Harsh winter hits conservation efforts for rare black grouse

Male black grouse numbers have almost halved since last spring in a "huge blow" to the upland birds, which were recovering before two wet summers and the latest cold winter reversed their rising fortunes.

Black grouse had increased from 773 males in 1998 to a peak of 1,200 in 2007, but cold and rainy summers in 2007 and 2008 led to poor breeding seasons, with just 730 males recorded in spring 2009.

Scientists from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust had hoped that good weather last spring had allowed the bird to bounce back with a more successful breeding season.

But the "appalling conditions" this winter, with long periods of freezing conditions and deep snow, have badly damaged the birds in their North Pennines stronghold.

According to the latest monitoring of their traditional "lekking" sites where they perform their courtship rituals, the numbers of males have almost halved to 400 this spring.

And the isolated black grouse population in north west Northumberland, which was already on the edge of extinction, now has just 15 males and could vanish altogether.

Dr Phil Warren, research scientist for the GWCT, said: "We have been running the North Pennines Black Grouse Recovery Project for the past 15 years and we had stemmed the decline and increased numbers to a peak of 1,200 in 2007.

"However the past two wet summers have badly affected the breeding success, and this has been compounded by appalling conditions this winter."

The red-listed bird has witnessed "staggering declines" over the past 150 years through habitat loss and increasingly intensive agriculture.

Where once it was found in every county in Britain, there are now just a few thousand breeding males in northern England, Wales and Scotland.

Dr Warren said: "Although this is a huge blow to all those that have been involved in black grouse recovery, it does underline the importance of conserving populations at levels which can withstand these periodic random factors such as weather."

Conservationists have been encouraging moorland managers to establish small areas of native woodland on the edge of moors to provide food when heather is covered in snow.

According to the GWCT the numbers of males declined by just 15 per cent where woodland was available.