If, like me, you’re not from round ‘ere, then maybe it’s cream teas, ice creams on the beach, the wilds of Dartmoor, or rolling green hills. If you are “south westerly” then you probably have a very different opinion!

 Actually, for me, and RSPB, the West Country is Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. 

 That’s diversity!

You may already know about the RSPB’s Volunteer & Farmer Alliance Project, funded by the EU LIFE+ fund.  The national project that offers farmers in every part of the UK a one-off, free bird survey with no obligations.  A wonderful project to work on, that celebrates the interest farmers have in what species they safeguard on their land, their concern about the declines in farmland birds, the impressive capabilities of our volunteers in bird identification and allows RSPB to gain valuable data on farmland birds.  It’s a win-win! And my job is to organise these surveys in the West Country.

 Sunrise (May 2011) by Felicity Clarke

 So, what is the West Country to me?  I’m from Staffordshire originally, and I’m still getting to know the region.  And to help me along, I’m surveying two farms in Devon this year.

 For my very first Volunteer & Farmer Alliance survey of 2012, I arrive to see the sun rising over the misty Exe valley.  In the oilseed rape fields opposite, skylarks are already fluttering away.  There are swallows, chiffchaffs and yellowhammers before I’ve even got my binoculars out. Then, five hours later, while walking down a bridleway back to the car, orange-tips and speckled woods floating around my head. 

 Image of orange-tip butterfly feeding on cuckooflower by Steve Round.

 Then, a week later, I visited my second farm.  Despite hail showers, the results were exceptional: reed bunting, marsh tit, grasshopper warbler, willow warblers and even a dipper.  Got my hair caught in bramble, though, and had to be carefully extracted (a slightly embarrassing, girly moment.  I am a hardened fieldworker, I promise!).

 Image of grasshopper warbler by Steve Round.

 It just proves, though, the diversity of the region, and if you extrapolate that out to the area covered by the Volunteer & Farmer Alliance (from the Scilly Isles to Shetland and from London to Londonderry!), it proves the diversity of the UK: the landscapes our fantastic farmers and marvellous volunteers are surveying this spring.

 Are you a farmer who has had a survey? Have you ever conducted a survey for the Volunteer & Farmer Alliance? What were your highlights?  We’d love to hear from you.