It’s cold, it’s wet and it’s freezing. It is the hardest time of the year for birds. That is why any lifeline that can be thrown to them now will be a real help.
This is what a group of farmers who are participating in the Yellowhammer Recovery Project are doing today on the outskirts of Comber. They are finding out how growing a mix of seed crops, such as oats and linseed – known as Wild Bird Cover – as part of the Countryside Management Scheme will provide the birds food during these harsh months and tie them over until spring.
The Yellowhammer Recovery Project has been running now for over three years. Set up by the RSPB in partnership with NIEA and DARD, its aim is to find out if some of the arable options in the scheme, which has been specially designed for declining seed-eating farmland birds, such as yellowhammer, tree sparrow and linnets, are successful.
“Yellowhammers and other birds like them have gone down by 90 per cent over the last 30 years,” said Claire Barnett, RSPB. “We have been working for more than a decade to try and help these birds return. Schemes like these are crucial part of the plan and we need to know if they work.”
Claire is in charge of the project that compares farms in the Countryside Management Scheme which take action for the birds by taking up some of the arable options available to them in the CMS and those farms which are not in the CMS. She has organised the morning to give farmers an opportunity to see the establishment of the Wild Bird Cover on the ground and discuss their experiences.
Farmer Jim Prentice, whose farm this is taking place on, has been growing the crop now for six years. He has yellowhammers, linnets, tree sparrows and reed buntings.
“All of these birds are in trouble and it is a great credit to Jim that they are doing so well on his farm,” said Claire.
Present at the morning was also David Gillispie and John Scott from DARD’s Countryside Management Branch, David said “DARD considers the work done by farmers to enhance the well-being of the countryside as extremely important.”
For more information on the Wild Bird Cover contact your local DARD Countryside Management Branch or for more info on the Yellowhammer Recovery Project, call Claire Barnett on 02890491547 or email claire.barnett@rspb.org.uk.