Not Just for the Birds and the Bees

Yesterday I  had the privilege of going to watch some athletics at the Olympic Stadium, Stratford east London. Expecting travel chaos I left really early (5.20am!) to make sure I arrived in time for my session. As it happens my journey was trouble free and I got there early so I took the time to wander around some of the park. I was keen to see how they had landscaped this former gas works and I was not disappointed.

Just behind the Orbit ( the bizarre twisted red sculpture next to the stadium) and the world's largest McDonalds, there are some beautiful floral displays, a bit past their best now but still impressive. Some of these have been planted with a variety of annuals, many of which would have graced our arable fields 50 years ago including cornflower, corn marigold and viper's bugloss. There are also special nectar areas featuring red clover and wild marjoram being put to good use by bees and butterflies. These planted areas including a wetland area and a great British garden complete with a tranquil pond, form a butterfly walk along the river Lea which winds its way through the whole site. I even saw some millet and what looked like red quinoa in one plot - a sort of urban wild bird mix perhaps?


Cornfield annuals and other wildflowers
in Olympic park Sept 2012



What struck me was the informality of it; far removed from formal flower beds of many British parks, more like an 'urban farm';one doing loads of options under Environmental Stewardship. There were clear benefits to wildlife and people judging by the numbers of both taking advantage of these areas..

If we adopt more of these wildflower areas in our gardens (both public and private) as well as on our farms our lives would be so much richer and biodiversity would really benefit. Projects in Liverpool getting locals involved with planting up areas of derelict land with native wildflowers have had the unexpected outcome of reducing anti social behaviour. Maybe we could return to those days I  remember from my childhood in the 70's when on a 200 mile trip to Devon, my dad would have to clear the windscreen of insects repeatedly, and the number plate would be plastered with tiny dead bodies when we arrived.

Next time - how to establish wildflower areas on the farm or even in your garden.

Great British Garden right behind
Olympic Stadium

Reversing the Decline in Grey Partridge

Last week I was lucky enough to visit Castle Howard in the beautiful Howardian Hills AONB, north of York. Around 15 of us were shown  around the estate as part of the National Association of AONB's Annual Conference, 'Shaping Nature on a Landscape Scale'. Of particular interest for me was meeting the 2 gamekeepers Wyne Bennett and Clive Harrison.

They explained how the estate used to operate a highly commercial shoot putting down approximately 20,000 pheasant and partridge a year and selling 20-30 days. The estate owner had a change of policy a number of years ago, winding down the commercial shoot and converting to a wild shoot with just 4-5 days shooting for family and friends. In line with most farms and estates across the country, the number of wild grey partridge had been declining over the years, with the estate down to 3 pairs.
The spring count this year showed an increase to 50 pairs, a conservative number according to Wyne. This dedication led to the estate being awarded the first Yorkshire Grey Partridge Award in late 2008.

This increase has been the result of lots of hard work by the gamekeepers to provide year round habitat for grey partridge; nesting areas, plenty of brood rearing cover and year round food. A large area of  farmland has been removed from the contracted arable land and dedicated to the shoot to recreate the farming mosaic of the 50's when the birds were numerous.Gone is block cropping and in its place a mosaic of triticale, beans, kale/kale rape and linseed. These blocks provide excellent cover for the birds and are also used to drive the birds through, providing much 'more interesting birds' to shoot than maize. Strips of canary grass have been established for pheasants to nest in.

Crop inputs are limited to fertiliser, fungicide and selective herbicides. Insecticides are avoided so as not to damage food sources for chicks. Outside of these 'shoot blocks', on the commercial farmland managed by Velcourt, the outside 3m of cereal crops are also treated as consveration headlands - not recieving any inputs. These are adjacent to a considerable network of  2-6m grass margins which provide excellent nesting cover. Partridges can then lead their chicks straight into the sparse,weedy cereal edge to find the 200 insects a day they need in the first few days of life, whilst the cereal crop hides them from hungry sparrowhawks.

Winter food- this consists of 2nd year kale (where it is thick enough to leave into year 2), unharvested conservation headlands and all year round hopper feeding. This is essential to allow birds to get into breeding condition in the hardest time of the year, the so-called hungry gap (February-May.)

There is also year-round control of predators; foxes, stoats, weasels, corvids and rats, which have reduced in number since maize stopped being grown for shoot cover. Despite numerous buzzards, badgers and sparrowhawks across the estate, grey partridge numbers have increased year on year due to the care and attention taken by the keepers to provide year-round habitat. Brown hare and other farmland birds species have benefitted too including lapwing, linnet, yellowhammer and skylark.

