Bumper grouse season hopes blasted by wet weather

THE wettest summer on record has claimed another victim – the Glorious Twelfth. Estates in Scotland are cancelling bookings to shoot grouse because the prolonged bout of cold, wet weather has killed off large numbers of young birds.

Next Sunday, August 12, is the traditional opening day of the grouse-shooting season, which is worth £30 million a year to the Scottish economy and supports hundreds of
rural jobs.

But experts are predicting that the early part of the
season could be disastrous
because of a shortage of birds in an area stretching from the Angus glens to the Cairngorms and the Highlands.

Robert Rattray, of CDK Galbraith, the UK’s biggest sporting agency with dozens of estates on their books, said:“May, June and July are the most important months for grouse breeding, but the weather in some areas has been terrible. You are going to have winners and losers and some will have to take it on the chin.

“Angus and Perthshire have been the hardest hit. Estates to the west of the A9 in the north of Scotland will also be struggling, as will those in Speyside.

“Estates are currently in the process of doing their final counts, but many are not expecting good results. It is
going to be pretty patchy.

“Some, in the drier areas, such as around Aviemore and Grantown, will be better and will still have grouse, but 
others are desperately readjusting their programmes. It means they will be cancelling bookings which are worth a lot to these estates.”

Some estates stand to lose considerable amounts, with the value of a day’s shooting worth up to £15,000, Rattray added.

Scotland is one of the few countries where red grouse can be legally shot, which attracts a worldwide clientele, particularly from the Far East, America and continental Europe.

Richard Cooke, the factor of the Dalhousie Estates, near Brechin in Angus, said: “The picture is not as good as we would have hoped because of the weather conditions earlier in the year.

“Shooting is likely to be restricted, particularly in the early weeks of the season. Grouse do not like to bring their chicks up in the rain and in June, when they exist almost exclusively on insect protein, the insects weren’t there.

“If the first broods are lost then there will be second broods, but they will be fewer in number and not as well 
developed as they should be. That’s why shooting might be better as the season progresses. Last year was pretty good and we expected another top of the cycle year this year, but that’s not going to happen now.”

The gamekeepers who look after the grouse moors are also predicting a poor start to the season. Alex Hogg, the chairman of the Scottish Gamekeeper’s Association, said: “Our information is that the season won’t be as good as last year. The Borders might be OK, but the worst impact will be in Angus and the Highlands. There was a lot of snow in Inverness-shire at the back end of May and it did a lot of harm. The cold and wet can kill off the chicks and there was a shortage of insects for them to feed on.”

Dr Adam Smith, the Scottish director of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, which monitors the health of Scotland’s moorlands, said: “For some moors which dodged the worst of the weather when their chicks hatched the season looks like it will be a good one. Unfortunately for others it is hard to say at this stage what prospects there are.

“Many of the chicks hatched very early following the extremely warm spring weather and were then clobbered by spring snow and summer
deluges.

“These moors are already
re-assessing their shooting programmes so that Scotland’s grouse population goes into the winter and next spring in good shape.”