoppers have been studied

We’ve partnered with MBNA who have created a unique and stylish credit card exclusively for our members. Each time you use your GWCT credit card we receive a percentage of the amount spent so you are helping to raise funds at no additional cost to yourself. Call 0800 028 2440 and ask for a GWCT credit card.

www.gwct.org.uk/creditcard

o continue our work on winter feeding we are going to investigate the effects of different hopper designs, so that we can show the most efficient methods of winter feeding. www.gwct.org.uk/hopperappeal

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Top 10 reasons to support this research 1 There is not enough food – Modern farming is very efficient and there is not enough food left in late winter to feed our game and wildlife.

2 Feeders keep gamebirds in good body condition – This helps to improve the

breeding potential of our gamebirds.

3 Feeders increase densities of seedeating songbirds – Our research shows

that using feed hoppers more than doubles the number of farmland birds, including some red-listed species.

4 Proper feeding = successful pheasant shooting – Well-placed feeding sites

hold birds during the shooting season.

5 Keep your gamebirds in place – Feeders help to hold breeding pairs of birds to an area.

6 Help with counts – Birds stay closer to feeders during certain periods of the year.

The new research has three elements: To develop new winter feed hopper prototypes.

Fit them with motion-sensor cameras and place them on field-test sites to record how they are working.

Study the images triggered by birds or other mammals to see if they reduce feeding by unwanted species.

40 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

7 ‘Unwanted’ visitors can take a lot of the food – Losing a great proportion of

the grain to other unwanted species is expensive and time-consuming.

8 The feeding paradox? – Our research suggests that many hoppers could be hiding the ‘feeding paradox’; might feed those that feed on gamebirds (ie. rats).

9 Feeders for rat control – Feeders can play an important role in rat control, as trapping and poisoning often take place at feeding sites – but can we reduce the use of feeders by rats through other ways?

10 Is our feeding strategy the best it can be? – Is it time to re-think how we feed

our gamebirds? With feed wheat at £164 per tonne, we should all be curious about whether this feed is getting to its intended recipients – we cannot afford for it not to.

How you can help

£58 buys the scientific time to monitor a day’s images to check which species have been using hoppers at a particular site. £162 covers the cost of capturing, downloading and tagging 500 images, which will provide fundamental insight into hopper performance. £350 will pay for a motion-sensing camera to capture images at one location throughout the project. www.gwct.org.uk/hopperappeal

Shop online We’re excited to announce that we’ve joined easyfundraising.org.uk, a service that generates donations from companies every time you spend money with them online, at no extra cost to you. More than 2,700 major UK retailers, insurers, travel companies, utility companies and banks support the scheme. Simply register for free and select us as a charity you’d like to support.

www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/gwct

Visit our shop With over 120 stunning colour photographs, Fields of Dreams, a Journey of Sporting Passion by Lord James Percy is a very impressive and well illustrated book. It is also a delightful celebration of the unrivalled variety of shooting and fishing that the UK has to offer. With its clear insight into what goes on behind the scenes to produce great sport, this is a great read that any sportsman will both enjoy and treasure. This was our bestselling product last Christmas – limited stock remaining - £30.

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GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 41

| REGIONAL EVENTS - GET INVOLVED

4

aspar Hobbs’ wonderful Ball committee brought together one of the best Balls in our history. 250 guests arrived at The Savoy to be wined, dined and dance the night away and raised a fantastic £171,000. Lip-smacking cocktails from Sipsmith kicked the evening off, before guests were treated to a delicious grouse main course, supplied by Yorkshire Game, followed by a mouth-watering chocolate tart. Lord Dalmeny kindly conducted the main auction, helping to raise an amazing £132,000.

We are very grateful to everyone who came and to the wonderful committee; but especially to Caspar, who did a marvellous job.

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1. Ball committee chairman Caspar Hobbs and Mrs Jamie MacLeod; 2. Ice grouse sculpture at the Savoy; 3. Lord Harry Dalmeny in full flow while conducting the auction helping to raise £132,000; 4. Lisa Linard, Charles Spencer and Charlotte Glossop; 5. Simon Maine-Tucker bidding. © Lucinda Marlands.

