The devil's berry or a great addition to your larder?

Elder (Sambuca nigra)

 

Although the passing of summer is sad, autumn is one of my favourite times of year. September and October often sees beautifully sunny and unseasonably warm days perfect for long strolls through the countryside to take advantage of nature’s bounty. Blackberries, mushrooms and even elderberries find their way home with me to be preserved for the coming winter.

Like many of our native plants, Elder (a member of the honeysuckle family) is associated with many superstitions, once regarded as one of the most powerful magical plants. Grown by the house it was said to ward off the devil but if you burnt it you would see the devil. In the days of horse-drawn hearses, the drivers favoured elder wood for their whip handles, presumably another reference to elder’s devil-defying powers but also taking advantage to the hard, pale, easily carved outer wood.


As a child I remember an old horseman advising me to poke some of the foul smelling leaves through my pony’s bridle to deter flies. It was highly prized in the 18^th century due to its quick growing habit and was described in one farming encyclopaedia of the time as ‘the immediate fence’. Its flowers and berries could be sold at market and the timber of old stumps was valuable to wood turners.

How times change. Many landowners now view elder as an irritation; its speed of establishment and large sprawling nature means it can overwhelm slower-growing neater species such as hawthorn and it is never included in new hedgerow planting schemes. I think it’s time we gave it another look. Overlook it at your peril! Its creamy flowers give us the base for delicious elderflower cordial and provide a great nectar source for many insects.

(At this point I had helped to upload some lovely pictures of elderberries but Blogger isn't working properly and won't let me, sorry)

Elderberry is now creating much interest in herbal remedy circles as its thought to have powerful anti-viral properties. One way of consuming it is as a syrup or vinegar. In my opinion elderberry vinegar surpasses balsamic for taste with added health benefits, so why not make some? Take some bags and scissors and choose a dry day for collection. The bushes with their dark clusters of tiny berries can be found in hedgerows, on waste ground, in churchyards and are unmistakable. Bushes growing along busy roads are best avoided.

 

Elderberry Vinegar

1. Strip the berries off the stems with a fork into a large bowl and weigh them. Carefully remove any insects back to the garden.
2.  Add 500ml vinegar (distilled or white wine but not malt) to every 350g fruit. Cover the bowl and leave for  around 5 days. Stir occasionally.
3. Strain off liquid and measure before pouring into a large thick bottomed saucepan.
4. For each 250ml liquid, add 350g white sugar and boil for 10 minutes.
5. Decant carefully into sterilised bottles, label and store.

 

It’s amazingly versatile, I add a tablespoon to smoothies, use for salad dressing and in casseroles. I recently found a bottle at the back of the cupboard labelled 2011. It has mellowed wonderfully and makes a lovely drink when added to sparkling water. The only limit is your imagination!

Its the dull ones you have to watch!

In one of my bird guides, the Corn bunting is described as “one of the larger and certainly the most nondescript of the European buntings”.  Compared to its jazzier cousin, the yellowhammer, it is quite dull but I have a certain amount of affection for this ‘fat bird of the barley’ as its sometimes known. Its unexciting looks hide a racy side to the Corn bunting; the males are polygamous, often having several mates and nests on the go simultaneously. It is one of the earliest farmland birds to start singing and if you are out on top of the West Wiltshire Downs this month you may hear its jangling song, sometimes likened to a rattling bunch of keys, being sung from a fence post or solitary hawthorn bush. It is a very distinctive sound, another reason why I like it – you can’t mistake it for other bird calls! When disturbed they will fly off from their post with their legs dangling – another telltale corn bunting trait.



Corn bunting on a song post (Copyright Wessex Wildlife)

 

Corn bunting are birds of open country favouring large fields where they nest on the ground, most often in cereal crops or sometimes pasture but always away from trees and tall hedgerows. Curiously for a bird that starts singing in January to establish territories, they nest late, often having flightless chicks in the nest in late July which can mean they fall prey to the combine harvester, particularly if they nest in winter barley which is harvested earlier than other crops like winter wheat. Grass fields cut for hay or silage present a similar problem.



