Helping farmland birds across the South East this winter

Commercial farmers across Kent, Hampshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, have been helping farmland birds this winter. They have been mobilised to provide food and shelter for birds as part of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment  www.cfeonline.org.uk 

The chairman of the Campaign for the Farmed Environment in Kent is arable farmer Doug Wanstall of Bank Farm, Aldington. He is among those who are providing wildlife habitats. Hampshire CFE chairman Nick Rowsell, who farms more than 4,000 acres of premium arable crops at Stoke Charity, near Winchester also puts out supplementary feed for birds, spreading grain on farm tracks. They say the Kent and Hampshire farmers have been helping birds through the cold snap with the provision of feeding areas - seed-rich plots, uncropped areas and overwintered stubbles. Farmers have also been advised to ensure that hedgerow cutting work is carried out as late as February and finished before the nesting season in March. This maximises the berry crop available to birds such as song thrushes, redwings and fieldfares which throng our fields at this time of year.

The chairman of the Campaign in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire is Ian Waller of Hampden Bottom Farm, Great Missenden, Bucks. He has a predominantly arable farm and has sown seed-rich plots, leaving uncropped areas and overwintered stubbles for birds to feed on. He also puts out grain for seed-eating birds. Mr Waller says: "We have quite a nice colony of house sparrows here – a species that has returned to the farm – and they nest in one of the barns in the yard. When I mix up feed for the sheep I leave out two or three kilos of grain for the birds in an open-fronted shed. They have been able to feed, even during the snow, in a nice safe place.  Other species have started to come too."

Mike Kettlewell of Over Norton Park, Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire has a network of seed-rich habitats for birds on his farm, created under agri environment schemes known as Entry Level and Higher Level Stewardship. For several years now, between the months of November and April, he has been putting out grain on farm tracks to feed birds. The farm is home to good populations of tree sparrows, finches and buntings, (goldfinches, chaffinches, yellowhammers and corn bunting), which all take advantage of the extra food.

Mr Wanstall, Mr Rowsell and  Mr Waller are working closely with their Campaign for the Farmed Environment coordinators who are advising farmers at grassroots level on how they can support the Campaign.

Many of the measures that farmers are putting in place can be managed and funded through an Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) agreement, while also contributing to the industry-led Campaign for the Farmed Environment. Some who are not signed up to green farming schemes are doing environmental work voluntarily.

RSPB regional farm conservation adviser Bruce Fowkes says: "Farmers have been throwing farmland birds a real lifeline during the cold snaps that we have experienced this winter. Seed and berry-rich habitats are key to the survival of many birds during a big freeze.

He added: "Farmers can really help in giving winter food to birds by providing two hectare areas of wild bird seed mixes to every 100 hectares of arable land, or five hectares of over-wintered stubble. These measures can be put in under ELS agreements and commitments to the Campaign for the Farmed Environment. We have also asked farmers to consider spreading grain on farm tracks and next to hedges."