GCUSA news GAME CONSERVANCY USA’S 27th annual charity auction was held in November at the University Club in New York. Guest speaker was the Duke of Norfolk, who spoke about his involvement with the GWCT and the successful restoration of grey partridges to the English countryside.

The auction featured some remarkable shooting days and was energised by auctioneer Ted Clive of Christie’s, resulting in one of the most successful fundraising events in recent years.

GCUSA lost one of its long-standing Trustees and supporters, Mr Dale E Miller of Darien, CT, in December.

Dale had been an active part of GCUSA since its inception in the late 1980s.

Please save the dates. GCUSA will return to the Mashomack Preserve Club on Saturday 8 March for the annual winter shoot, which is open to everyone. The spring sporting clays outing will be at Ten Mile River Preserve in Dover Plains, NY, on Saturday 10 May, hosted by Trustee Randy Greene. For more information please email info@gcusa.org.

The Duke of Norfolk shared the secrets of the Sussex Study and its thriving grey partridge population.

42 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

Events for you

3

Ball smashes records

Woodcock in Paradise GUESTS WERE TREATED to a fascinating talk by woodcock expert Andrew Hoodless among the exotic sets of the BBC’s period drama, The Paradise, at Lambton Castle, Co Durham. A delicious bangers and mash supper took place in the 1870s look-alike department store and concluded with a ‘novelty auction’ raising a fantastic £7,800.

2

London

Central

Expert bidding raises the roof rinks parties and auctions were very popular last year with Worcestershire holding its evening at The Glasshouse, Suckley by kind permission of Edward and Diana Holloway. More than 70 people enjoyed meeting friends and bidding for some great auction lots encouraged by Will Kerton, whose expertise helped raise £7,500.

The Gloucestershire committee held its drinks party

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at the magnificent Rodmarton Manor, near Cirencester, by kind permission of Mr and Mrs John Biddulph. Guests were treated to a tour of the Manor before they had the chance to bid on a range of splendid auction lots expertly sold by John Harvey, helping to raise a fantastic total of £20,000.

A big thank you to sponsors Smiths Gore and Monahans.

The Shropshire committee held a well-attended drinks

Fabulous four raffle nepp Castle was the venue for the recent launch of the Sussex committee’s ‘Fabulous Four Raffle’, which aims to raise a staggering £50,000.

The raffle was launched at a drinks party, with the top prize a day’s shooting for eight guns on four of the most celebrated shoots in the country – Goodwood, Springhead, Cocking and Anmering Park. A ticket for eight guns costs £200. Please contact Tom Bodley Scott on 01892 509282.

party at Leighton Hall by kind permission of Maco Corrie.

Guests were treated to a talk from Ian Lindsay, one of the last opportunities to hear Ian’s words of wisdom before he retired.

Northumberland

Sussex

Global tales

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© Helen Tinner

In brief

1

(L-R) Rob Smallman (Cocking Shoot), John Newton (Goodwood Estate), Phillip Harkness (Springhead Estate) and Len Ireland (Angmering Estate).

hillingham Castle, Northumberland provided the perfect setting to hear Christopher Ussher’s flamboyant tales of hunting and fishing in far flung corners of the globe. The evening included drinks, sumptuous dinner and an eclectic novelty auction raising more than £12,000.

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www.gwct.org.uk/events

raised by the south-east Wales committee at its challenging clay shoot at Treetops Shooting Ground

Warwickshire

© Charles Sainsbury-Place

£7,000

Bristol

Brewing up a storm he Warwickshire committee enjoyed a tour of Hook Norton brewery, followed by a game supper, with managing director James Clarke describing a host of their traditional beers that accompanied the food. This excellent evening was sponsored by Howkins & Harrison and brewed up over £1,000.

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© Jon Farmer

National

Twenty four runners completed the challenging 5k Spartan Challenge helping to raise almost £9,000, with the committee of Shropshire raising the most sponsorship.

(L-R) Tom Hyde, Lady Sigrid Needham, Jerry Barnes, Sir Richard Needham and Christopher Smith.

