FARMERS and gamekeepers are being asked to join the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust's (GWCT's) annual grey partridge count scheme (PCS).

Organisers are anxiously waiting to see how this summer's changeable weather may have affected their breeding.

Neville Kingdon, PCS co-ordinator, said 2016 may not be a good year for grey partridge broods. "In general terms, the summer’s insect numbers in crops are determined by the weather in April and May," he said.

A cold, wet spring means fewer caterpillars, beetles and bugs which are the staple food of grey partridge chicks – each consumes up to 2,000 insects a day.

In addition, prolonged wet weather in late June, the time of 'peak hatching', raises concerns that newly hatched chicks could get cold and damp and quickly perish.

However Mr Kingdon said it may not be all bad news. Despite unhelpful weather for insects, a preliminary look at chick-food insect samples point to it having been better than 2012, which was a very bad year.

"However, the uncertainty just confirms the fact that we need to find out what has actually happened. The PCS will provide site-specific feedback to help land managers make targeted improvements to how they manage their land.

"We know farmers and gamekeepers take pride in having wild grey partridges around and it’s an easy bird for them to see and record. Now we need as many farmers and gamekeepers as possible to find out how wild greys have fared on their ground.”

The PCS is a free and voluntary scheme that is open to farmers, landowners and gamekeepers to count their partridges and send the results to the GWCT national database. There are no restrictions on how many birds are needed to qualify.

For details see gwct.org.uk/pcs.