Balgonie Estate succe

Balgonie Estate in Fife is the prime PARTRIDGE demonstration site in Scotland. The PARTRIDGE project, funded by the EU’s North Sea Region Interreg programme, aims to show how farmland biodiversity can be supported alongside productive agriculture by a variety of measures designed originally to benefit the grey partridge but which are relevant for the improvement of agri-environment scheme support for farmers more generally. Grey partridge counts in 2022 at Balgonie have underlined just what an amazing success story this has been.

The Trust began working with the farm team at Balgonie (Kingdom Farming), and alongside Kings Crops and Scottish Agronomy, in 2014 with the aim of increasing populations of grey partridge and other wildlife through targeted management interventions, primarily in the form of novel habitats. We did this by working to provide safe nesting cover, insect-food for chicks, winter food (mostly a variety of seeds and other vegetation) and winter cover (protection from predators). A key part of any wildlife-management project is adaptive management and assessing progress so if it’s not working then adjustments to the approach should be made. Every year we assess grey partridge numbers on the farm.

In spring, we survey as many fields as possible counting pairs and then in autumn we record coveys (family groups, plus the odd straggler) seen in stubble fields. This provides an estimate of the breeding population (pairs) and breeding success (from the ratio of young and old birds in the coveys). If we’re doing a good job, we should see the number of pairs increase over time along with the ratio of chicks to adults, which in turn should lead to more birds in the autumn.

We are seeing some good results. Spring pairs increased by 40 per cent over the period, and 33 per cent since PARTRIDGE began, and the autumn total by 260 per cent since 2014. Compared to data from our Partridge Count Scheme pair density at Balgonie is more than double the average for Scotland and the autumn density is approaching three times the average. However, whilst the population trend over time is clearly positive at Balgonie, we know that grey partridge continue to decline nationally, with breeding populations falling by 92 per cent since the late 1960s in the UK and by around 19 per cent during approximately the same period as this project, according to data from the British Trust for Ornithology.

Fiona Torrance, Farmland Biodiversity Advisor, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust

The results from Balgonie are extremely encouraging and strongly suggest that the local grey partridge population has increased in response to the conservation measures implemented on site. All the habitat management work on site was supported by the Interreg programme and Balgonie Estates and should be a source of inspiration for other farmers because it shows what can be achieved with careful planning, diligent execution and appropriate financial support through agri-environment schemes. Our project at Balgonie continues and we will keep policy makers, practitioners and the public updated with the results.

Fiona Torrance, Farmland Biodiversity Advisor, Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust