So why, oh why, is this bloody SFI pilot aimed so squarely at feeding birds.
Leave unharvested crop.
Plant bird seed mixes.
Supply supplemental bird seed over winter.
Check for birds nests before doing anything.
There's no farmland birds anymore
- Thread starter Badshot
- Start date
Leave unharvested crop.
Plant bird seed mixes.
Supply supplemental bird seed over winter.
Check for birds nests before doing anything.
Ramrod
Member
- Location
- Skendleby Psalter, Lincolnshire
Haven't seen a Swallow or heard a cuckoo this year, first time ever!
davidroberts30
Member
- Location
- pembrokeshire
as usual some townrat in a city cant hear them over the sound of commuters so assumes the birds arnt there
- Location
- Westish Suffolk
A good number of species around despite the magpies and buzzards ( in rural West Suffolk )
Only ones completely absent are Starlings ( and House Sparrows )
Only ones completely absent are Starlings ( and House Sparrows )
Chasingmytail
Member
- Location
- Newport, SE Wales
First Redstart Ive seen hangs out in the garden. We have planted a lot of native hedging and 3 large ponds. Got loads Swallows but nothing like it used to be when lined up in the barn. Cuckoos. Seem to have every sparrow landing here. Quite a few thrushes and finches. Id say more birds than ever here but we have a lot of native forestry close by too.
More birds than ever around this year. A pair of redstarts nested in the garden for the first time this year, also a pair of spotted fly-catchers. The small birds in the garden include all the usual suspects, robins, wrens, blackbirds, thrushes, both mistle and song, chaffinches, siskins, goldfinches, blue, coal, great, longtail, and marsh tits, dunnocks. We also have tree-creepers and nuthatches, grey and pied wagtails, swallows and martins.
The more unusual visitors have been a pair of hawfinches, some redpolls, I thought they were winter visitors, but apparently not, and a pair of goshawks in the woods behind our house.
We have also heard the cuckoo more this year than we have for many years. We also have buzzards, red kites, barn and tawny owls, sparrowhawks that treat the birdtable like their local branch of Tescos, plus all the usual corvids including jays and magpies.
If only we didn’t have all this awful ‘farming’ going on around us we‘d probably have much more wildlife.
The more unusual visitors have been a pair of hawfinches, some redpolls, I thought they were winter visitors, but apparently not, and a pair of goshawks in the woods behind our house.
We have also heard the cuckoo more this year than we have for many years. We also have buzzards, red kites, barn and tawny owls, sparrowhawks that treat the birdtable like their local branch of Tescos, plus all the usual corvids including jays and magpies.
If only we didn’t have all this awful ‘farming’ going on around us we‘d probably have much more wildlife.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
I've heard skylarks over our "big field" every morning when dog walking all year. We have many Red Kites and Buzzards, several Kestrels, a breeding pair of Sparrowhawks and a number of owls. We have more Swallows this year than I ever remember and plenty of Swifts. I was watching numerous butterflies rise from our grass when doing today's cattle move and regularly see several types of dragonfly.
We are clearly doing something right.
And yet we've never even been in ELS, let alone any higher scheme, as the points just didn't add up.
As @Badshot says, one wonders where the surveys are being done that lead to the claims of crashing farmland bird numbers. Its not here.
We are clearly doing something right.
And yet we've never even been in ELS, let alone any higher scheme, as the points just didn't add up.
As @Badshot says, one wonders where the surveys are being done that lead to the claims of crashing farmland bird numbers. Its not here.
willie waver
Member
- Location
- walking in the ayr
loads of buzzards, bit disconcerting when they sit on a telegraph pole or dead tree branch and watch you walking about. it looks like they're thinking, "i've eaten everything else, so you're my next meal"
Buzzards are getting far too numerous here now.
- Location
- fakenham-norfolk
Ditto,no swallows about here,but the usual cuckoo's in selected places .Barn owls out quartering in the early morning just as dawn is breaking.
- Location
- Glen Clova, Angus, DD8 4RD
Oh, and LOADS of bloody Ring-Necked Parakeets.......
Seen a hedgehog for the first time in years here, with people finding them in their gardens in the village, but then posting on FB about signing petitions against the cull. Too stupid to put two and two together .Don’t traditionally have skylarks here however more hares than ever.
Over run with badgers here and rarely see a hedgehog,if ever.
more hares than ever here ( did covid stop the usual suspects from coming out ), and plenty of bird life with skylarks thriving in maize fields .
CopperBeech
Member
- Location
- A Welsh man lost in England
The ‘usual suspects’ won’t do too much damage to the hare population. The fact that most shoots etc stopped and during last years main breeding season average walkers in the countryside were limited, has made a fair difference.
Right-arm fast
Member
Join the club re; the hedgehogsDon’t traditionally have skylarks here however more hares than ever.
Over run with badgers here and rarely see a hedgehog,if ever.
Boll ocks , perhaps read and u understand the op carefully
.
And its the same here birds everywhere this morning , very loud birdsong and loads of noticable activity since dawn.
Not just natives but migratory seasonally here , whom we ho out of our way to help nest and breed eg. Swallows.
What then happens to then overseas is an entirely different matter
My experience would be the complete opposite, the diversity of not only birds, but other flora and fauna would greater than at any other time I can remember.
Also, I don’t mean to be rude, but if you have been used to hearing the corncrake regularly you must be well over 200 years old. The corncrake population started to decline rapidly in the 1800s, and they were all but extinct in the uk by the 1930s. Populations have started to recover in recent years, so you are far more likely to hear a corncrake now than at any time in the last 200 years.
Hindsight
Member
- Location
- Lincolnshire
I meant to add to my earlier post that last Monday evening as I was doing the rounds checking rain gauges before running Irrigation scheduling the delightful sound of Reed Warblers in Fen ditches. Absolutely to me as a Fenman is another iconic anthem of high Summer. Every ditch and drain with reeds is stuffed full of these delightful little summer visitors - and my do they create a racket (for which read a delightful song).