A STRANGE encounter of the feathered kind put farmer Jack Lynas firmly on the path to conservation.

The bizarre event, captured on video, happened when he and a friend were taking some sheep across the moor high above Marske, near Richmond.

"I suddenly realised a young grouse was walking along, following us," said Mr Lynas, who used to be a keen shot.

The video shows Mr Lynas crouching down, arm outstretched, clucking to the grouse. It suddenly hopped into his hand and then on to his arm. Thus began a two-year friendship, as the grouse stayed close to the farmhouse, following Mr Lynas around the moor.

"You can see why I could never shoot a grouse again," said Mr Lynas. "My father had died a month earlier and the man with me reckoned it must have been him come back!"

Mr Lynas has not shot another grouse and, when shooting parties were in the area, the grouse was kept securely until it could safely be let out again.

It was that grouse which increased his interest in and love of wildlife and conservation.

At last week's Great Yorkshire Show he and his wife, Angela, were presented with the Tye trophy by the four Farming and Wildlife Advisory Groups of Yorkshire.

Their Kersey Green Farm at Marske was judged to have done more than any other farm in Yorkshire to improve the wildlife and landscape conservation over the last three years.

The 230-acre tenanted farm stands high on the moors above Marske and has a beautiful mix of open moor, meadows, pastures and steep-sided ghylls.

Mr and Mrs Lynas, who have a 12 year-old son, Scott, agreed to reduce sheep numbers on the moors, which has benefited the heather and that, in turn, has benefited both the wildlife and shooting.

Corners of fields have been fenced off and provide ideal nesting sites for grey partridges. Wooded ghylls have been allowed to regenerate, with the couple planting up to 1,000 native trees such as ash and oak in the ghylls. The wooded areas have also attracted black grouse back to the area.

One of the biggest boosts to wildlife has been the policy of scraping out small ponds on the moor, which have proved popular with waders - curlew and snipe numbers, in particular, have increased.

An ambitious plan to build and rebuild 30 miles of dry-stone wall has begun, with two miles so far completed.

The couple also own a farm at Ravensworth, where 700 metres of hedge has been laid.

The competition judges were particularly impressed with the way the conservation work was an integral part of the farming operation. They also recognised the couple's knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, wildlife.

The family have certainly not carried out the work for any monetary gain - although Countryside Stewardship has helped, a lot of their own income has gone into the various schemes and maintenance.

All their conservation work has been at a time when farm incomes have fallen dramatically - particularly on upland hill farms like theirs - and through the foot-and-mouth crisis.

But they intend to continue with their plans, come what may.

"Farming in places like this is all conservation anyway," said Mrs Lynas. "It is not stock farming any more; it is all conservation and it is going to get more so, but it is very pleasing to have our work recognised like this."

Apart from a trophy, the couple and the two runners-up also received model drystone walls made by John Clifton of the Yorkshire Guild of Drystone Wallers.

The runners-up were David Brown and Son of Agglethorpe Hall, Leyburn, and Stuart Coggrave of Church Farm, Tockwith, near York.

The Browns' Coverdale farm stretches from the bottom of the valley to the top of the moor.

Fencing and restricted grazing has quickly led to heather recovery, benefiting red grouse and other birds, notably the golden plover. Successful native tree planting in the ghylls has been done in the hope of encouraging black grouse to return and has also improved the landscape.

Much of Mr Coggrave's land is in an ox-bow of the River Nidd. The farm has good existing field boundaries, riverbank and some old grassland which has been managed sympathetically for many years.

The judges said the farm was an excellent example of how that could be built on through Countryside Stewardship.

Hedges had been restored and planted, grass margins established round the fields, old grassland extensively managed; an arable field prone to flooding restored to grass, and ponds created.

All had been done alongside a high standard of farming and the judges were impressed to see about 20 lapwing, a threatened farmland bird, making the use of a combination of set-aside and wet grassland