A Future for Farmland Birds? Chapter 1

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a seminar organised by the Royal Agricultural Society of England entitled 'Sustainable Intensification and Farmland Birds' held at the Royal Overseas League in London.
It was a fascinating day with some excellent speakers and thought-provoking debate, set against the backdrop of a Defra statistical release that day which stated that breeding farmland bird numbers were at their lowest level ever recorded, at half of what they were in 1970.
There's a lot to say on this subject so I am going to break it down into several chapters...

The Joint Challenge of Food Security and Environmental Enhancement

The day kicked off with Professor Charles Godfray CBE,FRS from the University of Oxford talking about future trends in world population growth and the challenge of feeding 9 billion people with the same amount of land in the light of climate change. Will this mean there is less space for wildlife? Not necessarily, but it will mean that habitat for wildlife needs to be high quality and targeted to ensure maximum gain. For example, plots of wild bird seed mix need to be managed to produce the maximum amount of seed possible from a given area. Similar to what has happened with farming - wheat yields have quadrupled over the last 50 years. It will also mean that the thorny issue of GM crops needs to be revisited and a sensible discussion had about the possible benefits to biodiversity. Before that a great deal of groundwork is needed to educate consumers because currently the British public is very anti-GM foods.


Extent and Causes of Decline in Farmland Birds - Professor Ian Newton OBE FRS
This is a subject well known by many but still useful to have it set out comprehensively by such a well renowned scientist, particularly when Robin Page was in the audience and would no doubt bring up the issue of predators in the discussion section. (see earlier post for more info!)
Causes of Decline
1.A large increase in use of agro-chemicals have meant there are less weeds, therefore less weed seed, less plants for insects to live on and these insects that do survive, many don't survive pesticide sprays.

Net result= less bird food.
2. Loss of habitat; hedges, rough grass etc affecting nest site and food availability
3.Increased land drainage=many less insects (chick food for farmland birds)
4.Decrease in flower rich grassland =less insects
5.Switch from spring to winter cereals = no winter stubbles = no winter seed food or spring nest sites.
6. Earlier harvesting dates means many second/third broods of ground nesting birds like corn bunting are lost
7. Specialisation in farming such as mixed farming to all arable means less varied habitat for birds.

Mixed farming is good for birds (taken near Win Green on Cranborne Chase)

8.Increased stocking density = trampled nests for species like yellow wagtail and lapwing.
9.Decrease in stock kept and fed outside in winter = less grain food for birds.

No one single cause but a cocktail of damaging circumstances depending on the species concerned.

The issue of predators was raised in the discussion; Professor Newton  said that the impact of predation on bird populations was very difficult to assess and despite lots of work done, there is little evidence to suggest its a problem. One exception to this is ground nesting birds who, it has been proven do suffer high rates of predation from foxes and crows.

The numbers were depressing; numbers of tree sparrow,grey partridge,corn bunting and turtle dove have declined by over 94% from 1970 to 2010. Its not unreasonable to think that should these declines continue these 5 birds will disappear from our countryside completely.

How fortunate are we in Wiltshire to still see these birds?

In the next instalment i will be looking at what the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, Jim Paice had to say on the subject of declining farmland bird numbers.