Whilst many farms won't be able to remove large areas of commerical arable land and farm in the style of the 1950s, there are lessons that can be drawn from the approach of the Castle Howard Estate to grey partridge conservation.

1. Ensure year round habitat exists across the farm.
Good nesting cover in the form of field edge tusscocky 2m+ grass margins or in field beetle banks; brood rearing cover adjacent to nesting cover in the form of strips of weedy sparse cereals (broadleaved weeds not grass weeds). Year round feed for adults in the form of grain either through hoppers and/or dedicated crops for birds to eat particulary kale, tricitcale and quinoa. The year round needs for grey partridge can be funded through ELS and HLS.

2.Provide year round cover
Many shoots destroy all their cover once the shooting season finishes at the end of February leaving birds very vulnerable to repdation especailly by sparrowhawks. If you want wild gamebirds to flourish you need to provide them with somewhere to hide! Kale is ideal as its a biennial (2 year life cycle) so as long as you get good first year establishment (see my earlier post on top tips for growing it) its perfect for that period on the farm when other cover is dectroyed and being re-established.

3.Keep on top of predators...
....particulary rats, especially if you hopper feed.



View from the Mausoleum, Castle Howard Estate



Castle Howard Estate with ground nesting birds sign on fingerpost



Biodiversity - Are We Kidding Ourselves? Responding to a Farmers Weekly Article (6/4/12)

Dear farmers weekly

Is the state of biodiversity so bad on our farms FW can’t even find an image of a native farmland bird to use in its article “Are We Kidding Ourselves on Biodiversity” (FW 6 April 2012) The image used looks very like the non-native Rock bunting…. !

There is no doubt that modern agriculture has contributed to the decline in our biodiversity, it has also given a growing population access to quality, affordable food. There should be no disputing these facts. Across Wiltshire as part of Natural England’s South West Farmland Bird Initiative (SWFBI), many farmers are managing 7% or more of their arable land as in-field options for the rarest farmland birds including corn bunting, turtle dove and grey partridge. They are seeing the fruits of their labours in increased wildlife on their farms including rare plants like corn marigold re-appearing and an increase in brown hares.

For every farmer pulling the stops out, there are many that are coasting along with ELS agreements featuring nothing more than the most popular easy choices of grass margins and hedgerow options. Unfortunately these have limited value and their popularity is probably the reason why the farmland bird index has not improved despite many years of stewardship schemes; it does not provide the insects and seed the birds desperately need. Grey partridge chicks need around 2000 insects a day to thrive; try finding that in your average cereal crop!

Some birds have increased which is great news but chaffinches, tits and robins have benefited from garden bird feeders not farmers, sorry Guy. The most specialised farmland birds, those dependant on arable land, are still declining nationally but early evidence through SWFBI shows that enough of the right options, in the right place, managed well by farmers, are working to increase bird numbers. Its vital that we celebrate this fantastic work and share that story with the public through farm walks and talks whilst continuing to help more farmers get maximum biodiversity gain on their farms. What we mustn’t do is waste time pointing the finger and playing the blame game. The health of the countryside depends on it.

Lapwings - Time for a Change?

The last month has been pretty busy for me out visiting farmers to give advice on various farmland bird matters including preparation of nesting areas for lapwings. We are lucky in Wiltshire that we still have widespread breeding lapwing.Through the Entry Level (ELS) and Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) Schemes, many farmers have chosen to provide fallow plots - areas of 1-2.5ha (2.5-5.5 acres) that they keep relatively clear of crops and vegetation throughout the breeding season. Birds will nest in maize and other spring sown crops but once the plants grow above their eye height and become dense the adults desert the area. The fallow plots allow the birds to make repeated attempts to breed which is denied to them in normal arable situations. It was thought that the plots would be able to able to provide the bird's food requirements also; they feed on bare ground or short vegetation  foraging for surface and sub-surface invertebrates including earthworms, leather jackets  and beetles.

Despite the numbers of these plots across the country, lapwing numbers are still in decline and a study of plots in Wiltshire last year showed a worrying lack of success for breeding birds.  The scientific evidence suggest that a breeding pair only needs to produce 0.8 of a chick for numbers to remain constant so losses are expected and normal. The downward trend would suggest that birds aren't even managing this. So what is the problem? Researchers last year found birds nesting on fallow plots wandering some considerable distance away with their chicks and one explanation was they were looking for food. Following the observation of many birds on numerous plots it was suggested that the chicks were starving in addition to having to contend with predators. Last year's exceptionally dry weather would have exacerbated the problem.

