begin to form pairs during the autumn and males become increasingly territorial as winter progresses. The nest is a shallow scrape up to across which is lined with vegetation. About six to nine eggs are laid, mainly during April and May. They are oval, glossy and pale yellow with dark brown blotches. The eggs are incubated for 19 to 25 days, the chicks can fly after 12 to 13 days after hatching and are fully grown after 30 to 35 days. Conservation Member States of the European Union are obliged by virtue of Council Directive 2009/147/EC on the conservation of wild birds (popularly called the Birds Directive) to take the requisite measures for the protection of the red grouse; but as it is a species to which Annex II of the Directive applies, Article 7 permits hunting under national law, provided population levels are not threatened as a result. In 2002, Ireland was found by the European Court of Justice to be in breach of its obligations under an earlier Birds Directive to protect the red grouse, in that it had allowed a crucial breeding ground to become degraded through overgrazing by sheep. Conservation measures taken on foot of the judgment have seen the population in the area double from c.400 to 800. As a game bird The red grouse is considered a game bird and is shot in large numbers during the shooting season which traditionally starts on August 12, known as the Glorious Twelfth. There is a keen competition among some London restaurants to serve freshly killed grouse on August 12, with the birds being flown from the moors and cooked within hours. Shooting can take the form of 'walked up' (where shooters walk across the moor to flush grouse and take a shot) or 'driven' (where grouse are driven, often in large numbers, by 'beaters' towards the guns who are hiding behind a line of 'butts'). Many moors are managed to increase the density of grouse. Areas of heather are subjected to controlled burning; this allows fresh young shoots to regenerate, which are favoured by the grouse. Extensive predator control is a feature of grouse moor management: foxes, stoats and crows are usually heavily controlled on grouse moors. The extent to which it occurs on grouse moors is hotly contested between conservation groups and shooting interests, and the subject generates a lot of media attention in relation