Corn bunting nest on the ground. Copyright Hugh Morrison

 With support from the South Wiltshire Farmland Bird Project, any farmers across the AONB are providing safe nesting areas for the birds by growing large blocks of unharvested cereals in open areas of the farm; these also deliver much needed seed food over the winter. Planting flowering plants like knapweed, red clover and lucerne increases insect numbers ensuring sufficient summer food for the chicks.  We are extremely fortunate in Wiltshire to have good numbers of corn bunting; unfortunately they have declined considerably in other parts of the UK (by 90% between 1970 and 2012 although this decline has slowed since 2007). Sadly, in Scotland they are in danger of disappearing completely. So pull on your coat and gloves and head up to the West Wiltshire Downs or the Ox Drove above the Chalke Valley and see if you can spot this charismatic little bird.

 

Out with the Birds!

One of my resolutions for 2015 is to spend more time 'in the field' watching wildlife. As a farmland bird adviser you might think I spend plenty of time in fields,but often I too busy discussing the merits of various game cover crops with a farmer or assessing whether a wildflower margin needs re-establishing to actually stand still and watch the birds. Added to that the size of many farms means a drive round rather than a walk round so you can't hear the birds around you.

I think the same applies to many farmers, shoot owners and gamekeepers - out on the farm but not necessarily stopping to listen and wave the binos around to see what that LBJ (little brown job) is in the hedge or flying up out of the stubble. Given the time and money many farmers spend growing crops and managing areas for wildlife I think its shame not to see the fruits of your labour even if you might not know what it is you're looking at!

So how about you make a resolution to set aside half an hour next month to take part in the second annual Big Farmland Bird Count which runs from 7th to 15th February. For more information go to
http://gwctbfbc.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/brush-up-on-your-farmland-bird-id-skills.html

I have just come back from one of the excellent farmland bird ID days run by the GWCT near Buckingham in preparation for the second annual Big Farmland Bird Count which runs from 7th to 15th February. A highlight was seeing yellowhammer and bullfinch up close and personal which had been caught by a local bird ringer in a special 'mist' net near to the wild bird seed crops grown on the farm. He regularly catches and rings birds on the farm recording everything meticulously in his notebook.The yellowhammer in his hand is male and was wearing a leg ring. Looking up the number in his book he was able to tell us that he had caught the same bird 2 weeks ago and since then it had put on 0.5g. This doesn't sound much but its significant when you only weigh 28g to start with! Obviously making use of all the food sources around the farm...



Recording the vital statistics on a male yellowhammer

After an informative session brushing up on common farmland birds by Peter Thompson we headed outside to put  it all into practice.



Talking all things birds!

On first look it didn't look that promising but just by standing and listening and using bincoulars to scan hedges, we were soon spotting yellowhammer, chaffinch, redwing, fieldfare, crow, jackdaw, reed bunting, linnet, robin, blackbird and brown hare.
A wonderful, satisfying hour spent working up an appetite to justify that last piece of Christmas cake!

So how about you make a resolution to set aside half an hour next month to take part in the second annual Big Farmland Bird Count which runs from 7th to 15th February.
For more information and dates of training courses in your area, go to
http://gwctbfbc.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/brush-up-on-your-farmland-bird-id-skills.html

You might be surprised how many birds your farm is host to and don't worry if you think your ID skills are not up to scratch - practice makes perfect and I'm sure you will enjoy it!

Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

Despite being mentioned in the Christmas song, the Twelve Days Of Christmas, Turtle doves are absent from the UK at this time of year as they overwinter in sub-saharan Africa. Their presence in this famous Christmas song reflects their association with literature and folklore which stretches back to the bible.

The Song of Solomon (2:12) in the Old Testament includes the lines
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the song of the birds is come
And the voice of the turtle is heard in in our land.

Turtle doves pair bond can extend beyond one breeding season and this classic emblem of marital devotion has appeared in English poetry since Chaucer. They have been described as the 'smallest and loveliest of the British pigeons' - I'm sure you would agree if you see the pictures below, I think the far more common collared dove pales in compaison, but maybe I'm biased!
(Thank you to Birds Britannica by Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey for the fascinating Turtle dove facts).
Most news concerning this beautiful and iconic species is gloomy with the bird being labelled one of our fastest declining bird species.  Not only has it suufered from agricultural intensification like many of our farmland bird species but every spring and autumn it has to run the gauntlet of  European hunters and in Malta alone tens of thousands of birds are shot annually. Despite being outlawed by EU legislation, Malta somehow receives an exemption on the grounds that  the tradition is deeply embedded in its rural culture. Added to that miles of fine 'mist' nets on the North Arican coast trap this and many other migatory species on their long journeys, often to  be used as food.

