The good people who have long brought the world The Famous Grouse whiskey have now made it much easier to get into the spirit of bird conservation, or perhaps better “the spirits of conservation.” A “spiritual” cousin to The Famous Grouse, The Black Grouse, has now appeared in Sainsbury stores throughout the UK. Darker and (said to be) of more peat than its famous cousin, The Black Grouse will help to raise money for conservation efforts benefiting, what else, Black Grouse, Tetrao tetrix.
The Black Grouse, the bird not the bottle, is presently limited in its UK range to the uplands of Scotland, Wales, and England. Years of changes in farming and forestry, limitation of available habitat, disease, weather, poaching, predation, and a number of other factors have not been kind to this noble bird, hence it now finds itself in an ecologically precarious position. Thus the distiller of The Famous Grouse has established a plan for The Black Grouse, both the bird and the bottle, to generate revenue for the conservation of the former through sales of the latter.
According to a recent article in the Telegraph, every bottle of The Black Grouse sold at Sainsbury’s between June and December of 2008 will generate a 50p donation by its distiller to the RSPB for Black Grouse conservation activities. However it is important to remember that in order for this program to be successful, conservation of The Black Grouse, the bottle not the bird, should not be practiced. There are surely many people in all of our lives – parents, siblings, business colleagues, earnest nature bloggers whose writings you read regularly, etc. – who would very much appreciate The Black Grouse finding its way into their drinks cabinets. Remember, every bottle you don’t conserve is a bird you do.
Peace and good bird watching.
