The Glorious Twelfth of August, the traditional start of the grouse-shooting season, is nearly upon us.
The red grouse is a fascinating and frustrating bird, living on heather moorland and indigneous to the north of England, Scotland and part of Wales.
Grouse cannot be artificially reared and released successfully, so it can genuinely said that all grouse are completely wildand like all wild creatures the population is determined by the ability of the bird to reproduce successfully.
That success is dependant on a range of factors-condition od stock, habitat, predation, level of parasites and, of course, weather.
The red grouse is a medium-sized game bird. It has a plump body, a short tail and a lightly hooked-tipped bill. It is reddish brown, with its legs and feet covered with pale feathers.
The best place to see this bird is on upland heather moors away from trees and it lives off a combination of heather, seeds, berries and insects.
"It is fabulous that The Treehouse has all sorts of game on its menu," said Garry Whitfield, head keeper at Northumberland Estates. "Grouse is a trAaditional game meat with a good, medium flavour and is high protein, low fat and free from additives, making it the healthy choice.
"Grouse like all game is not an exclusive meat and should be readily available as a choice at restaurants.
"Hopefully, if customers enjoy their meal they will seek it out at local butchers or farmers' markets therefore safeguarding the future of the grouse as the money will be ploughed back into the moor to provide a safe habitat so its numbers can continue to increase year after year.
"The side effects to this is the improvement of the habitat which is beneficial to many wild animals, insects and birds."
Garry has enjoyed working for the estate for 19 years.
"One of the pleasures of working for the estate is being lucky enough to manage such a unique estate for game-a grouse moor, a wild partridge shoot, a hill fringe RL partridge shoot, one of the finest pheasant shoots in the country, along with most species of wildfowl, also red, fallow and roe stalking, all of which are superbly looked after by a very dedicated team of beat keepers," he said.
"Imagine all this, and then to be set in such magnificent surroundings."
The estate has a keeper area of around 12,000 acres and heather area at Alnwick of 800 acres.
Grouse, venison, RL partridge, pheasant are all supplied to The Treehouse via Northumberland Estate Gamekeepers.