SURPRISINGLY THIS is the first New Naturalist volume to focus on a family or group of related families of birds since Eric Simms’ Larks, Pipits and Wagtails published back in 1992 as No. 78. That 16-year, 28-volume drought is broken by this fascinating volume, Grouse by Adam Watson and Robert Moss.
World-wide, there are fewer than 20 grouse species, of which four occur in Britain and Ireland. Considering their relatively remote and certainly diverse habitats ranging from deep forests, through open moorland, to Scotland’s highest peaks, the family is comparatively well known to all who enjoy wild places. In addition, in plumage all save the cocks of capercaille and black grouse are supremely well camouflaged, as befits relatively large, generally terrestrial and ground-nesting birds. For much of the year they are also secretive birds, the exceptions once again being the displaying cock capercaille and lekking cock black grouse.
Perhaps this combination of remote habitats, secretive habits and camouflage gives a special cachet to any sightings of the grouse family. There is no forgetting the first encounters – be it of a strutting cock capercaille deep in a pine forest, of experiencing the sight (and sounds) of a black grouse lek on a frosty dawn, of a ptarmigan in mountain-top snow, or the heart-stopping moment when a red grouse explodes from the moorland heather beneath the walker’s feet. Beyond that, in Grouse the authors unveil a wealth of information on the day-to-day biology and ecology of all four species, set against a global background.
Two of the four British species, black grouse and capercaille, are in worrying decline and are the subject of intensive conservation research. Another, the ptarmigan, may be an early casualty of global climatic change as the weather changes in its extreme mountain-top habitat. The last, the red grouse, as a game bird is subject in varying degrees to commercial management by man. Problems including predators, pests, disease and starvation often accompany managed animal populations and the red grouse is no exception. As valued (and valuable) quarry species for shooters, occasional controversy is only to be expected because of their commercial worth.
So despite the handful of species within the group, the variety of life styles is such that there is much to discuss for the authors, who are both international authorities on the grouse family. Their friendly familiarity with and respect for their birds shine through the text, together with their obviously deeply consuming interest and encyclopaedic knowledge, and delight in their topic. Their serendipitous meeting so early in their careers and the subsequent long-lasting collaboration have produced for New Naturalist readers a volume of exceptional scholarship and quality.