Tracking down corn buntings on several farms throughout Angus and Fife this summer was an amazing experience – walking for hours (and miles) on end through fields and pastures, often in the sunshine, listening to a variety of birds as well as the buzzing of bumble bees and talking to local farmers about their farms, their crops and their wildlife. I learned a lot.
Finding some of the corn buntings was easy as most of them were presenting their songs at the top of their lungs from very visible perches and song posts. Some were more difficult to track though, hidden away in not very accessible areas such as rather large fields of peas, where I got stuck several times amidst jungles of scentless mayweed covering the ground.
A recently published study in Eastern Scotland revealed that the population decreased by 83% between 1989 and 2007 making it one of the fastest declining birds in Scotland. But all is not lost - in partnership with over 70 farmers in east Scotland solutions have been found. Targeted management options for corn buntings delivered through agri-environment schemes (AES) and integrated into commercial operations, have proven to be effective at halting and even reversing corn bunting declines. Whilst corn bunting populations showed an annual decline by 14.5% on farms with no target management, an annual increase of 5.6% was recorded in areas where farms adopted corn bunting management options and corn bunting numbers stayed stable on farms implementing generic AES options.
Management options aim to deliver the three main requirements: safe nesting places, insect-rich summer foraging habitats and sources of winter seed food and one simple measure combining all three is to establish an area of wild bird cover crop.
We recently received funding to deliver the Angus Corn Bunting Recovery Project which is supported by the Angus Environmental Trust through ENTRUST’s Landfill Communities Fund. This project is helping us to build capacity with farmers to engage in corn bunting management and to promote the plight of the Corn Bunting through demonstration events and interpretation. It allows us to supply free seed mixes and make a compensational payment to participating farmers based on the size of the area given up to the wild bird cover crop.
In addition, we are currently trialling a new cereal-based seed mix within the scope of the Biodiversity Areas for Buntings and Bees Project which is a partnership between Mark & Spencer, Kettle Produce, RSPB Scotland and four farmers in Fife. The new seed mix contains a variety of flowering plants and is designed to benefit pollinators and a range of farmland birds alike. The crop provides nectar and habitat for pollinators and a large number of bees, bumble bees, hoverflies and other insects used this seed mix in the first year of the trial as pollinator surveys showed. The crop also provides nesting sites for Corn Buntings and, as the patches are left unharvested over winter, winter seed food and cover for a wide range of farmland birds and other biodiversity.
If you are interested in establishing a wild bird cover crop on your farm, get advice or attend one of our demonstration events organised in partnership with local farmers in Aberdeenshire, Angus and Fife, please get in touch with Yvonne Stephan: yvonne.stephan@rspb.org.uk.