Gaudy, proud and so painfully vulnerable

Spring is a time of extreme excitement in the hills. After months of silence, life begins again. Curlew return to pick up their territories and snipe emerge from the rushes to drum and squeal in the warming days. On well-managed moorland, life becomes a circus of sound and colour, but only one bird can claim the role of ringmaster.

Blackgrouse are some of the most beautiful and extraordinary birds in Britain. Gaudy, proud and painfully vulnerable to the pressures of the modern world, they seem like something from Arthurian legend. There was a time when blackgrouse could be found in every county from Cornwall to Caithness. The sound of them displaying in the springtime could be heard within short walking distance of Westminster and the sight of male birds with their tails fanned was so common that it often went without