Game feast uests were treated to a gourmet game feast at the Bristol and North Somerset committee’s dinner at the Clifton Club, helping to raise more than £8,000. Hosted

by Smith & Williamson, and co-sponsored by Michelmores and Knight Frank, guest speaker the Earl of Kilmorey, Sir Richard Needham, gave an entertaining speech followed by a very successful auction and raffle.

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Cheshire and north Wales

On target

Copious game banquet

hugely enjoyable game dinner was held at The Inn at Whitewell, Forest of Bowland, which helped boost the Trust’s profile in Lancashire and raised a fantastic £7,000.

Guest speaker was Ben Wallace, Member of Parliament for Wyre & Preston North, who amused guests with his tales of politics, and Henry Bowring’s expertise as auctioneer ensured that the evening was a huge success.

he Cheshire committee held a novel game curry night at the Bengal Tiger Lily, Macclesfield. A great fun evening ensued, with guests able to try a large variety of game curries including pheasant, duck, partridge, salmon, pigeon and venison.

The sell-out north Wales venison The sell-out Carcass to Cutlets evening. evening, Carcass to Cutlets, held at The Welsh Food Centre, was a huge success. Complete with an excellent demonstration, auction and farewell speech from the long standing stalwart of the GWCT, Ian Lindsay, £2,894 was raised, with nine new supporters joining the Trust.

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Premier day for High Four

North Yorkshire

ast November a team of guns led by David Flux, the successful bidder for the top auction lot the High Four, experienced a fantastic day shooting on four of North Yorkshire’s premier shoots at Duncombe Park, Murton Grange, Hawnby and Urra all on the same day. Special thanks to the owners, the Hon Jake Duncombe, Christopher Blundell, the Earl of Mexborough and the Reeve family, plus the Black Swan and Bon Coeur Fine Wines for making the day possible.

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The whole team at the end of the day. © Ann Curtis

www.gwct.org.uk/events

How to... organise the best vermin quiz

Rebecca Freeman and Katherine Burge sampling the beers on Warwickshire’s brewery tour.

Lancashire

REGIONAL EVENTS - GET INVOLVED |

NORTH YORKSHIRE RECENTLY organised an extremely successful vermin quiz, which raised a fantastic £5,330 and caused much amusement.

Sophie Dingwall shares her top four tips for organising the perfect quiz.

1

Choose a pub well known to the shooting community and acquire a sponsor to help cover the costs.

2

Have four varied question rounds – two before supper and two afterwards, to include sounds, Dingbats, smells and name the celebrity.

3 4

For your auction have 10 lots including a Vermin McNab, a brace of pigeons, a pike and a squirrel.

An excellent and enthusiastic committee.

Raising our profile SOUTH-WEST WALES were treated to a woodcock talk, kindly hosted by Simon Hart MP. Held at the fishing lodge at Abercothi by kind permission of Sir Edward Dashwood and Jeremy Herrmann, our woodcock expert Andrew Hoodless enlightened guests on the incredible journeys these birds make and outlined the research taking place in south Wales. Hereford guests also enjoyed a perfect evening of excellent hospitality and good food at a drinks party at Bromesberrow Place, kindly hosted by Gilbert Greenall.

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 43

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www.gwct.org.uk

Join Michel Roux Jr. at the renowned Le Gavroche for an exceptional dinner and sporting auction on Tuesday 4 March. Please contact Lucy Pearson on 0207 290 0110

FORTHCOMING EVENTS - GET INVOLVED |

Cheshire, Northumberland, Cambridgeshire

Key dates for your diary Join salmon expert Bill Beaumont in Surrey.

Challenging clays his season’s clay shoots start in April with events held around the country providing challenging stands to test your shooting skills and a great opportunity to get together with friends for a fun day’s sport. Cheshire is holding its popular shoot on Friday 11 April at Hodnet Shooting Ground, Shropshire, with teams of four costing £500. Please contact John Whitfield on 01625 574 723 to book.

The renowned Whitfield clay shoot in Northumberland takes place on the 10 and 11 May and costs £320 for teams of four. For further details contact Stuart Maughan on 07501 460017. On Saturday 10 May, the Cambridgeshire committee is holding its fabulous simulated game shoot at the celebrated Six Mile Bottom shoot ground near Newmarket.

