Red grouse (Lagopus lagopus)

A rare siting of a Red grouse (Lagopus lagopus) on Cadair Idris, Snowdonia (April 2006). The birds are much scarcer in Wales than their northern counterparts in Northumberland and Scotland; but are most common in the Berwynion, on the Migneit Plateau and in the Rhinogydd. Their numbers were once maintained by the gamekeepers of the great estates, however the First World War whisked the keepers away to other occupations, and after the war, estate management never reached the same scale again.