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GROUSE
Every year, in the month of July, gamekeepers and sportsmen with their specially trained dogs start an annual ritual on the open Moorland of the Scottish high ground - the annual grouse count.
On the results of this will depend whether a large section of rural Scotland will enjoy substantial gains in its local economy in August and September, because after this count, telephones will be ringing throughout the world, confirming or cancelling dates which have been in shooting diaries since the previous season and which have been keenly anticipated.
All over the world may sound a little over-dramatic, that is no more than the truth. Scotland boasts one of the world's most sought-after sporting experiences - driven grouse shooting.
It is unlike any other form of sporting shooting, and provides a fusion of breathtakingly beautiful natural surroundings with the thrill of fast-moving wild birds which vary their speed and direction with the contours of the hill beneath them.
Added to the difficulty of the target itself is the need for concealment until the very last second before taking aim. The Gun who is able to take two birds ahead of the line of butts can be counted a very competent shot indeed.
Butts are placed so that they are hidden from the line of flight as far as possible, which usually means that birds appear suddenly in a group about fifty yards ahead, coming over a rise in the ground and flying very fast.
Why should these birds be shot at all? The answer is the same as it always has been when the question is about predation by man - to harvest nature and to provide food. Although many people never eat grouse, there are very few sportsmen or women who do not count them a delicacy, and the annual provision of grouse on the tables of our better hotels and restaurants in the months of August and September shows that they are right. This harvest is no different from that from the sea or farm which provides the basis of our daily diet, whether meat, fish or vegetable.
In fact it is nature's way that every year, most wild creatures produce more young than can survive over the bleak winter months, and this harvestable surplus becomes the building blocks in the natural food chain, with mankind at its head.
Being the most intelligent predator of all, man carefully monitors and plans the taking of his annual harvest of grouse, which is why the moors receive the attention of gamekeeper and dog in July.
Perhaps not so widely known is that those same moorlands are carefully managed the whole year round, with carefully planned and controlled winter burning of the old heather in small patches to produce tender young shoots and ensure a wide variety of natural habitats which benefit all species which live and breed on our uplands.
Countless thousands of man-hours are expended each year on this heather regeneration, and also on the legal controlling of predators which would reduce the success of grouse survival, and this also benefits all of those other species which live in harmony with the grouse.
Scotland is a world class destination for sporting visitors, and we must ensure that our red grouse, the most emotive symbol of Scotland, thrives. We need to constantly fight to ensure that the importance of man's huge and environmentally sound land management efforts for this species and its economic importance to our rural areas are fully recognised.
At the same time, we need to publicise to conservationists throughout the world that the welfare of all other moorland bird species such as curlew, pipit, ring ouzel and wheatear, which show a huge decline if moorland is not managed for grouse shooting, is largely dependent on grouse moor management.
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