Black grouse leks in the Forest of Clunie, 2002-2011

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Description

The Forest of Clunie is made up of five moorland areas in north-east Perthshire, and is designated SPA and SSSI for its variety of upland breeding birds. It is nationally important for black grouse. SNH operate a moorland habitat management grant scheme in the area. All farms and estates within the SSSI are included, in addition to those with suitable habitat, outwith but adjacent to the SSSI. This dataset contains records of lekking males from within the management area. There is some overlap between records in this dataset, and records collected by the Perthshire Black Grouse Study Group (GA000760). The Forest of Clunie surveys were funded by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

Geographic Description

Forest of Clunie SPA. Data were collected at 100m resolution

Data quality

These data have been gathered by trained field-workers and the data are of a high quality. These data have been mapped and checked for sensitivities and typographical/geographical errors

Methods

All suitable habitat within the study area was searched for evidence of lekking black grouse during the breeding season. Two visits were made between late March and mid-May, and the maximum number of lekking back grouse recorded. Each lek site has a 6-figure grid reference, and all males displaying within a 200m radius were recorded as one lek. Single males displaying within 500m of a lek were recorded as part of that lek. Two or more males displaying over 200m from a lek were recorded as a separate lek. Visits were made in calm conditions.

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There is some overlap between records in this dataset, and records collected by the Perthshire Black Grouse Study Group. These are flagged in the dataset.

Citation

Please acknowledge the RSPB and SNH in any use of the data.

Rights

CC-BY

Digitised records