More than 1,500 farmers across Britain made 2020 Big Farmland Bird Count the biggest since it launched with 25 red-listed species recorded.
Farmers battled through the worst winter flooding in recent years to show they are at the forefront of conservation efforts.
They recorded more than 120 species across 1.4 million acres in the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) initiative this February.
Twenty-five red-listed species were recorded, with nine featuring in the 25 most-commonly seen species.
Of these, fieldfares, starlings, linnets and lapwings were the four most abundant red listed species recorded with over 67,000 in total, which equates to 24% of all species spotted.
The five most abundant birds seen were woodpigeons, starlings, lapwings, black-headed gulls and rooks.
Due to storms Ciara and Dennis hitting both weekends of the count, organisers extended the count window by a week in response to calls from farmers who wanted to take part but couldn’t do so.
“The fact we received a record-breaking number of count returns despite Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis wreaking havoc for many farm businesses is remarkable,” said Roger Draycott, GWCT head of advisory who took on responsibility for co-ordinating this year’s count.
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