2015

Francis looks at what's involved in releasing pheasants successfully at Rotherfield.

Last week the South Downs National Park volunteers, co-ordinated by Rob Nichols, came along for a day to help with some urgently needed habitat management. A massive thank you to everyone who was involved!

Last Friday we were fortunate to stumble across our second grey partridge brood at Rotherfield this season.

Owing to the presence of several large blocks of diverse woodland at Rotherfield Park and, probably also, the fact that minimum tillage is employed with most of the crops, the estate supports large numbers of woodcock in winter.

Being a gamebird conservationist, I am often asked whether I hate raptors. No, is my decisive answer. They are fascinating creatures, truly amazing in their abilities to hunt down prey and certainly one of the true wonders of evolution.

We are very pleased to report our first brood of grey partridge this season and cautiously take this as an early good omen for the other 28 pairs that we counted in the spring!

This morning – while sipping on my Italian cappuccino - I was greeted by ‘my’ grey partridge pair just outside my kitchen window.

Sitting on my garden bench at the back of my cottage garden on the Rotherfield estate in Hampshire fills me with great satisfaction and joy as I spend a relaxing half an hour after having returned from an office bound day’s work.

Welcome to our new blog, which is all about our exciting wild game restoration project at Rotherfield in Hampshire. We are working with the owners who are passionate about farming and wildlife and share our ambitious aims: to bring back a viable population of grey partridges to an area where they had gone extinct.