With 500 challenging clays over London ndrew Hoodless six stands, this is an event not and renowned to be missed, with teams of four artist Owen costing £250. Please contact Williams will delight kad@marcamb.co.uk to book.

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Extraordinary journeys unravelled

Hampshire

Gundog masterclass

oward Kirby from Mullenscote Gundogs will be delivering a gundog masterclass on Friday, 25 April at Wintershill Hall, Durley, Hampshire, by kind permission of Jamie Balfour.

Come and find out how to get the best out of your dog, enjoy a barbeque and also be in with a chance to win a day’s shooting for eight guns at Abbey House, Warnford. For more information please contact Henry Mountain on 07841 977066.

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www.gwct.org.uk/events

Woodcock expert Andrew Hoodless will reveal his in-depth knowledge of the secrets of woodcock.

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London with their extensive knowledge of woodcock on Tuesday 25 March at the Royal Air Force Club. Andrew is leading the Trust’s woodcock research and has 20 years of experience, and Owen Williams’ knowledge of this small bird is extensive.

The Woodcock Watch project has produced many new insights into the extraordinary journeys of these amazing birds. Join us for drinks and canapés – please contact Tortie Hoare on 0207 290 0110.

London

Award-winning game chef n evening of butchery demonstration and food is to be hosted by top game chef Mike Robinson and held at the Michelin-starred pub, The Harwood Arms, on 30 April.

Mike Robinson has been fascinated by game and wild food since childhood, so guests will be treated to a scrumptious game dinner. For more information please contact Lucy Pearson on 0207 290 0110.

A

Salmon in Surrey SALMON EXPERT BILL Beaumont is the guest speaker at the Surrey committee’s dinner and sporting auction at The Parrot Inn, Forest Green, on Friday 14 March. Come and find out about the Trust’s cutting-edge fisheries research and what we are doing to reverse the decline of Atlantic salmon. The evening starts at 7pm and to reserve your table please contact Thirza Payne on 01883 723680.

Spartan challenge ARE YOU SPARTAN tough? We are looking for valiant county teams to join us in the fun Spartan Challenge on 30 June, in Cambridgeshire.

Thomas Hoblyn, who ran in the Spartan Beast last year for the Hertfordshire team, summed up the competitors’ feelings when he said: “It was a privilege to do the run for such a worthy cause and I would happily do it again – once the scars have healed!”

For more details please contact Mel Dellow on 07738 320339.

Join us for the Spartan Challenge.

© Jon Farmer

© Jon Farmer, Fieldsports

Diary For a full list of events taking place near you please see page 46

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 45

| EVENTS DIARY - MARCH TO JUNE

Local events near you

Diary Di

25-26 LEICESTERSHIRE shooting for Loddington, Lynda Ferguson 01425 651013.

March to June

26 NOTTINGHAMSHIRE annual dinner, Kelham Hall, nr Southwell,

Dates are correct at time of going to press. We advise checking with the organiser before attending any of the events listed.

For a full listing see www.gwct.org.uk/events

Lottie Meeson 07976 207113.

27 DORSET Open day, Salmon & Trout Research Centre at East Stoke, Wareham, Lynda Ferguson

14 LINCOLNSHIRE annual dinner,

March

The Lincoln Hotel, Eastgate,

01425 651013.

30 LONDON butchery demonstration

William Price 01507 463240.

3

SCOTLAND grey partridge Estate, Pathhead, Midlothian,

4

Lynda Ferguson 01425 651013.

The Crown Inn, Tur Langton,

SCOTLAND grey partridge

Tommy Cooper 07836 598202.

25 LONDON woodcock talk and

Lucy Pearson 0207 290 0110.

07810 148804.

7

LONDON dinner and auction,

The Storehouse, Evanton, Rosshire,

Loddington Estate, Lottie Meeson

Chris Swift 01463 831381.

07976 207113.

7

Bourne Golf Club, Jeanette Dennis 5

7

LEICESTERSHIRE clay shoot,

Le Gavroche Restaurant,

07971 671193.

