The tragic ballad of Earl Grey

A male grey partridge, a sadly missed species across much of its former range, in Britain's agricultural landscape. Unfortunately he did not want to leave the safety of the field margin for a better photo, with his mate.   

One of the most iconic farmland sounds at this time of year must be the grating "SkIERRRRek" call resonating from hedge bases and grassy field margins. A sound not too dissimilar from a badly maintained gate, creaking on a windy day; and sadly a sound which is all so often missing within our lowland agricultural landscape. This is of course the call of the grey partridge, the earl of the farm. Like many of our farmland birds grey partridges have struggled to adapt to agricultural intensification and although they are still relatively widespread in the region, they have declined considerably. Grey partridges are one of few members of our avifauna which evolved to exist in open, dry, grassy steppe habitats. This species is often more highly prized by shooters than its foreign relatives the red-legged partridge and pheasant. However hunting pressure is perhaps not the key cause of decline.

Pheasants are an overlooked strain on much of our native wildlife. Damage to vegetation, butterfly and reptile colonies is perhaps overlooked in comparison to the damage caused by other none natives. 

By the start of the 1st world war Britain's partridges were booming, cereal production was high, the promotion of land enclosure since the seventeenth century was around its peak and predator persecution and egg collecting was rife. This created large amounts of habitat with reduced predators. However the high population densities (c.1 million pairs pre WW1) woke up to a new and devastating world during the 1950's, when population levels began to crash, with a decline in numbers lasting to this very day. Population densities are now typically low and scattered meaning local extinctions are commonplace.  

The magpie, a firm favourite with the gamekeeping fraternity (or perhaps not). This opportunist corvid readily raids nests, but certainly not to the detriment of song birds. Magpies and similar predators are not the core reason for the grey partridges population decline.   

Grey partridge pairs are typically formed by early February after spending the autumn and early winter in coveys. Foraging through the winter on spilt grains and seeds from broadleaved plants, most notably species like redshank (NOT THE BIRD), pale persicaria, sorrels, docks. Breeding starts in earnest from late April to around September, where a shallow nest scrape is typically made in field margins, concealed in dense cover at the base of a bank or hedge. The importance of invertebrate prey for chicks leading to high recruitment is paramount to the productivity of populations. The increased use of herbicide has lead to a reduction of broadleaved weeds, which are the diet of many caterpillars and sawfly larvae on which the hungry chick depend (and winter seeds for adults), as well as the obvious additional impact of insecticides on this prey source. Further to this, a reduction of field boundaries suitable for nesting, foraging and predator avoidance put further pressure on the population. Undoubtedly competition with pheasants and red-legged partridge has not helped the grey partridges cause. The three species occupy slightly different ecological niches but compete for similar food and the two invasives are suggested to be reservoirs of parasites and diseases which pass between the species. An additional by-product of releasing gamebirds and their associated husbandry is often an increase in predators especially rats, mink, crows, magpies, stoats and red foxes which quickly home in on easy food sources. This increase albeit on a local scale spills over to other species like grey partridge. However predation has not caused the decline and is at most an infrequent local problem. 

A distant barn owl. This species becomes increasingly diurnal towards late winter and early spring as small mammal populations begin to reach an annual low. A peak in diurnal activity is also seen in summer when feeding young.  

The above was perhaps a more interesting way of saying I ticked off my first grey partridges of the year. Surprisingly late, but in my defence I have spent most of the year looking under logs harassing creepy crawlies. The low-lying agricultural landscape close to home also produced this distant barn owl today, which sat preening unwilling to come closer for a better photo. Some better barn owl photos are on the to do list.  

Discus snails Discus rotundatus a widespread algae and fungus feeder frequently found beneath rotten logs. 

The Y.E.T.I challenge is principally concerned with recording species, but it certainly does not hurt to apply a bit of phenology to the cause. Both winter aconite and snow drop are in flower across the region and daffodils are starting to sprout, it's a wonder all of the bulbs have not rotted with all this wet weather over the past 6 months or so. I need to add some plant photos so when the latest deluge of snow melts I will snap a few. I am also keeping a regular check on the local brown hares to watch for boxing, which shouldn't be long now. Mating started early in 2012 with hares boxing well before the tradition mad march period.    

 The local brown hares are certainly acting rather antisocial but have not resorted to boxing just yet. 

Araneus diadematus a species which we will hopefully get some better shots of later in the summer, when the impressive plump females should be out in all of their glory. 

                      

Lasius niger active in the warm winter sunshine, on the edge of a broken heavily decayed log. Interestingly on closer inspection many of these had phoretic mites attached. 

Not all farmland birds have fared so badly with the onset of agricultural intensification. Rooks are opportunists like our other corvids and have adapted well to changes. 

Grey Phalarope a brief visitor to Filey (and Flamborough) at the end of last week, was another recent addition to the bird list. We had excellent views (along with Iceland Gull) on a recent enjoyable and highly recommended Yorkshire Coast Nature field trip. 

  

A female (or young) otter certainly seems to be active along the River at the moment, with plenty of footprints in the silt and a small number of spraints (again suggestive of female).