3rd April
A
FANTASTIC effort from farmers have helped secure a best-ever year for the Big
Farmland Bird Count (BFBC).
Results
show 1,400 people – a 40% increase on last year – recorded 140 species over 1
million acres in the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) initiative
which took place between February 8 to 17.
Encouragingly,
a total of 30 red-listed species were recorded, with 5 appearing in the
most-commonly seen species list. These included fieldfares, starlings, house
sparrows, yellowhammers and song thrushes, with the first four seen by over 30%
of the farms taking part.
The five
most abundant birds seen were woodpigeons, starlings, lapwings, black-headed
gulls and rooks. A total of 148,661 were found, making up nearly 50% of the
total number of birds recorded.
“It’s
brilliant to see an increase in the number of participants,” said Jim Egan, who
has co-ordinated the count for the past six years.
“I’m
particularly pleased by the way the facilitation funds and farmer clusters have
worked together to embrace this across a landscape scale.
“The fact
that in, many cases, farmers and birders have worked together and inspired each
other shows the power of sharing our skills and knowledge. A huge
congratulations to everyone involved.”
The
average farm size of those taking part was 739 acres, with 66% growing arable
crops, 52% having beef or sheep, and 13% growing field vegetables. There were
also dairy farms, horticulture units, poultry producers and pig producers
submitting counts.
The
survey areas included important environmental features such as hedges, woodland
ponds, grass margins, ditches and trees.
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