James Walsh, also known as The Mancunian Birder, ecologist / author / journalist, is the author of “Northern Greenhouse – A New Vision of the North” and “Greater Manchester Birding City Region” Twitter: @MancunianBirder Website: mancunianbirder.wordpress.com YouTube: Mancunian Birder
Here he keeps the Red Grouse flag flying high… whilst listening to Aztec Camera on Buzz Radio Manchester…
“… the past is steeped in shame, but tomorrow’s fair game, for a life that’s fit for living… Good Morning Britain…” Aztec Camera “Good Morning Britain”
The past is steeped in shame on our moorlands, and, indeed, tomorrow is fair game… pun intentional… to build a life that’s fit for living…
I don’t need to go into too much detail about the well documented state of our moorlands, but I am here to give a view from the north on the Red Grouse, a bird that I consider to be our national bird.
In my opinion, the Red Grouse is on the same level as the Kiwi in New Zealand and the Bald Eagle in the USA. If I were to design a new flag to represent Britain I would put the Red Grouse and Hen Harrier on it! I also feel that these two species can be symbols for the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, starting in 2021.
“… in the hills and valleys and far away, you can hear the sound of democracy…”
The movement to bring greater democracy to our moorlands is growing stronger – the Skydancer campaign, the political campaign to license or ban driven Grouse shooting, and the Right to Roam campaign; the numbers of people who are no longer oblivious to the moorlands are increasing.
Our collective moral compass should be indicating right and indicating wrong in regards to these situations. There is something about driven Grouse shooting that shows how men (and it is predominantly men) are – or certainly were, as it is a relic, a hangover from a by-gone era.
The Red Grouse is a bird and an issue that everyone in the conservation movement can coalesce around, whether you are an orchid girl or a badger boy! But we need more than a law, we need culture change.
The moors are making positive headlines in the media – nature finds a way and it is no real coincidence that the Peak District is the host area for the big ornithological event of the year, the wondrous Bearded Vulture.
“… in this green and pleasant land, I’ll make my home, I’ll make my stand…”
My proposal is that sometime in the Springtime there is an annual Red Grouse Celebration Day.
I completely understand the love affair that the British people have with the Robin, however, somewhere in my heart there is a place that says that the Red Grouse just IS the bird that best represents the British Isles, especially when flicking through my bird book library looking at other countries’ endemic species and national birds. That the Red Grouse is the symbol of British Birds magazine says plenty and as Roy Dennis recently suggested, the bigger picture puts taxonomic complexities to one side, it’s a bird that unites the isles.
I believe that an outward-looking, progressive Britain fit for the 21st century celebrates the Red Grouse as an endemic bird and a representative of stunning habitats. It’s a radical idea in the current context, but when you think about it, it isn’t really that radical!
For many years the word “Grouse” has meant great in Australia, and it is time that we started to have the same optimism and positivity surrounding the word in the British Isles! We need to raise our game!
There is a realisation that we can do things differently in the valleys and on the hills, that there is the possibility of economic reform on the moorlands.
As Angela Rayner said in her recent conversation with Chris Packham “Red Grouse and Hen Harriers are OUR Lions and Tigers”.
The moorlands are our Kruger National Park, and we need to learn from Africa about culture change, and how “The Big Five”, symbols for the shooting fraternity, became symbols of the Eco-Tourism industry, as tourists started to swap guns for cameras.
It’s time to dream a sweet dream, but I don’t think it is just living in dreamland to believe that real change can come to our moorlands and we can reach the real, true sunlit uplands.
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This is completely bonkers but just possibly a great idea.
Lean a bit towards Alan Cranston’s view I’m afraid, but why not have a Red Grouse Celebration Day that doesn’t celebrate mass slaughter but the positive aspects instead. Hold it somewhere that Red Grouse and raptors (particularly Hen Harriers) co-exist happily and where has been no linked incidents of wildlife crime.
I do ponder how we get economic reform on the upland moorlands when too many of the estate owners are absentees who purchased for investment or sporting interest, that’s not to say it’s not possible but would need to be a bit radical and I struggle to see any politicians upsetting such powerful interests ….
We carry on regardless, the momentum builds, we have nothing to lose but nature has a lot to gain 🙂
Red Grouse are fast declining on some marginal parts of their range, and are in real danger of disappearing from certain sites altogether.
It is no exaggeration to say that an opportunistic Fox, or indeed Raptor, could be the tipping point.
Climate may be involved, but reductions in, what was often only quite low intensity management, including sheep grazing, have intensified the decline, and red grouse must now be at historically low levels, with no real prospects for improvement.