11 CHESHIRE clay shoot,

SUSSEX annual shoot evening,

West Midlands Shooting Ground,

Clair Hall, Haywards Heath,

John Whitfield

George Butler 07850 295253.

john.birchencliffe@icloud.com

DERBYSHIRE wine tasting,

8

Fishery, Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire,

Wildgoose 01246 590066.

Ali Loder 01975 641270.

14 SURREY annual shoot dinner,

25 HAMPSHIRE dog demonstration,

The Parrots Inn, Forest Green,

raffle draw and BBQ, Wintershill

Stuart Walker 07899 998707.

Hall, Durley, Henry Mountain henry@flyfishergroup.com

Whatton Estate, Lottie Meeson 07976 207113.

12 NORTH WALES shoot walk, Ruabon Moor, Sarah Matson 01948 661342.

14 NORTHAMPTONSHIRE go kart event, Whilton Mill, Daventry, Pete Swinfin 07753 819388. auction, Alscot Park, Rod Bird

DERBYSHIRE shoot walk, Catton

Waddesdon Manor, Jennifer Thomas 01844 343477.

27 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE clay day, Painsend, Justin Farrington Smith 07810 148804.

30 CAMBRIDGESHIRE/ESSEX national

Hall Estate, Walton upon Trent,

sport event Spartan Challenge sprint,

Lottie Meeson 07976 207113.

Carver Barracks, Saffron Walden,

SCOTLAND Scottish auction,

Mel Dellow 07738 320339.

Prestonfield House Hotel, Edinburgh, Angela Walker 07594 929783.

9

24 SCOTLAND Grampian auction, Lochter

Tissington Hall, Ashbourne, Jonathan

07711 938904.

12 LEICESTERSHIRE shoot walk,

01789 206103.

Painsend, Justin Farrington Smith

April

N Somerset, Andy Pearce

22 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE gundog day,

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE clay day,

0207 290 0110.

CAMBRIDGESHIRE quiz night,

shoot, Middle Ellick Farm, Blagdon,

2

auction, RAF Club, Tortie Hoare 27 SCOTLAND Highland auction,

BRISTOL & north Somerset clay

May

Tomatin, Inverness-shire,

Lucy Pearson 0207 290 0110.

07970 524177.

8

20 WARWICKSHIRE drinks party and

Clune and Corrybrough Estate, Lynda Ferguson 01425 651013.

4

The Harwood Arms, Fulham,

Estate, Sally Hamilton 07764 603946.

19 LEICESTERSHIRE quiz night,

reintroduction course,

4

from chef Mike Robinson,

15 SCOTLAND Fife shoot walk, Gilston

reintroduction course, Whitburgh

day, Thruxton circuit, Jamie Daniell

the future course, Allerton Project,

SUSSEX clay shoot and ‘Fabulous four raffle’ draw, Glynde Place,

G AMEKEEPERS W ELFARE T RUST

Glynde, Tom Bodley Scott t.bodley.scott@batchellermonkhouse.com 10 CAMBRIDGESHIRE clay shoot,

Being there for gamekeepers, stalkers and ghillies.

Wadlow Farm, Six Mile Bottom, Richard Pemberton 07748 636564.

10-11 NORTHUMBERLAND Whitfield annual clay shoot, Whitfield, Hexham,

Shooting for the future 25-26 April, The Allerton Project, Loddington,

Stuart Maughan 07501 460017.

17 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE clay day,

Leicestershire. Special rates for members.

Claydon House, Justin Farrington

Run in conjunction with BASC, this new two-day

Smith 07810 148804.

course will tackle modern shoot management activities including releasing and cover crops, and

June

will also look at how to improve your shooting

6

End, John Savage 07850 608936.

technique with expert advice from specialised coaches. Lynda Ferguson 01425 651013.

