The grey partridge has suffered a dramatic decline over the past 30 years. The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), with funding from the British Falconers' Club (BFC), is conducting research to identify the causes of this decline and develop strategies to restore grey partridge populations. This initiative was filmed and produced by wildlife conservationist and filmmaker Fergus Beeley, as a joint project between the BFC and GWCT.

https://youtu.be/OG5y6EEz5ho?si=m8Q4nQ8M2FI5o0mv

The grey partridge was once a familiar sight across the British countryside, but its population has suffered a dramatic 94% decline since the 1980s. Listed on the UK’s Red List since its inception in 1996, the grey partridge has now virtually disappeared from Northern Ireland and most of Britain’s western coast—surviving only in places such as Anglesey—and continues to vanish from many parts of its former range. It is five to midnight for the grey partridge.

In the early 2010s, there were encouraging signs that members of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s (GWCT) Partridge Count Scheme (PCS) had helped reverse national declines. Unfortunately, this progress was short-lived.

Dr Julie Ewald, GWCT Principal Scientist for Farmland Ecology and GIS, explains: “Since the setbacks of the wet summer of 2012, numbers have remained low, with breeding densities in 2023 reaching lows last recorded twenty years previously.”

Watch the YouTube video to learn more about the GWCT’s Grey Partridge Appeal and how you can help save this iconic farmland bird.

https://youtu.be/I3lX46rB-UQ

Eleven partners from the Interreg North Sea Region (NSR) PARTRIDGE project, led by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, met in Göttingen, Germany between June 27 and 29 for their third meeting.

The International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey arranged a launch for Perdixnet in an event at the Bozar Centre for ine Arts in Brussels. The site is in 18 languages, also now linking to national sites in two languages.

Translators are being found for the site by the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey for the English version now online. Then a covey of sites will launch across Europe in winter.