2023

I recently read Jeff Knott’s blog on the RSPB website – “There’s something very special about the uplands” – and I couldn’t agree more with the title. But on reading the rest of the blog, I felt obliged to respond. Not to reinforce the ‘contested landscape’ notion but to ask for a bit more tolerance. Just because you might not agree with someone’s viewpoint it doesn’t mean they are wrong, and you are right.

The late May bank holiday is never much of a holiday for our Scottish uplands research team. This date often marks the start of our grouse chick-catching period. There is a window of just a few weeks to get around all the study areas to record the tick burdens – before the chicks are large enough to fly away from us.

We have used trail cameras to provide a unique insight into the nesting behaviour of this elusive and secretive bird, which nests on heather moorland in northern England.