Country & Garden: Where eagles fear to tread

Country Matters

On many a grouse moor in Scotland and northern England, the Glorious Twelfth came and went this year without a shot being fired. Numerous owners cancelled early shooting days because the birds were either too few or too late-maturing.

And there is one famous moor on which - it is already certain - not a single grouse will be shot in 1999, and that is Langholm, in Dumfries- shire. For the last nine months this property of the Duke of Buccleuch has been the focus of acrimonious debate between shooting men and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

In 1992 the Duke offered the 12,000-acre moor as the site for a study designed to settle the key question: do birds of prey such as hen harriers and peregrine falcons make serious inroads into grouse stocks? Under the auspices of Scottish Natural Heritage, the Government's advisory body, researchers from the Game Conservancy Trust and the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology monitored the estate as its five gamekeepers went about their normal business, burning heather to bring on fresh growth, and culling foxes and crows, but leaving protected hawks strictly alone. One of the bodies funding the research was the RSPB, which naturally took a close interest.

The study proved beyond doubt what the keepers had been saying all along: that raptors are deadly on grouse. In five years the number of resident breeding female hen harriers rose from two to 14; that of peregrines doubled, from three to six. The seasonal bag of grouse declined from 4,000 to 100, and instead of earning enough income to pay for its management, the moor became unviable. On other moors nearby, bags remained much as usual.

The findings of the study were extremely unpalatable to the bird men, who champion the total protection of birds of prey. Publication of the Langholm report was repeatedly delayed as conservationists haggled over details of the text, and the RSPB did nothing for its reputation by issuing other, alarmist reports about the general decline of raptors that were clearly designed to pre-judge the issue. When the report appeared in November, it pinned the blame on hen harriers, which had killed 30 per cent of breeding grouse every spring, 37 per cent of chicks each summer and 30 per cent of surviving birds each autumn. What was to be done?

Everyone concerned agreed that, in the present climate of opinion, licensed culling of raptors is not an option; but, faced with unassailable evidence, the Game Conservancy produced a plan whereby hen harrier eggs would be taken from some nests under licence, the chicks reared artificially, and grown birds released on other moors where (in theory) they could live on their other staple foods, principally meadow pipits and voles. According to Dr Dick Potts, the Conservancy's director, the aim was threefold: to increase the overall number of hen harriers, to relieve the pressure on Langholm and make it a viable shooting moor again, and to reassure gamekeepers that harriers and grouse can co-exist. The RSPB, however, declined to endorse any such scheme, and their continued silence has exasperated the other parties involved.

"The more I think about it, the more I think we were right," Dr Potts now says. "But the RSPB just can't face up to the problem. They're prepared to sacrifice everything on the altar of political correctness." Two weeks ago he demanded of Graham Wynne, chief executive of the RSPB, "How can you just dismiss this scheme?" - and got no straight answer.

Another suggested innovation, which has been put into practice, was experimental "buffer feeding". For two summers now, the hen harriers at Langholm have been pampered with supplies of white rats and day-old chicks, delivered to their nest sites daily. In 1998 alone nearly 500lb of food was put out, and the birds soon learnt to snatch the offerings off fence-posts. The cost of the food was minimal, but the expense of distributing it ran into thousands of pounds: even on a quad bike, it took a man seven hours to get round 10 nest sites. Simon Thirgood, head of raptor research at the Game Conservancy, and leader of the Langholm study, says that though artificial feeding may help save some grouse, it cannot be viable in the long term.

In general, there is a feeling that the Langholm inquiry has been wasted. In the words of Gareth Lewis, factor (agent) for the estate, "the point of the study was that it brought together people who won't normally speak to each other... But the intransigence of the RSPB has been one of the great disappointments."

Meanwhile, the moor is dying. Some fox control is being carried out, and some heather-burning is being done in the hope that one day things may return to normal. But already the golden plover and wheatears have disappeared. Grouse are at a low ebb. The number of passerines such as meadow pipits and skylarks has fallen drastically; Brian Mitchell, the former head keeper, calculated that in 1997 harriers killed about 20,000 of them. Of the five gamekeepers who used to work there, one has died, one has retired early, two have been redeployed, and one has gone to another estate. This year, for the first time in living memory, a female hen harrier was taken off her nest by a fox, and several other nests have been similarly raided.

Even the RSPB agrees that management for shooting is the best regime for the uplands; regular burning promotes good heather, keeps bracken and coarse grasses at bay, prevents invasion by trees and provides a perfect habitat for many birds besides grouse. Also, as Mr Lewis points out, shooting brings much-needed money into remote areas. It is not just that rich marksmen pay up to pounds 100 a brace to shoot, thereby providing the wages of keepers and beaters. They also stay in local hotels and their wives spend freely in nearby shops.

No wonder owners everywhere are waiting angrily for a move that will break the impasse. But at least there is one story going round that shows people still have a sense of humour. A gamekeeper is being prosecuted for shooting a peregrine falcon and eating the bird, to destroy the evidence.

Magistrate: "What was it like, then?"

Keeper: "Well, sir - delicious. I'd say the flavour was very like hen harrier, but the texture was more that of golden eagle."