How to indentify the 4 UK Grouse-species :
Wildlife Extra News - How to tell the four species of UK grouse
Wildlife Extra News - How to tell the four species of UK grouse
UK grouse indentification
- Thread starter vogelcommando
- Start date
IanRRobinson
Well-Known Member
I suspect fowl play.....
Any good Field Guide will do the trick too...
I've seen all four species in Scotland but I don't think all of them on any single visit.
Ptarmigan and Red Grouse are easy. Black Grouse used to be easy but not so anymore. Caper is the hardest, they can be very reclusive and difficult to find.
I've seen all four species in Scotland but I don't think all of them on any single visit.
Ptarmigan and Red Grouse are easy. Black Grouse used to be easy but not so anymore. Caper is the hardest, they can be very reclusive and difficult to find.
I wonder if anyone has eaten all four and can distinguish them by taste? I'm sure one or two carnivorous lairds did it in the past, but I'm not suggesting that anyone tries today.
Alan
Alan
UK grouse....
I know Capercaillie are supposed to taste of turpentine. I be
I've Red Grouse are still rushed to the top London hotels when shooting starts on 12th August, so presumably they are at least palatable. Blackgame & Ptarmigan are probably similar if you can get them.
I know Capercaillie are supposed to taste of turpentine. I be
I've Red Grouse are still rushed to the top London hotels when shooting starts on 12th August, so presumably they are at least palatable. Blackgame & Ptarmigan are probably similar if you can get them.
Any good Field Guide will do the trick too...
I've seen all four species in Scotland but I don't think all of them on any single visit.
Ptarmigan and Red Grouse are easy. Black Grouse used to be easy but not so anymore. Caper is the hardest, they can be very reclusive and difficult to find.
Best I have managed is three in the same visit - the missing one being Ptarmigan. That said, I have seen said species quite often so I cannot complain too badly.
The moorlands around Hel's house in Northumberland have quite a lot of both Red and Black Grouse, so as you would imagine I see those species a *lot*.
My first visit I saw three- Black being the missing one.
In fact I only remember seeing Black once, a big group at the Lek in Speyside. Brilliant.
I have seen Capers only twice, with about forty years in between. The first time a hen with chicks. the second time three cock birds(+ briefly hens) at three seperate locations, during a visit specifically aimed at finding them- I chose mid April when they display. Since the numbers crashed they are much harder to find and can be pretty inconspicuous too.
Indeed - I've seen wild Caper just the once, in 1999 or 2000 (honestly cannot remember which!) when on holiday with my family. Not sure where it was, but have a feeling it may have been the Glenmore Forest Park.
Despite many trips into the Highlands before and since, I have never seen the species again other than in captivity. I fear I may never do so.
April is really the best time to see males but I wouldn't go looking for them again as I think you can disturb them if they are lecking. One of the males I saw was through a telescope, feeding in a Pine tree at Loch Garten (so he wasn't disturbed), another was in woods behind a golf course very early in the morning. The third was quite different-I was tipped off by a 'ghillie' where he was, and he was one of those 'rogue' males, completely unafraid of people. I spent an amazing hour or so watching him display in his 'arena' though no hens were present. He would attack you if you entered it but I gradually came to realise you were safe just outside his invisible boundary. Apart from making the 'popping cork' noise, every so often he'd leap into the air beating his wings and crowing. Amazing experience. This bird was a local celebrity.
I've only seen Ptarmigan about three times- on Cairngorm about twice and at Appledore on the West Coast once. I don't think I've seen Blackcock since the 1970's.