When was the last time you walked past an arable field and saw weasel’s snout, corn spurrey, common poppy, sharp leaved flullen or the unmistakable vibrant blue of the cornflower? Maybe you are fortunate to live in an area abundant with arable flora, but for many of us these sightings are rare and becoming rarer.

Image 1: Cornflower in spring barley, an increasingly rare sight in arable farmland. (Cath Jeffs…

It’s a busy time of year. Lighter evenings and consistent, mild weather means things are getting busy on farms and whether from the tractor cab, truck or on foot, I bet you’ve already seen some of our seasonal wildlife. Over the past couple of weeks swallows, brimstone butterflies and bumblebees have all made their presence known. But it’s the unmistakable purr of the first turtle dove of the year that I’m waiting in…

With spring upon us and the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) juddering into action, Policy officer Tom Lancaster turns his focus to the new agri-environment scheme in England, Countryside Stewardship.

The application window for the new Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme is approaching, and we’re hopeful that many farmers are thinking about applying. With the window running from July to September, perfectly timed…

One of the most rewarding parts of my job as Cirl Bunting Project Manager is to go back to a farm and see management underway. Last month I was invited back to Boohay farm near Dartmouth by Paul Burnell to look at the work they have been doing on one of the coastal fields to restore the species rich grassland that was being lost under scrub and bracken.

This grassland restoration was part of an HLS/ELS application I…

In January 2015 the new Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP) opened for business. Well... sort of! The programme has numerous schemes and these are opening on a rolling basis – so far we have seen the launch of for example, the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme, the Small Farms Grant Scheme and the New Entrants Grants (although no payments will be made until the new programme has actually been approved by Europe…

There are definite signs of spring in the air here at Hope Farm: skylarks were singing all around me as I walked into the farm this morning, the first small tortoiseshells and queen buff-tailed bumblebees have been seen flying around the farmhouse orchard. While the winter was generally another mild one, with few frosts, it is always great to see real evidence of spring arriving.

Image 1: The Orchard at Hope Farm where…

On RSPB Hope Farm our monitoring work includes surveying both breeding birds during the summer and birds using the farm during the winter months too. The winter surveys are carried out monthly from December to February. On one morning in each month the whole farm is surveyed by a number of surveyors who are each allocated a distinct area of the farm. All birds using the farm are recorded on maps and once back in the farmhouse…

With all the new rules connected to greening and the new Agri-Environment Climate Scheme going live, the year didn’t start exactly peacefully... There was a lot of information to keep on top of, a lot to learn and in between it all, the question of how this will all work out for the corn bunting - one of Scotland’s fastest declining birds*.

Image 1: Corn Bunting singing on a fence. This species is rapidly…

The Tree Sparrow is one of our rarest birds associated with lowland and mixed farmland, having undergone declines of 90% between 1970-2012*. It was a source of great excitement therefore when 24 birds were photographed feeding at a supplementary feeding table on RSPB’s Hope Farm in November 2014. The photo was taken by remote camera as part of a UEA MSc project by Holly Neville-Smith testing the effectiveness of different…

The Cirl Bunting Reintroduction Project - a partnership project between the RSPB, Natural England (NE), the National Trust and Paignton Zoo, with assistance from the Zoological Society of London – began in 2006. The aim of the project is to re-establish a self-sustaining population of cirl buntings on the Roseland Peninsula in south Cornwall, by taking chicks (under license from NE) from nests in healthy populations in…

As many of you will be aware, agri-environment schemes in the UK are key to helping farmers deliver for wildlife. With the recent reform of Europe’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), new or reviewed schemes are on the cusp of being launched, with guidance already available for the new scheme in Scotland.

In England, Defra have developed an entirely new scheme to replace Environmental Stewardship (ES), and in a…

East County Down farmers recently attended a demonstration day to learn how they can help birds and wildlife on their land.

