Swallows 2022

PSQ

Member
Arable Farmer
They're usually mid April here. A few years ago I went for a walk around the Hirsel estate in Coldstream and spotted 200 to 300 new arrivals swooping and chattering over the lake, but didn't see any on the farm until a few days later. I wonder if they fly over as a group, and then stop for a bit of an '18 to 30 holiday' at the lake for a few days before dispersing?
 
I saw my first one of the year today.

It got me thinking about their relationship with cattle. I don't know how it works but there very much seems to be one. My guess is cattle and dung make for more insects and as the cattle move around the swallows feed on the disturbed insects. So very often see them amongst cattle and seem to be more when there are cattle about/on livestock farms and fields.
It lead me on to wondering if their decline (as reported regularly on here) is related to the decline of dairy/livestock as there definitely is around here.
Cheshire was once renowned for dairy farms, it is why the Cheshire Cat is smiling so much but there is a big decline in dairy here. At a guess I would say 75% of farms I once knew as being dairy farms no longer milk.
Huge reduction in numbers nesting with us over last 3-4 years , with no obvious change in the farming or the buildings.
The only thing I do wonder about is the increased use of fly killer products on the cows.
 
Location
East Mids
I saw my first one of the year today.

It got me thinking about their relationship with cattle. I don't know how it works but there very much seems to be one. My guess is cattle and dung make for more insects and as the cattle move around the swallows feed on the disturbed insects. So very often see them amongst cattle and seem to be more when there are cattle about/on livestock farms and fields.
It lead me on to wondering if their decline (as reported regularly on here) is related to the decline of dairy/livestock as there definitely is around here.
Cheshire was once renowned for dairy farms, it is why the Cheshire Cat is smiling so much but there is a big decline in dairy here. At a guess I would say 75% of farms I once knew as being dairy farms no longer milk.
I took part in a formal BTO survey a few years ago, surveying for feeding ('swooping') swallows. Once the research was collated, there was, as expected, a strong relationship between swallow abundance and grazing livestock as well as a link to water (insects again). Very few swallow passes seen over arable or grassland without livestock or water within a few '00 m.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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