22 Oct 2006 - A Partridge in the Green Manure

This partridge was spotted on our plot resting among the green manure. Usually you would expect to see partridges in groups rather than a single bird.

The photograph isn’t very clear, as I had to take it from some distance with a telephoto lens and without a tripod. 

 

The photo gives the impression of a short dumpy bird but shortly after I took the photo, the partridge stood and ran off up giving a very different impression. They tend to run away from danger in preference to flying. Being heavy birds they don’t tend to be in flight for long periods of time.

The common partridge is also known as the grey partridge. It is often found on farmland but the grassland and hedgerows around the allotment provide it with the type of habitat that a lot of modern farming has destroyed.

Nests are built under a hedge or bramble bush so in the days when the site had many neglected plots and bramble grew freely this would have provided an ideal habitat.

The grey partridge is on the RSPB red list due to a rapid decline in the breeding population over the last 25 years. Maybe we have added to this problem by clearing much of the bramble and inadvertently removing their favourite nesting places. It just proves how important it is to have some wilder areas left on the plot.

 

Click here for more information from the RSPB