46 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

ESSEX clay shoot and auction, Audley

6

WILTSHIRE Thruxton kart racing

Contact Helen Benson, Gamekeeper Welfare Trust, on 01677 470180 or email gamekeeperwtrust@btinternet.com

www.gwct.org.uk/events

MARKETPLACE |

Consult the expert for art advice Nigel Rhodes has been dealing in fine art and antiques for over 34 years. In 2013 he opened his first showroom, next to the magnificent Lincoln cathedral in the heart of Lincoln, selling quality works of art, antiques and objet d’art, all by leading artists of the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Nigel Rhodes delivers expert consultation in collecting, furnishing and interior design. He also offers free advice on hanging and placing of art works in homes, and this, along with his high calibre interior furnishing support, contributes in the creation of the ultimate utopia, which has been expressed by his many satisfied clients over the years.

• 01522 569522 • www.nigelrhodesfineart.com

Discover wild boars

Power to punch Kubota’s robust four-seater RTV1140 is perfect for the most challenging outdoor environment and is available in both Kubota’s signature orange and special edition camouflage. As part of a range of market-leading utility vehicles – the RTV 900, the RTV400Ci and RTV500 – the RTV1140’s four-seater cabin boasts an additional haul capacity, thanks to its increased 24.8HP engine and larger hydraulic dumping bed. It is the first of its kind to be equipped with hydrostatic power steering and Continuously Variable Transmission with inertial clutch, adding an element that’s crucial to control during descents. • 01844 268000 • www.kubota.co.uk

Tough tasks on tough terrain

In it to win it...

Ransomes Jacobsen, the manufacturer of turf maintenance equipment, is the European distributor for Cushman utility vehicles. Their Cushman 1600XD-R is 4x4 all-terrain utility vehicle, which features a 22 hp, 1,007cc three-cylinder OHV diesel engine, enough to handle tough tasks on rough terrain. Its performance is enhanced by an automatic CVT with low and high gear ratios, a user-selectable locking rear differential which can be engaged in both two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, four-wheel independent suspension, with great hauling and towing capacity.

• 01473 270000 • www.cushman.co.uk

Great Wall Motor has announced its sponsorship of the 2014 World Series Gundog Championships in conjunction with Chudleys Dog Foods. The competition will witness the best gundogs compete for the world’s largest prize fund; the champion handler will drive away in a Great Wall Steed SE worth £19,000. The competition is at Kelmarsh Country Show over Easter bank holiday with the final at the Midland Game Fair on 20 September.

• 08430 227127 • www.greatwallmotor.co.uk

For gift ideas see www.gwctshop.org.uk www.gwct.org.uk

Wild boar are now relatively common in some parts of Britain. With their re-emergence comes controversy. Many welcome the return of the boar to their native range, most also acknowledge that these animals can cause considerable damage to woodlands, crops and gardens, and must be subject to management and control.

Coch-y-Bonddu Books, have brought together all of the important and currently available books on the subject of wild boar – their history and their management.

• 01654 7042837 • www.anglebooks.com

GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 47

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GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014 | 49

GUN REPAIRS & REFURBISHMENT We provide a timely, efficient and very high quality repair and refurbishment service to all makes of guns at very sensible prices.

Tel: 01295 701701 gunroom@williampowell.com

www.williampowell.com

LINTRAN TRANSIT BOXES – Light, Cool & Washable With the popularity of Double Cab Pick Ups Lintran, famous for over 25 years for fitting out Range Rovers with quality Gun drawers and dog boxes and large universal range and supplying quality thermo insulated dog trailers, has designed and developed a new range.

Lintran introduces 2014 dog and gun pick up range with 15 standard fit outs or a bespoke service which can include Lintran dog boxes or tailgates, K9 Alarm, Fans, Transafe and Gap Flap offering excellent storage and safety for Lintran price promise • We will not be the dogs and equipment.

beaten on price, quality or service PATENTED, COPYRIGHT PROTECTED • ALL MAJOR CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED Tel: 01673 885959 Fax: 01673 885956

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Gamewise Spring 2014

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Sherlocks kennels, a sound investment to last a lifetime keeping your gundogs safe and secure.

Many fine English guns for sale.

Let our London trained craftsman restore your gun to its former glory at a fraction of West End prices.

We are also keen to purchase English guns.