Whilst pondering this I came across an excellent article by Henry Edmunds (HE) entitled "Lapwings on a Downland Farm" in February's British Wildlife magazine. He talks about lapwing on the family farm on the edge of Salisbury Plain from the 1920's to now and how their fortunes have changed as the farming system has modernised. The mixed farming system meant that birds nesting on spring barley fields (with tractors carefully driving around them) could "...take their newly hatched chicks to a neighbouring grass field, where they would be seen investigating cattle droppings or heaps of manure..." The most popular nesting areas were fallow fields which had either just had a stubble turnip crop (for livestock) or were to be cultivated over the coming months. HE recounts how one 32 acre field had 18 nests in 1972. The benefit of so many birds nesting in a relatively small area was strength in numbers; more birds can successfully defend themselves and their young against predators whilst a pair of lapwings is incredibly vulnerable.

In the mid 1970s farming systems were changing; grassland management became more intensive with increasing use of nitrogen over farmyard manure and mixed farming became less common as farmers specialised. Winter cropping increased, along with pesticide use and fallow became popular. It was no coincidence that farmland birds started declining in the late seventies.  HE also talked about predators. In Victorian times foxes were so scarce on his farm that artificial earths were made and foxes introduced for the purpose of hunting. Fox numbers increased and around 20 a year were shot by the 3 gamekeepers employed on the farm until the late 60's, when numbers stared to escalate. At the same time gamekeeper numbers continued their decline which began at the turn of the century. Fast forward to  2007 when 120 lambs were killed by foxes on Henry Edmund's farm despite 150 foxes being shot that year. Crows and rooks are also a problem taking eggs and chicks.

Fallow plots were first introduced under Countryside Stewardship primarily for the rare stone curlew. The stone curlews' requirement for bare ground to nest on and its diet of soil-borne insects, both similar to lapwing, on paper anyway, suggested that these plots would be suitable for both species. The plots are now regularly recommended on farms where lapwing are seen as well as areas known to be favoured by stone curlew. Whilst the stone curlew have done very well in Wiltshire using these areas, lapwing are continuing to struggle. I have even heard reports of stone curlew adults eating lapwing chicks which was very unsettling (and hopefully pretty unusual).

HE has his own thoughts about plots and their suitability for lapwing...."in my experience lapwings are not generally successful upon them. The birds seem to feel insecure and will move their chicks away very soon after hatching, if they are not preyed on before. I have seen one lapwing move her family of four chicks three quarters of a mile over two days to get them from a stone curlew plot to a field of young kale."
One scientist with the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust suggested that by creating these bare areas for lapwing to nest on are we inadvertently creating 'sinks' for them, areas where we encourage them to nest even though they might not be totally suitable (as the only available sparsely vegetated area on a farm) only to be targeted by predators? The size of the plots also limits the numbers of pairs that can use each plot; regulations now stipulate a maximum plot size of 2.5ha. This reduces the bird's ability to repel predators. Ideally plots are located adjacent to some semi-natural grassland so there is a good food source nearby but sadly on most farms this is not possible leaving the birds marooned in the middle of an arable desert. Do these plots provide sufficient food for the lapwing? Stone curlew seem to thrive on them so maybe food availability is not the issue and it is simply that the birds are too exposed and vulnerable to predation.

Is predator control the answer? Certainly farms with shoots and gamekeepers with zero tolerance for corvids and foxes seem to have better success with lapwing than those that don't. Electric fencing of plots during the incubation period also helps as this can deter badgers who are partial to newly laid lapwing and stone curlew eggs. 

As with all ecological quandries there are many factors at play in the successful breeding of lapwing and many boxes need to be ticked in order for the birds to flourish. The research being carried out to assess what can be done to aid their breeding success will help inform our work with farmers and hopefully secure the future of such an iconic and beautiful bird.

Feeding Farmland Birds through the Hungry Gap -Top Ten Tips with Kale

Feeding Farmland Birds through the Hungry Gap -Top Ten Tips with Kale
Over 30 farmers and land managers made their way to the Trinley Estate near Andover yesterday to find out more about the best ways of providing food for birds throughout the winter. Speakers included host Andrew Hughes, winner of BBC Food and Farming Award's Farmer of the Year 2011, Peter Thompson, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust; Harold Makant, Natural England and event organiser Diane Nicolle from the North Wessex Farmland Bird Project.
http://www.trinley.co.uk/

Trinley Estate has established many different areas across the farm for the benefit of birds and other wildlife some through the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme and some voluntarily for the Campaign for the Farmed Environment. It was clear to all present, Andrew Hughes's passion for wildlife and farming, employing the latest techniques to manage the land profitably yet sustainably, whilst leaving space for nature.


