The grey partridge (Perdix perdix) was once a common sight on farmland, usually in fallow fields, where it inhabits fringes of hedgerows where it fed mainly on insects. A popular game species it was shot in large numbers but the population held up due to intervention by gamekeepers to support rearing of new stock. It was the increased use of pesticides and a switch to winter wheat crops, however, that led to the serious decline in grey partridge and now they have virtually disappeared from farms and have been replaced by the imported red-legged partridge as a target species for the guns.
A grey partridge anywhere is now an uncommon sight in Dorset but it does hang on in some wild, open, uncultivated grassland areas and they have been recorded from places like St Adlems Head on the Purbeck coast, Badbury Rings and Maiden Castle; sites that all fit the habitat described.
They are a resident species and can be seen all year round; that is if you are lucky enough to see them of course! Just to make finding them harder they are most active at dawn and dusk and are always reluctant to fly unless flushed. Although like like to like in small groups (or covey's) that does not make finding them any easier as they are well camouflaged in their natural environment.
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