Grouse counts 2026 point to recovery on English and Scottish moors

Counting grouse has now started in the north of England and Scotland. This is particularly difficult to do given the very warm weather, which not only tires the dogs very easily but also makes the grouse themselves somewhat torpid. In very hot weather, they will often be found in the cooler places, including banks which are out of the sun, on the edge of bracken beds or down by streams and other wet places. As a result, counting is taking place particularly early in the day this year, with keepers out with their dogs from 4am onwards. In years when the daytime temperature was cooler than it currently is, keepers will count in the evenings as well, usually with a different set of dogs. However, the evening temperature has been consistently high over the last week or so, so most of the counting has occurred this year in the early mornings only.

What the brood averages are showing on the moors

The key with counting is to make sure that you count the same area of ground at as close as possible to the same time of the month as the year before, with the same number of people and roughly the same number (and type) of dogs. Counts are almost always comparable, rather than mathematically formulaic. This year we are seeing a very welcome increase in the numbers of grouse counted on most moors, as compared to last year and very significantly better than the disastrous July 2024 summer counts, which were the worst possible. The key to a successful season is a combination of the number of broods, which is obviously dependent on the number of pairs of adult grouse in the spring, and then the average number of young grouse that each brood has. Very high brood numbers are nine (young with two adults), but sevens or eights are very good averages for productive and very well-keepered moors. In the Highlands, brood averages tend to be smaller and we generally look there for fives and above. This year we are experiencing brood averages on many moors in the north of England better than seven young but often as high as eights and nines, and the same in the south of Scotland. Brood averages in the Highlands are down on these numbers, but much, much better than they have been over the last few years, so there is now a genuine base on many moors for going forwards. The key is obviously to shoot them carefully and to focus completely on high-quality keepering.

Grouse season projections for the Pennines, the Peak District and the Highlands

Overall, our earlier projections seem to be coming to fruition, in terms of good to very good numbers of grouse where there was anything like a sensible spring stock, but, as is often the case, there are some exceptions. High and wet moors which suffered badly from exposure to the early June continuous rain have definitely suffered significant chick losses, and even less exposed moors have seen some reduction in brood sizes in certain areas, but we are confident that there will be good numbers of grouse on many Pennine moors, less good in the Peak District and the North York Moors, and it will not be as good on some western moors, where the heather beetle seems to have been particularly bad. The south of Scotland will in some cases have a nice lot, and hopefully Perthshire also, but the Highlands will sadly overall be rather lean. Those are our projections.

Overall, however, there is much to look forward to!