Hope Farm December Bird Count Blog

Today’s blog by Derek Gruar, RSPB’s Senior Research Assistant, gives us the latest results for their winter bird count at Hope Farm, Cambridge.

After a summer of furlough, it was great to be back out surveying birds on Hope Farm earlier this month. Our survey of the whole farm yielded a total of 1259 individual birds of 38 species which again favourably compared the first ever winter farm survey in December 2000 where just 203 birds from 22 species were recorded. Twelve of the sixteen wintering Farm Bird Index species were found compared to just five in 2000.

Highlights included a flock of Lapwing a species that is rarely seen on the farm in December and a large flock of c150 Linnets. Overall, this was a very quiet survey with many of our core species being found in lower numbers than we have seen in recent winters. The mild conditions seen so far this autumn may mean that winter visitors are late arriving or have yet to settle on their wintering areas. Larger groups of skylarks and buntings were seen intermittently on the farm prior to the survey.

Great counts for winter thrushes like this redwing © Derek Gruar

The survey produced some excellent counts for wintering thrushes with the 3^rd highest and 4^th highest counts for Redwing and Fieldfare respectively for any winter bird survey. These Scandinavian migrants have been found in higher numbers on the farm in recent years and may well have benefitted from the increased number of berries in our hedgerows. Both these species were late arriving and recorded in lower numbers locally this autumn, so these counts are most encouraging.

Our hedgerows are cut on a rotation over a 3-year period, so there are always some hedges that produce large numbers of berries. Studies have shown that hedgerows cut on this type of rotation can produce fourteen times the amount of fruit compared to hedges cut annually and produce a bumper food source for birds and many other animals.

Hedges full of berries, perfect for winter birds! © Derek Gruar

I’d like to thank the intrepid surveyors for braving far from ideal conditions with mud, fog and waterlogged ground making things tricky. Our next survey will be in January and we will report our findings shortly afterwards.

Continue reading

• Hope Farm Bird Monitoring Results (Winter 2019/2020)
• National insect week: growing cover crops for insects
• Does seeded ryegrass fill the late-winter "hungry gap" for yellowhammers?

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