The visit involving looking at many of the habitats created on the farm for birds farm particularly those associated with provision of winter seed food. As well as maize game cover crops for the shoot there are several areas of wild bird seed mix. These can be annual crops containing cereal, quinoa, millet etc or biennial mixes containing kale left for 2 years. The annual plants provide seed in the first winter and the kale in the second. Grey partridge is one of the target farmland birds on this estate and kale is grown to encourage them as it provides food and valuable cover.

The kale mixes (also containing millet, triticale, quinoa and linseed) provoked much discussion. Peter Thompson explained that kale had a reputation for being difficult to grow but many farmers made the mistake of rushing to get kale mixes in the ground in March/April. He went on to say that "many of the best kale crops I have seen are second plantings to replace failed early crops."

My Top Ten Tips for Growing Kale....
1. Good seedbed preparation is essential - get it right first time and the crop will be in place for 2 years saving you time and money over annually sown wild bird seed mixes without kale. Use stale seedbeds to clean up the ground and consider rotating with blocks of maize where more herbicides are available.

2. Soil Fertility - very important for good yields of any crop, whether for birds or us. Kale in particular is very hungry so add plenty of N; at least 60kg/ha and also think about sewage sludge and/or farmyard manure - this will help soil structure and soil moisture retention. A sprinkle of top dressing in the spring of year 2 can help boost seed production. Increasing N from 30kg/ha to 90kg/ha can increase seed production by up to 19 times!

3.Use treated seed (Ultrastrike/Combicoat) - it must be drilled rather than broadcast but it will help with flea beetle. Monitor for attack following planting so you can catch it early and treat accordingly.



Good crop of kale planted in early summer 2011



4. Do not plant too early!! Sowing kale into coild soils in early spring is a recipe for failure. It grows very slowly and is vulnerable to pigeons and slugs.  Flea beetle can also be problematic as numbers peak when oil seed rape is in flower. As with any crops, soil moisture is also important. Remember kale can be planted right through to Midsummer's day (21 June).Where your mix contains cereals such as triticale which does need planting in early spring, this element can be planted earlier in the year in the same area or in a seperate block. This can help with weed control. Elements such as millet, sorghum, linseed and quinoa can all be planted later.

5.Roll to help conserve soil moisture.

6. Try not to leave plots in the same place year after year.Soil fertility will suffer, weeds will increasingly be a problem and you could have problems with club root.If you cannot rotate, consider splitting the kale out of the mix and growing in separate blocks/strips which can be swapped with the pther components of the mix.

7.Do not sow too much kale - the seed rate should not exceed 5kg/ha but 3-4kg would suffice. Dense crops can smother out the other ingrediants and make access for birds more difficult.

8. When growing more than 1 block of kale, stagger the planting dates. E.g. plant some in 2012 and in the remaining areas choose an annual mix for 1 year then plant the kale mix in 2013. This ensures continuity of cover throughout the year - essential for grey partridge (GP). GP mortality rates soar in late Jan/Feb when coveys break up and pairs form (much of it due to female sparrowhawks). This also coincides with the end of the shooting season when game cover on farms is destroyed.

9. If the kale is a little thin, sprinkling in some fodder radish or mustard in  the spring of year 2 can increase seed production and cover.

10. Consider growing more than 1 variety of kale to ensure success.


More tips next time! Please feel free to add your own to the list in the comments section! Free advice on this in the Cotswolds/Dorset/Wiltshire/Hampshire/Berkshire Downs area is available through various farmland bird projects.

Contact details
http://www.naturalengland.org.uk/regions/south_west/ourwork/farmlandbirds/default.aspx

A Future for Farmland Birds? Time to Stop the Blame Game Urges Defra Minister

That was the opening salvo from Defra Minister of State, the Right Honourable James Paice MP at a Farmland Birds and Sustainable Intensification seminar staged by the Royal Agricultural Society of England in London recently. Farmers, conservationists, scientists and policy makers  were invited to debate the issue of how to increase the numbers of birds on British farms. 