Cecil Nelson from Annadorn Road hosted the event to show how wildlife can thrive as part of a productive farm business. Those attending heard about Cecil’s success in helping threatened seed-eating species such as yellowhammer, which have increased by 100 per cent on his farm in just five years…

The Halting Environmental Loss Project in Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh includes 19 sites covering a total of 2,500ha of agricultural land, owned and managed by over 140 farmers and inclusive of 1,200ha of potential breeding wader habitat. Out of the 19 sites within the county, 15 of these are located in the Upper Lough. The Upper Lough is an intricate network of waterways, islands and inland lakes, with a landscape dominated…

I am really looking forward to taking part in the GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count in the second week in February. It is a great excuse to take an hour out to appreciate the birds on the farm, and it is always useful to know which species are using the farm, so that the conservation work we do can be tailored to the birds present.

At Hope Farm in Cambridgeshire, we grow bird cover crops to feed seed-eating birds throughout…

After an absence of nearly 30 years, choughs returned naturally to Cornwall in 2001 when 3 pioneering birds from Ireland settled on the Lizard peninsula. Choughs have successfully bred every year since their return, establishing a small population which is gradually re-colonising the Cornish coast. There are now almost 40 Cornish choughs frequenting the cliffs from Padstow in north Cornwall, the Penwith and Lizard areas…

The Halting Environmental Loss Project (HELP) got underway in spring 2011 in the Glenwherry area of the Antrim Hills.  The aim of the project was to maintain or improve the population of breeding waders (in this case curlew, lapwing and snipe), in one of their last remaining strongholds in Northern Ireland.  Now, nearly four years on, the RSPB has just hosted an event to celebrate the projects success in producing a remarkable…

Winter is a tough time for wildlife, but especially so for those species which call farmland home. Many farmland bird species such as grey partridge, yellowhammer and corn bunting depend on seeds to survive. Other species such as thrushes and bullfinches depend on berries, fruit and grubs found along our hedgerows.

Hawthorn hedgerow with berries. Copyright: RSPB Images, Andy Hay

In arable areas the widespread change…

The Axholme and Idle valley farmland bird project is one of a suite of local initiatives supporting groups of farmers working for wildlife across different landscapes. Up here in the low, open flatlands where Nottinghamshire meets Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire, volunteer birders and farmers have just received the results of this season’s bird monitoring. And they show beautifully that there’s more than meets the eye…

With the successor to the previous agri-environment schemes in England nearing it's final stages of development, Farming Minister George Eustice made a trip to visit the RSPB's Hope Farm earlier this month to see how we've been giving nature a home on the farm.

Image: George Eustice (centre) at Hope Farm (Amy Bell, DEFRA)

Hope Farm is run as a commercial enterprise which faces similar challenges to other…

I first heard from Mr Blackburn back last November. His current agri-environment agreement was due to end soon, and he’d been invited by Natural England to apply for Higher Level Stewardship. Could I help? The farm was within the Upper Thames river valleys project area, so a few days later I met him on his farm.

It was a tenanted, 114 acre site of all grass. There was an onsite livery that supported some horses…

The last two years have been very challenging at Hope Farm with lower numbers of breeding birds than our high point in 2011, and disappointing crop yields. The summer of 2012 will long be etched in many of our memories with the incessant rain after a...

The Caithness Wetlands and Wildlife Initiative (CWWI) showcased its new aerator at a farm event run by the Soil Association this month. The RSPB Scotland, the Scottish Rural College and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust lead the initiative with a focus on delivering tangible benefits for rare, endangered or declining wildlife populations in Caithness. These include breeding farmland waders like lapwing, curlew, redshank…

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…

Having recently started as an intern on the cirl bunting project, I am learning all the time about agri-environment schemes and the work that the RSPB does with farmers. For example, I learned that cirl bunting project staff have influenced the application of agri-environment schemes on over 10,000 hectares of land over the last 10 years. Last week, I went on a site visit to an arable farm near Dawlish which gave me first…

Stone-curlews are an amazing and instantly recognizable bird, with their large yellow eyes and long yellow legs. They fly hundreds of miles each year to areas which have stony, light sandy soils to breed in England, these include the Brecks and Suffolk Coast and a handful of other areas. Here, Andrew tells us how he's worked with a farm where stone-curlews have nested in the past, and how he's uncovered some of the history…