Wild greys need the ‘three-legged stool’

Writing in a September heatwave, it is easy to forget that it has been a funny old spring and summer. It started with a frosty April, followed by a cold, wet May. Then things began to look up, with a warm, sunny start to June, only to break down again with some seriously wet weather around peak partridge hatch time at the end of the month.

There is a school of thought that says grey partridges cannot take rain and that the chicks will all expire if they have to face anything much more than a light shower. That clearly isn’t true. It’s fair to say that, in my part of the world, it