'Why are farmland birds still declining when 61% of land in England is in ELS and 9.3% of land is in HLS? The Farmland Bird Index (FBI) is one of the key measures of effectiveness of ELS and HLS and it is recording falling bird numbers. Stewardship needs to be made more effective which we are working on, along with more collaborative working, so areas of land are more joined up as in Defra's new Nature Improvement Areas. How long does it take to arrest the decline in farmland birds? Five years? Environmental Stewardship has been going since 2010 so positive changes should just be around the corner.
Another challenge to overcome is sustainability in the face of population density; we are approaching 70 million people in the UK. Man has had an impact on nature since he started cutting down the wild wood 12,000years ago; we need to take our role in managing nature very seriously and this may mean controlling some species.'


Jim Paice finished with a request for suggestions as to how the current agri-environmental  regime could be improved. So if you have any thoughts maybe you should pass them on to Mr Paice.

Some of Mr Paice's questions on why  farmland bird numbers have failed to recover were answered by Professor Ken Norris, Director of the Centre of Agri-Environmental Research at Reading University. Unfortunately Mr Paice had a more pressing engagement and failed to stay long enough to hear it.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
There is good evidence that farmland bird populations can increase in individual case study situations.
Ken Norris's team has produced a risk assessment system which can be used for the 60 odd species of birds which use farmland. It enables bird species to be characterised according to their ecological needs – the food they eat, the habitats they live in and the nest sites they occupy. The model does the same for agricultural changes – which of those factors does changing agriculture impact on? Then it looks for points of coincidence between the two. Ken Norris believes we could have broadly identified winners and losers years ago using this technique.
The models show that the ELS is not having the impact that we want it to have. The reasons are that not all the right options are being taken up in the right places and we don’t know if this can be achieved without changing the stewardship schemes themselves. Secondly, options in schemes do not have the same impact everywhere so they need to be targeted more effectively. Thirdly some options have the opposite effect to that intended – likely to be due to competition and predation.

Case Studies - Light at the end of the Tunnel?
There was a degree of opimism from the case studies that followed. In particualr they highlichetd what could be achived with targeted  use of the most approrpiate habitat for farmland birds.  Farmer Peter Richards from the Cotsowlds, a sister project to mine, under the umbrella of the South West Farmland Bird Initiative impressed the audience with the range of biodivserity on his farm and the success they have had following their entry into the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme. The scheme fits well with his business and there are now over 60 species of bird on the farm including birds that have not been seen for many years.

Alistair Leake, Director of Research at the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Allerton Project on a Leicestershire farm echoed the results on Peter Richard's farm.  At Allerton, trials have demonstrated that a high level of arable output is possible whilst increasing farmland bird numbers.

The trials show that for farmland bird numbers to increase, the following elements are important:-

’ Provision of suitable nesting habitat;

’ Plenty of insects, particularly at chick hatching;

’ Feed through the winter, early and late spring;

’ Targeted and limited control of predators.
Some of these are covered under HLS - although feeding through the spring is difficult through just  growing wild bird seed mixes; supplementary feeding through hoppers and along farm tracks is currently not funded through any schemes despite spring aka the 'hungry gap'often being the most challenging time for all birds. Predator control is also not covered though HLS.

Conclusions
The case studies show that success is possible but requires a number of elements -
1.The Big 3 for birds - safe nesting; summer insect food and winter seed food. Many of the options the birds need most such as unsprayed conservation  headlands in cereal crops and sown crops of wild bird seed targeted advice are complicated and unpopular with farmers - thus take up is low through the Government's schemes - hence no improvement in bird numbers.

2.Targeted expert advice is essential to match birds requirements with farmer's businesses. The right options for the birds also need to be in the right place and managed appropriately otherwise the birds will not use them.Phillips Merrick's case study of lapwing productivity highlighted this.
3.Predator control is also important in many circumstances, particualry with ground nesting birds but predator increases should not be blamed for the decline in bird numbers; this is far too simplistic and ignores complex issues of ecology.

4.Payments to reduce production need to reflect cost of providing the habitat and loss of production.

5.Breeding success and productivity should be the focus of schemes - not simply presence or absence of a species in a particular habitat.This is the only way bird numbers will increase.

In the light of Natural England staff and HLS budget cuts and impending CAP reform some of these points could be a challenge for this Government but Jim Paice asked what suggestions we have, well those are mine.

Finally as Philip Merricks farmer and manager of Elmley National Nature Reserve said – “conservation relies on the hands and minds of farmers”.

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.