LAGOPUS LAGOPUS HIBERNICUS AHEAD...
The Irish Grouse Conservation Trust has produced driven Lagopus lagopus hibernicus for the first time in more than 60 years – and won the 2019 Purdey Awards
By 2000, the entire population of Irish grouse was estimated at less than 200 breeding pairs
In September 1958, Lord Ashtown wrote to The Field lamenting the fact that due to habitat loss and afforestation, grouse stocks on the heather moorlands of County Galway and elsewhere in Ireland were so reduced that gamekeepers were no longer employed, vermin of every kind had rapidly increased and “many of us have taken part in our last grouse drive”. This conservation disaster impacted on all moorland birdlife and was compounded when headage payment subsidies were introduced in 1975, inevitably encouraging overgrazing. By 2000, the entire population of Irish grouse (Lagopus lagopus hibernicus), a sub-species of willow grouse, was estimated at less than 200 breeding pairs and in 2003 they were red listed by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) as an endangered species.
Over a 10-year period from 1997, the owners of the sporting rights, Antrim Estates Ltd, carried out grouse counts on the 1,000acre Glenwherry Hill, a once-productive moor near Ballymena in Northern Ireland. This demonstrated conclusively that the Irish grouse population remained static at only three to four breeding pairs and other ground-nesting moorland birds – pippits, skylarks, waders – and Irish hares were either nonexistent or drastically reduced.
TRUST FORMED
This tragic situation was replicated across the uplands of Ireland and in 2007 Lord Dunluce (Antrim Estates Ltd), Peter Mackie of Lissanoure Castle, Adrian Morrow (managing director of Antrim Estates) and other like-minded associates established the Irish Grouse Conservation Trust (IGCT). Based on Glenwherry Hill with an adjacent 6,000 acres of rough moorland over which Antrim Estates own the sporting rights, their key objective was to conserve the depleted grouse population and habitat of the natural uplands in Ireland, to raise awareness and create viable, successful and attainable conservation goals benefitting a wide range of species.
The Trust, in partnership with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and Greenmount Agricultural College, which owns 3,000 acres of the project site, was keen to raise awareness by demonstrating to conservationists, upland farmers and landowners that best practice moorland management, including controlled heather burning under the
Muirburn Code, would improve overall conditions without having a detrimental effect on sphagnum moss. In order to achieve its aims, the Glenwherry Hill Regeneration Partnership (GHRP) was formed with the RSPB, DAERA and the NIEA. The aim of the GHRP is to develop, implement and promote sustainable habitat management practices over the project site and neighbouring farms. Further objectives include data collection and analysis of other upland species to assess and forecast biodiversity levels across the moor. The Trust works closely with the GWCT, BASC, the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) with whom, in conjunction with CAFRE and RSPB, the Trust launched Northern Ireland’s first Wildlife Crime Campaign, Operation Lepus, to protect the Irish hare from illegal coursing.
The IGCT, in conjunction with CAFRE, has worked closely with Professor Jim Mcadam, a leading scientist with the Agri-food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI), and over a 10-year period Professor Mcadam researched and collated evidence, including heather burning, sphagnum regeneration, rush cutting and drain blocking to encourage blanket bog, which has improved the overall moorland habitat. He further advised on the removal of forestry on the project site to regenerate land back to heather moorland and on suitable breeds of livestock that would cause minimal damage to those areas the IGCT manage specifically for hen harrier and merlin foraging. There is a high proportion of hill grasses on Glenwherry moor – there is generally a predominance of hill grasses on Irish heather moorlands, hence the lighter plumage of Irish grouse compared to their mainland cousins – and Mcadam recommended replacing sedentary Texel sheep with free-roaming Scottish Blackface, the extended feeding ranges of which reduce trampling and overgrazing.
Since 2014, keepering expertise has been provided by Alex Rodgers, who had previously keepered on grouse moors in the Peak District for Sir Philip Naylor-leyland and Jeremy Archdale, and for the Duke of Westminster on Abbeystead in Lancashire. He was attracted to the considerable challenges of the IGCT and GHRP conservation project and considers it a privilege to be involved in demonstrating that land management techniques for the grouse on Glenwherry specifically benefit a wider range of flora and fauna. The control of predation on Glenwherry is a priority; the site is an island surrounded by forestry and hooded crow, magpie and fox control is intensive, with an average of 170 foxes killed annually. IGCT also provides vermin control over an adjacent RSPB wader project site set up to test whether a combined package of predator control and habitat management can increase population densities of
It was the first time grouse had been driven in Ireland for more than 60 years
breeding waders. In 2017 and again 2018, for the first time in 20 years, a pair of endangered curlew nested among the grouse and fledged their chicks, making them the most successful breeding pair in Northern Ireland.
