These charismatic birds once danced across the moors of the Peak District but today are missing from our uplands. In this story of restoration, reintroduction and determination, Dave Savage, our Landscape Recovery Manager, shares how a dawn trip to a Welsh moor, a bacon cob, and the wisdom of “Gordon Grouse” have inspired a bold new chapter in Derbyshire’s nature recovery journey.

One of the amazing things about working for Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, and one of the reasons I’ve stayed for nearly 20 years, is the relentless energy and optimism of our team. Even in the face of decades of wildlife loss across Derbyshire, there’s a shared determination to try new approaches and never give up on nature.

That spirit recently took me and three colleagues to a moor in Wales at 5am on a crisp May morning. Our goal? To see a black grouse in the wild, a species lost from Derbyshire’s uplands and one we’re determined to bring back. Armed with a map dotted with cryptic coordinates and the encouragement of a man whose email address began “gordongrouse@…”, we set off in hope, with a name like that he must know his stuff!

We didn’t have to look far. As we slowed near the site, a friendly face leaned out of a car window and whispered, “They’re right there.” And sure enough, just metres from the roadside, around ten black grouse were lekking which is the males engaged in a captivating dance of dominance, vying for the attention of invisible, perhaps unimpressed, females. The confident birds in the centre strutted with red wattles blazing, while the more tentative newcomers circled nervously at the edges. The sound was incredible: low croaking interspersed with harsh, sneeze-like calls — an unforgettable wild chorus.

After soaking in the experience, capturing a photo on my phone (and envying the enormous camera lenses nearby), we travelled to meet Gordon, a seasoned black grouse breeder who’s spent decades perfecting the art of reintroduction. He welcomed us with a cup of tea and a bacon cob and led us to his garden. He has about 20 large aviaries containing a variety of birds. He and his wife Christine care for a range of rare birds, including black grouse and capercaillies, an incredibly rare bird found in Scotland which Gordon is breeding them for a reintroduction program. We learned about the challenges of captive breeding, like weak crops in young birds, and how Gordon mimics wild diets to build stronger individuals for eventual release.

Black grouse play an important role in the moorland ecosystem. The chicks eat insects until they are old enough to eat buds, flowers and seeds. They act as natural graziers pruning moorland plants like heather and bilberry. Adults also eat herbs like sorrel, buttercup and marigold found in unimproved pastures and gorge themselves where they can on cottongrass. In the autumn they take advantage of the abundance of berries on moorlands including rowan, cowberry and crowberry, spreading seeds as they go.

Studies show a number of reasons for the global loss of Black Grouse, the main reasons being habitat degradation and fragmentation or loss. Small populations of anything below 100 birds makes them vulnerable and less likely to migrate to other groups leading to genetic vulnerability. Also, loss through predation by foxes and mustelids shows we need to adopt a wilder approach at a landscape scale to ensure these predators have a wide variety of food sources rather than just black grouse eggs and chicks.

This visit left us inspired and more determined than ever to bring the black grouse back to Derbyshire. We’re now forming a partnership to explore a carefully considered reintroduction — one that’s evidence-led, ecologically sound, and grounded in hope. With the right conditions and community support, we believe this iconic bird can once again be part of our thriving upland landscapes.