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48 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

Telephone: 01844 281765 Fax: 01844 281815 Email: ja@jasonabbotgunmakers.co.uk www.gwct.org.uk

| INTERVIEW - CHRIS MUSGRAVE

The Final Word

Research in practice Winning the recent Purdey Award and implementing GWCT advice is all in a day’s work for Chris Musgrave. Peter Thompson meets him hris Musgrave is the estate manager for the Temple Estate and oversees all aspects of the farm and land management, including working closely with head keeper Phil Holborow. The Estate recently won the Gold Purdey Award for transforming a 2,000-acre prairie-style arable farm into a haven for birds and wildlife. Over a period of almost 30 years, 23 miles of new hedgerows have been planted and over a million trees and nine new dew ponds have been constructed. Chris was also one of the key partners who helped put the Marlborough Downs Nature Improvement About Area (NIA) together. This is the only NIA Chris that is farmer-led in the country.

What is the best advice you have received?

How has the GWCT’s advice helped both the shoot and the farm?

How many farms are now involved and what are the plans for the future?

C

When Konrad Goess-Saurau bought the Temple Estate in 1985, he realised its potential as a shooting estate and therefore his vision was to work towards that goal.

He engaged the services of good friend and GWCT advisor Ian McCall, who created a blueprint which has basically been followed ever since. I have, if you like, translated these guidelines onto the ground across the estate.

What has been the biggest change to the running of the estate since you arrived?

When the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) moved away from paying you for the crops you grew, to paying you for the hectarage of land that you manage instead. This meant that the large areas of downland on the estate now started to receive a payment, which when coupled with top-up payments from the Stewardship schemes, enabled us to manage these downland areas so much better for both the shoot and wildlife in general.

Musgrave in a minute Favourite food? Shepherd’s pie Last book you read? The Lost Child of Philomena Lee – Martin Sixsmith How do you relax? I walk the dog and also love watching rugby Favourite place? Connemara in Ireland Most inspirational person? Konrad Goess-Saurau and my first employer, Richard Lambert of Anglesey Favourite farmland bird? The lapwing

What is your number one priority in running a successful estate?

That’s straightforward. We follow an ethos of profitable farming with a care for the environment. Success brings the chance to spend on the environment and also enables you to have fun and enjoyment in running a thriving estate.

I was once told that you are only as good as yesterday and I try to live by that.

Do you think that the Marlborough Downs NIA is making a difference and if so how?

Absolutely. I think we are proving for the first time, that farmer-to-farmer collaboration, as opposed to working in isolation, can really make a huge difference when it comes to managing the environment effectively. I also think that after just a couple of years, we are all working much more closely with the local community, which is another tremendous bonus.

We have a total of 42 farmers involved with the NIA and I, along with others, are attempting to investigate a whole range of ways to keep this unique project going long after the Government sponsored three years is up.

What has it meant to win the coveted Purdey Award?

The journey has been to take a blank canvas, to have been inspired by a vision and to see it through to completion. This award acknowledges that we have largely achieved this vision and recognises the wonderful team effort.

Can you give your reasons why you think people should join the GWCT?

Yes, the GWCT has very good political contacts and the Government listens to and trusts the organisation because what it says is backed up by first rate, peerreviewed science.

Chris is speaking at our farming research conference for conservationists and policy makers in May. See page 22.

Gamewise is published three times a year and is sent to members of the Trust free of charge. The appearance of an advertisement in this or any other Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust publication does not imply the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s approval of the product or service in question. The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is a charitable company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under number 05579632, registered charity number 1112023. Registered Office: Burgate Manor, Fordingbridge, Hampshire SP6 1EF Tel: +44(0)1425 652381. Email: info@gwct.org.uk Web: www.gwct.org.uk Game & Wildlife Conservation Trading Ltd is a company limited by guarantee (registered no 1503620, VAT Reg No 323 7013 94) which carries out trading and advisory activities and some fundraising events for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust. Registered in England and Wales. Registered Office: Burgate Manor, Fordingbridge, Hampshire SP6 1EF. Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust © 2014 MPUBGCT-GmWs03/14. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission from the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust.

50 | GAMEWISE • SPRING 2014

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