Partridges: Countryside Barometer

I know no one as interested in partridges, or as interesting on them, as Dick Potts. The author is a world authority on partridge species, particularly Grey Partridge.

A thorough understanding of one species usually leads to an understanding of its relationship with other species as food, predators, competitors and parasites. You get all that in this book, as well as a real understanding of how changes in the artificial habitat of arable farmland have affected partridges.

Dick has studied partridges, and worked with people who shoot them, for decades. Many of the experiences and studies that he cites come from large shooting estates, which have done a good job for Grey Partridge, and where management for partridges has benefited wider biodiversity. There is no doubt that the best end of the shooting industry can deliver an awful lot for wildlife in our countryside, and this book provides a useful reminder of that.

The description of the great success in restoring partridge numbers on the Norfolk Estate on the Sussex South Downs should be read by everyone. It’s a good example, as the author writes, of a partnership between a private landowner with an interest in shooting and the rest of us through our contribution of publicly funded wildlife-friendly farming grants.

A good example, then, but not one which might be very easily replicated as it involved cessation of shooting for several years, stopping the release of Red-legged Partridges and Pheasants to concentrate on Grey Partridges, changes in field sizes and alteration of cropping patterns, and all on a large estate with land that was pretty much perfect for Grey Partridge.

If you are a small farmer on heavy land and aren’t interested in shooting, or can’t possibly afford a gamekeeper, then you may fail to get your partridge numbers up under current agricultural conditions. That was the experience of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust at Loddington, although the author says little about that, and nothing about the RSPB’s modest success at restoring Grey Partridge numbers at Hope Farm, Cambridgeshire, without any predator control.

Dick Potts writes that in the absence of eagles, Eagle Owl, Eurasian Lynx and Wolf, we have high numbers of medium-sized predators such as Sparrowhawks and Red Foxes. Are gamekeepers merely acting as eagles and wolves when they cull foxes? Maybe landowners should have been more welcoming to White-tailed Eagles in Suffolk as they would reduce Marsh Harrier activity. And if grouse moors tolerated Golden Eagles, then perhaps they wouldn’t need to worry about Hen Harriers.

Partridges is a stimulating read from an expert in his (arable) field. The last three sentences of this book should be read by conservationists, shooters and all in the agriculture industry, and by you (but start at the beginning).

•  Partridges by G R Potts (Collins New Naturalist, London, 2012)

•  480 pages, 271 photos, illustrations and maps, and tables

•  ISBN 9780007418701. Pbk, £30. Birdwatch Bookshop from £21.99