Lagopus, I feel your pain. I've never shot grouse, but I've shot driven in Scotland many times, and hope that the opportunity remains available.
Re pheasants: Back when I was teaching at university, I attended a meeting of the campus chapter of the Humane Society of the United States (an animal rights group, albeit less radical than some). Questions I posed during the meeting pretty much gave me away as a hunter. As a result, the group's faculty sponsor approached me after the meeting and asked what I hunted. "Birds, with pointing dogs," I replied. We were in Iowa, where the most common game bird is the pheasant. She reminded me that the pheasant was a non-native species, and that it had displaced our native prairie grouse.
My response: "While it's true that pheasants aren't native to Iowa, I think they've now been here long enough that they no longer need green cards. And it was intensive agriculture that displaced our native prairie grouse, which were replaced by pheasants--which have greater tolerance for agricultural lands. But I'd be very pleased if we still had native grouse that I could hunt." Pretty much ended the discussion.
