Set-aside delivery

Within the three-week period following the advisory group meeting, the majority of the wheat from the volunteers was consumed by a mixed flock of woodpigeons, crows and rooks with peak counts of 2,500 woodpigeons, 300 rooks and 100 crows. Despite this, skylark counts remain high with 121 present on 11 Jan.

Numbers of yellowhammers and reed buntings, using the set aside field, are lower than in November but across the whole farm have remained the same. Other highlights have included the first ever peregrine seen on the farm, three grey partridges and eight snipe.

Crop development

Crops are developing well. Some of the oilseed rape looks sparse in places having used the Autocast method. However, we remain confident that the crop will fill out to provide a good yield. The skylark plots are an obvious part of the Hope farm landscape within our wheat fields and we are in the process of mapping them all with a GPS unit. This will allow us to identify any future weed burden in subsequent crops. All first wheat has been sprayed with Duprosan to control the volunteer beans within the last week.

SAFFIE margins

The SAFFIE Project Steering Group (Sustainable Arable Farming For an Improved Environment) have examined the relative merits of the three trial management options (mowing, scarification - creating bare earth, and selective herbicide use) and have decided to adopt 60% scarification as our margin management treatment.

Taking into consideration the desire to identify a new technique which farmers could implement, given most farmers have 3-4m wide power harrow, and to protect soil & vegetation next to watercourses and hedge-bottoms, only the outer (crop-side) 3-4m of the margin would be scarified. The plan is to scarify the SAFFIE margins in February.

Scandinavian visitor returns

Ringing at Hope Farm has continued with the highlights including a re-trapped fieldfare in December, previously caught on the farm by Will Kirby in 2003. In 2004, a total of 1,046 new birds from 37 species were ringed. New species in 2004 were spotted flycatcher and sedge warbler.

This is an increase on previous years' totals, but has much to do with our increased ringing effort. For example, the new Constant Effort Ringing activity helped to trap 119 adult whitethroats compared to a maximum of just 7 adults in previous years.