Reposted by Marcus Lawson
The Eastern Bonelli’s Warbler at Gibraltar Point showed well on & off all afternoon yesterday, but was frustratingly silent throughout, often alongside a YBW and several Chiffchaffs. It was astonishing how its subtle colour tones became increasingly pale and grey as the afternoon wore on. #UKBIrding
![Page 43 from my book ‘The Lie of the Land’. Text reads:
“…spread disease to grouse. And it's certainly true that misguided government grants for hill farm drainage were doled out between the 1950s and 1980s.
But grouse moor owners were draining their moors for many decades before this, for the express purpose of improving conditions for grouse. As the historian Tom Williamson notes, 'drains were often dug into the wetter areas, in order to encourage the growth of heather at the expense of purple moor-grass, cotton grass and bog-moss, something which deprived birds such as snipe and redshank of suitable nesting areas. In his history of the Peak District moors, David Hey describes a nineteenth-century drain called the Black Dyke, which 'the Duke of Devonshire ordered to be cut across the moor for 1½ miles between two cloughs.’
Indeed, moorland drainage was repeatedly recommended to grouse moor owners, from the Edwardian period through to the 1950s. As the editor of The Field, a shooting magazine, advised readers in 1904: "There can be little doubt that where surface drainage is properly carried out on a grouse moor, not only the sheep but also the grouse are thereby benefited... As regards grouse, excess of moisture impoverishes the heather, and makes it unhealthy for the birds to feed upon.“ That same year, an article in Country Life on "The Management of Grouse Moors' instructed its audience: "in order to be the happy possessor or lessee of a really satisfactory grouse moor, the following axioms are essential, viz... careful and systematic heather-burning...
Vermin mercilessly destroyed... [and] drainage operations carried out with an eye to the welfare of the grouse, as well as the sheep. The conclusions of Parliament's inquiry into grouse disease in 1912 also stated: "it can be urged with confidence that a well-drained moor is less liable to dangerous infection... than a moor with stagnant pools...” - continued on next image alt text](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:br3kmdgzf5pnbfdnd57jfo6g/bafkreiazxoin727f2ihganjyjhezhf2paryejsf3hc5waa6g75y6g5uvce)
