Red-legged partridge with chicks
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Red-legged partridge with chicks by Lynne Kirton as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Red-legged partridge with chicks
Image: © Lynne Kirton Taken: 29 Jun 2008
The partridge & its mate had been regular visitors for some time. On this particular morning the female appeared, this time accompanied by 11 chicks! We reckoned they must have hatched very recently. That morning there was a thunderstorm, with torrential driving rain. We were very worried about them during the rainstorm, as the paths were flooded within a couple of minutes, but after it had dried up the mother & chicks all reappeared safe and sound. The red-legged partridge (Alectoris rufa) is a game bird belonging to the pheasant family, and is usually seen in groups in open fields. It was introduced to the UK from continental Europe. When disturbed, it prefers to run rather than fly, but will fly for a short distance if necessary. It nests on the ground, and these chicks were lucky to survive the very wet weather.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
55.123122
Longitude
-3.418458