In Wiltshire we are lucky enough to still have some Turtle doves and it one of the species targeted by the South Wiltshire Farmland Bird Project

http://www.ccwwdaonb.org.uk/projects/farmland.htm

 

Martin Down National Nature Reserve in Hampshire (but on the borders of Wiltshire and Dorset) is a local stronghold for this bird and a small project has been running here for the last year to try and find out more about why the birds here are faring better than their neighbours. Additional foraging areas were also created by neighbouring farmers as lack of seed food is one of the reasons the birds are declining. With help from the South Wiltshire Farmland Bird Project, Natural England (NE) and volunteers, a pilot study carried out a survey of breeding birds across the reserve last summer.

 

Volunteer Andy Davis gave an update, ‘The pilot study at Martin Down estimated that there were seven breeding pairs in 2014 and we know at least some breeding attempts were successful as the team ringed two fledglings. It was a very protracted breeding season and birds were still on site well into September. The data we collected currently suggests that the birds had selected the largest, most impenetrable plots of scrub for nesting and that they were distributed across the whole reserve. We can also say that we did not observe any birds feeding within the reserve and that they must forage elsewhere - hopefully the next stage of the project will establish where.”

European Turtle Dove

Collared Dove

Thanks to Robert Lloyd of NE, participating farmers and all the volunteers including Andy Davis, Danny Alder and Dr Simon Lane.

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?

 

 

 

 

 

Conservation v Food Production, a dilemma for the 21st century?

Despite working on a Natural England Farmland Bird Project, I am actually employed by an organisation with possibly the longest name ever, the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). My job involves working with farmers to create habitat for farmland birds, largely using targeted funding through Natural England’s Environmental Stewardship Scheme (ES).

In the last 18 months, interest in the scheme has declined substantially, which has a knock on effect for the AONB – the conservation and enhancement of all its special features largely happens through ES, particularly the more targeted part, Higher Level Stewardship (HLS). Many farmers are turning their back on the scheme because of changing economics; payment rates for options taking land out of commercial arable cropping and managing for farmland birds have not kept pace with increasing agricultural commodity prices.



Should a farmer grow food crops for birds at £475/ha or
wheat for human consumption at £1800/ha?



 Following a letter to Natural England (NE) raising these concerns, the AONB hosted a visit from NE Executive Director for People, Landscape and Biodiversity, Jim Smyllie.

Mr Smyllie was keen to meet some of the farmers who had decided not to renew their expiring Stewardship Scheme agreements due to financial reasons. One farmer from Dorset explained that when he joined in 2003, he was making £4-600 per hectare (ha) from his cropped land growing wheat/barley/oilseed rape and managing that land for farmland birds instead, was paying £500 which was acceptable for the farm business. Ten years on, that land is making £900/ha, whereas NE payment rates for creating bird habitat on the same land are around £400/ha, which was not viable for the farm business. Other farmers had similar stories to tell and all had been in past environmental schemes for at least ten years so were committed to improving wildlife habitat on their farms.

Local farmer David Chick (far left) talks to Jim Smyllie (2nd left),
Tracy Adams (centre) and other NE staff about his farm and its wildlife

A visit was also made to a farm which had entered HLS three years ago and had committed 7% of their cropped land for bird habitat to favour species such as lapwing, corn bunting and grey partridge. However when quizzed about the future, the farm manager admitted he would be reluctant to enter future schemes, preferring to do his ‘own thing’ for wildlife without any of the bureaucracy and threats of lengthy inspections through the Rural Payments Agency. His neighbour had recently had a 10-day inspection and suffered considerable financial penalties for discrepancies found between his 60 page agreement and what was present on the farm.  Labour resources have become increasingly stretched in the last 50 years making time-consuming environmental improvements less appealing for farmers, particularly if they come with the threat of a lengthy inspection across the farm by a tape measure-wielding official.

The challenge for NE now as they debate the future of the next tranche of agri-environment schemes is to come up with a flexible scheme with payment rates attractive enough to compete with ever-increasing commodity prices, with ever-decreasing budgets.

And whatever you do, don’t mention the buzzards and badgers, that’s a whole other issue for another day!

All I Want for Christmas This Year is...

