Scottish farmers are being encouraged to sign up for a project which monitors the state of the nation’s farmland birds.
The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s (GWCT) Big Farmland Bird Count will take place from February 3-19, and all land managers are being asked to spend just half an hour at some point during those dates on one spot on the farm counting the birds they see and then submitting the results.
The aim is to build a national picture of the species which are benefiting from conservation efforts and which are most in need of help.
This is the tenth year of the project and GWCT says that since 2014 more than 11,000 counts have been carried out across the UK.
Ross Macleod, the GWCT’s head of policy in Scotland, said: “It’s an opportunity for farmers to see and review what they are doing – and indeed can do – to aid biodiversity recovery.
“There are multiple pressures on farmers, yet many of them do so much to support wildlife, often unnoticed by the public.”
He added that land managers could make an immediate difference by adopting effective conservation measures, such as providing supplementary winter feed or growing crops specifically to provide seed for birds.
The latest assessment of the status of the UK’s birds, the Birds of Conservation Concern 5 list (2021), suggests that farmland birds need all the help they can get as more than one in four UK bird species in serious trouble.
Signing up for the GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count is free and no specialist knowledge or equipment is required.
To get involved in the count visit bfbc.org.uk where bird guides can be downloaded.
