The recently formed Fife branch of the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) is to hold a shoot walk at Edward Baxter’s Gilston Estate near Leven on the morning of Saturday March 15.
Fifteen years ago Gilston Estate was the runner-up in the inaugural Purdey award and winner of a £2,500 prize for its work in restoring numbers of grey partridges.
“The work continues. This visit will be an opportunity for people to see how we are trying to balance wildlife and modern farming” said Mr Baxter, a noted conservationist.
“At the time of the Purdey award we were at the threshold of a revival in partridges, and since then results have been very mixed.”
Gilston is a Leaf demonstration farm, and in order to support the partridges and game has about 1% planted game cover and 4% of the farm’s eligible area in grass margins or buffer strips.
Additionally in any year there are about 10km of ‘wild headlands’ which are insect-rich habitat within cereal crops.
These areas are harvested and amount to a further 3% of the eligible area.
A recent development has been the establishment of 1.7km of new double hedges and refurbishment of a further 1km in the best partridge areas.
They are designed to form umbrella cover to protect vulnerable partridges from buzzard and hawks, and Edward has high hopes that they will start to show a benefit over the next few years.
“Sparrowhawks and buzzards are a real problem for partridges,” said Edward.”
In the wet summer of 2012 at the GWCT study site in mid-Lothian 12 out of 13 radio-tracked hens were killed or eaten by a raptor between March and July that year.
“By planting hedges with a 2m gap between rows we hope they can have somewhere to hide.”
Places on the walk are limited. Email mail@benedictlawson.co.uk.