...apart from the ability to eat as much as I like without gaining weight, a winning jackpot lottery ticket and the body of Jessica Ennis...


1.An End to the Annual Turtle Dove Shooting in Malta and other European Countries



Turtle Dove



Every spring thousands of turtle doves are shot on the annual migration from Africa to their breeding grounds in mainland Europe and Southern Britain. Turtle Dove are more numerous in Europe than in the UK where numbers have dropped by 60% over the over the past five years. If you look back through the records further, turtle dove numbers have declined by 98% in the last 40 years. It doesn't take a mathematician to conclude that this rate of decline is unsustainable and within the next 10 years they could disappear from our shores. This doesn't appear to be worrying some; earlier this year there was a campaign on social media to stop a Lancashire based sporting agency based  offering trips abroad to shoot Turtle Dove. I am not anti shooting but this was enough to leave a worse taste in the mouth than overcooked Brussels sprouts.Of course just blaming shooting for the bird's demise would be simplistic and misguided, as with many wildlife declines, the issue is more complex. The amount of weed seeds available for the birds to eat have reduced dramatically since herbicide use became commonplace and year long fallow fell out of use. Climate change and land use changes affecting their overwintering grounds in Africa are likely to have affected numbers too, but shooting a rapidly declining bird in large numbers is  tantamount to species suicide.






2.Increased Funding for Environmental Stewardship (or at least no cut in the upcoming 2014/5 CAP reform)

World commodity prices are higher than they have been for many years and with the effects of increasingly difficult weather patterns across the globe combined with a burgeoning world population, this upward trend looks set to continue. In the light of declining interest in Entry and Higher Level Stewardship (E&HLS) I researched some figures to see how the economics of the scheme had changed since it was introduced in 2005 to see if this was a genuine influence.

Stewardship payment rates are largely based on an income forgone calculation.I looked at gross margin data for the most common crops from 2004, 2009 and 2012 to see how things have changed as  stewardship payment rates have remained at their original levels since the scheme started. (The gross margin  for a crop is the income received for crops sales less the cost of production - seeds, sprays and fertiliser.)

Gross Margins *                                                      
                          2004                                 2009                         2012
Winter wheat    £355/ha                            £603/ha                      £673/ha
Oil seed rape    £286/ha                            £510/ha                      £816/ha
Spring barley    £238/ha                            £473/ha                     £548/ha

*not including single farm payment

HLS 
Payments**
Nectar Mix      £450/ha                              £450/ha                      £450/ha
Wild Bird
Seed Mix          £475/ha                              £475/ha                      £475/ha
Flower Rich
Grass Margins  £485/ha                              £485/ha                      £485/ha

**annual payment rates only, do not include cost of establishment or annual management
(Gross margins figures taken from John Nix Farm Management Pocketbook 2004, 2009 & 2012)
Without adequate compensation, all but the most committed and affluent farmers will turn their back on stewardship schemes unless payment rates are realistic and reflect the true income foregone from putting land into wildlife habitat rather than food production.

3. Definitive Unbiased Research into the Effects of Predatory Birds and Mammals ( including cats) on Wildlife Populations


Lapwing, a vulnerable ground
nesting bird courtesy of Tim Marlow



Whilst I do get weary of buzzards, badgers, sparrowhawks, magpies, crows, rooks and foxes etc being blamed as the sole culprit for the demise of our bird populations as I have mentioned on my blog before, as a farmland bird adviser with an understanding of ecology, I would like to know once and for all  the effect of predators on numbers of declining species such as hedgehog, lapwing, grey partridge etc. There has been much research done on the rquirements of many farmland bird speices and it is widely accepted that changes to the way we farm and manage our land has contriubuted to these declines.There can be no recovery without more food and nesting areas for our birds.This is indisputable, despite what some might think and say, Robin Page. Predaotr and prey realtionships are complex and inextricably linked. What is less clear is how much increasing numbers of predators are tipping  the delicately balanced scales in their favour.

All organisations have an agenda so my wish may be very unrealistic but its good to be optimistic once in a while!

4.The Ability to Recognise all British Bird Songs and Calls

Considering what I do for a living I am embarrasingly bad at this, depsite driving round with a 'bird calls' CD in my car which really confuses my poor dog, especially when he hears  track 14;  ring necked pheasant.

Merry Christmas and a properous peaceful 2013 to all my readers ( all 3 of you!).

See you next year!