Breeding pairs of grouse gradually increased as the painstaking conservation efforts took effect and, in 2017, there was at last a harvestable surplus sufficient for the IGCT to hold its first driven day. An historic occasion for all those involved, not least because it was the first time grouse had been driven in Ireland for more than 60 years. The exceptionally dry summer of 2018 was a poor year for grouse and the moor was not shot, but despite some heather beetle damage the 2019 spring count of 90 breeding pairs – followed by a successful July count of 360 – encouraged the IGCT to hold another driven day on 7 September.
Guns who met in the car park at Greenmount Agricultural College at 9.15 were: Peter Mackie, chairman of the IGCT, and his guests from the mainland; Roarie Scarisbrick; Francis Mason-hornby and his son, William, who would be sharing a butt; Shane O’neill, David Mccorkell and John Cunningham, who are IGCT subscribers, plus Jonathan Crawford, Cunningham’s guest; and William Mcbarnet, guest of IGCT. Adrian Morrow had come to watch and the young were represented by Honor Mackie, Conn O’neill and Alexandra Mcbarnet. Alex Rodgers gave a safety briefing and guns moved on to the newly creosoted screen butts on Glenwherry Hill for the first drive, Shillanavogy, and were in position by 9.45.
FIRST SIGHTING
We were fortunate with the weather: bright sunshine but enough cloud cover to soften the glare and a blustery north-easterly wind. The beaters had a long pull in and it was pleasant looking across the undulating moor, with its mixture of heather and hill grasses, towards the Mull of Kintyre in the east and Glens of Antrim to the north. Meadow pippits started dancing above the moor as the beat drew closer and three Irish hares sat up and watched us before lolloping away. I was longing to see my first Irish grouse; Rodgers had told me Lagopus lagopus hibernicus were smaller and paler than scoticus, having adapted to the grassy nature of Irish moors, and more furtive but the first covey dropped in well short of butts. Then a covey of six suddenly jumped out of dead ground and whistled over the middle butts, giving Mcbarnet the chance of a shot behind. There were distant yells from the beaters as a covey tried to fly out, but
the flankers turned it over the bottom guns. A series of singles followed and two more coveys before the beaters appeared on the skyline. The safety horn blew shortly afterwards and, with a handful of shots behind, the beat came through and an exciting first drive was over.
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
Rodgers had 18 beaters in the line plus 10 flankers and would have had no shortage of applicants to help on the day. The IGCT places great emphasis on involving the wider community and has received tremendous support and enthusiasm from local farmers delighted to see wildlife returning, farming organisations, gun clubs, hawking clubs and dog trialling clubs. IGCT holds three dog trials every year and Rodgers relies on them to help with spring and summer counts. In conjunction with CAFRE, the Trust holds heather management events promoting best-practice heather burning and rush control. As Rodgers is the only moorland keeper in Ireland, his knowledge of controlling muirburn is sought
by the Northern Ireland Fire Authority. In 2015, the IGCT with CAFRE and BASC launched a Gamekeeping Course at Greenmount College, which attracts people of all ages from across Ireland. To date, more than 50 students have obtained their City & Guilds Certificate.
HARES APPEAR
Wind had moved round to true north and rising for the short second drive, Point Hill, and a stream of singles, twos and threes soon provided shooting at the top of the line. There was a pause while more hares appeared and then a good covey of nine crossed the middle of the butts at speed. A smaller covey defied the flankers to break out and then a covey of seven turned in front of butts and as they swept down the line, Scarisbrick took a left-and-right. The third drive, Creeve, a traditional reverse drive into the wind, provided plenty of sport with small coveys and single birds weaving and twisting over the butts, plus the occasional high-jinxing snipe. On this drive, William Mason-hornby shot his first Irish grouse.
Lunch was a picnic eaten looking across to Lough Neagh glinting to the south-east with the Mountains of the Mourne seen dimly in the distance, before moving on to the last drive, Brunt Hill, with the beat bringing in Jack Ray’s Flat, named after the keeper on Glenwherry who retired in 1960. This was being driven for the first time and grouse were disobliging, with several coveys defying the flankers or breaking back over the beaters, but as the beat came closer there was some shooting at the top of the line and a scatter of shots behind after the safety horn.
The sponsors and their guests were delighted. Alex Rodgers is first and foremost a grousekeeper and had every reason to be proud of showing his syndicate a highly organised and successful day. For those of us who witnessed Irish grouse being driven, it was a uniquely memorable experience. The IGCT is privately funded by a small number of members, with some money raised through charity events such as clay pigeon shoots and family days. Their achievements are an outstanding example of how grouse shooting can be the most important driving force behind upland conservation.