A Future for Farmland Birds?

Defra has just released its “Annual statistical release  - WILD BIRD POPULATIONS IN ENGLAND, 1970 to 2013” and yet again its bad news for farmland birds.

"By 2013, the England breeding farmland bird index had fallen by 56 per cent to a level less than half that of 1970. The largest declines in farmland bird populations occurred between the late seventies and the early nineties, but there has been a statistically significant decline of 7% between 2007 and 2012.”
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/wild-bird-populations-in-england

 

Of the 19 species in the farmland bird index there are large differences in populations over time depending on whether the bird is a ‘generalist’, (7 species not 9 as the graph states - Greenfinch, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Reed bunting, Rook, Wood pigeon, Yellow wagtail);
or a ‘specialist’, (12 species - Corn bunting, Goldfinch, Grey partridge, Lapwing, Linnet, Skylark, Starling, Stock dove, Tree sparrow, Turtle dove, Whitethroat, Yellowhammer).

 

Why have farmland bird species continued to decline when agri-environment schemes have been around in the UK since the late eighties?

Although schemes to benefit wildlife and the environment have been around since the late eighties, ‘farmland bird options’ were much slower to evolve.

Environmental Stewardship introduced in 2004, had over 60 arable prescriptions likely to benefit farmland birds but still no significant improvement was seen in the index over the next 10 years. However uptake was very low, particularly via Entry Level Stewardship, which was open to all farmers as long as they achieved the requisite number of points. Naturally most farmers chose easy options such as grass buffer strips and managing hedgerows; those involving changing management of arable land or growing specialist seed crops for birds to eat were not popular; consequently farmland birds did not benefit significantly.

Launched in 2008, SWFBI was a partnership project between Natural England, RSPB, FWAG and several AONBs, aimed to reverse declines in the 6 species which had suffered most;Turtle dove, Grey partridge, Tree sparrow, Corn bunting, Yellow wagtail and Lapwing. These birds need cultivated land to complete their life cycle. Using 10 year Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreements or independently, farmers were encouraged to adopt measures that provided nesting habitat, summer and winter food (the ‘Big 3’) for farmland birds. Research suggested that to reverse declines, birds need appropriate habitat on 7% of arable land.

 

For more information http://www.ccwwdaonb.org.uk/projects/farmland.htm

For example on a 100ha arable farm, there should be a 2ha fallow nesting plot for ground nesting birds like lapwing; 2-3ha or flower rich areas to provide insects for chick food and 2ha seed rich crops for winter food. Unlike previous approaches this initiative was highly focused and targeted to farms which had records for 3 or more of the 6 species. Free tailored advice was available to all participants which continues today although there is no more HLS funding for new farms to take part. Monitoring is in place across the project area which aims to produce its own ‘farmland bird index’ over a ten year period. Baseline surveys took place in 2010/2011 so we have a while to wait until we know if this approach has been successful. Anecdotal evidence from participating farms suggests that that farmland bird numbers have increased and other wildlife has benefited too; including Brown hares, Harvest mice and rare arable plants such as Pheasants eye.

Cornbunting - one of the arable six

 

SWFBI ran from 2008/9 to 2014 in Wiltshire, Dorset and the Cotswolds and has resulted in the creation of over 10,000 ha farmland bird habitat across 3 counties (over 24,710 acres) and 2800 skylark plots.

In the county I worked in, Wiltshire, over 4000 ha farmland bird habitat was created, (nearly 10,000 acres) & 753 skylark plots.

 

 It is clear that if you tell farmers exactly what you want, provide adequate funding for habitat and tailored expert advice to help them best manage that habitat, many will respond with amazing results; this has been seen across the country with various projects. These include cirl buntings in Devon, Choughs in Cornwall, Stone curlews in Wiltshire and various other farmland bird projects. Whether the 'farmland bird package' approach is enough to reverse farmland bird declines nationally remains to be seen, until final monitoring takes place in 2020.

 A mix of seed bearing crops grown to feed birds over the winter

 The concern for the future is that under the New Environmental Land Management Scheme (NELMS) there will less money available for farm based schemes and crucially farmland birds will not attract any free Government funded advice through this scheme; this begs the question what does the future hold for our farmland birds?