, via Wikimedia Commons”]
I had a short piece in the Farmers Weekly this week and you can read it here.
But have a look at the image that FW has chosen to go with the article – a nice bunting. But wait a minute – that’s not a yellowhammer or a reed bunting, and it’s certainly not a corn bunting. It looks a little bit like a cirl bunting but it isn’t actually one of them either. No, it’s a rock bunting.
You don’t get many of those round here! In fact – two UK records ever. But, hey!, it’s only wildlife, we don’t need to get our facts right on that in a farming magazine…
By chance – or is it? – I have mentioned rock buntings in an article which I have written recently for Birdwatch, the excellent magazine for birdwatchers, but you’ll have to wait a while before you see that in print and I’ll not give it away here.
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Hmmm, rather amusing in an ironic way that last little paragraph (which looks like part of your piece, Mark, but I assume was penned by Johan Tasker): “The statistics say one thing, but real life experience on many farms suggests the opposite...” In other words we’d rather believe a few pieces of favourable anecdotal evidence from one or two farms than to systematically collected data from across the whole country!
Guy Smith’s claims to farm his own land in a wildlife friendly way may well be true for all I know but the picture he paints of flourishing song birds and raptors is hardly representative of the agricultural lanscape as a whole.
Jonathan – yes Guy certainly does some good work on his own farm, but I think he does quite a lot of harm in his communications by persuading doubting farmers that they need not do too much because there is no problem really.
Birdwatch is the only magazine which has given independence to Scotland before any one else! A recent article on the Solway gave no mention to the fact that there was actually an ‘English’ side to this great area for bird watching!! And of course they did not want to mention the mistake by not printing a letter I wrote to them!
Maybe it’s one of the bite size birds doing well on guy’s farm?
His letter in Private Eye recently was superb, it truly ranked him alongside halocaust deniers and flat earth believers. I know Guy is well meaning and does do some good work for conservation but he sets himself back two paces when he writes such tosh. Thankfully another keen eyed reader pointed out the errors of his way.
Gongfarmer – I agree Guy does some good work on his farm and he knows a bit about birds and other wildlife. I think that makes it even more disappointing that he keeps trotting out messages that suggest to the farming community that the farmland bird decline is a bit of a nature conservation plot rather than one of the signature nature conservation problems of our time.
Stock photos are the way it works – some years ago the EA illustrated one of its regular press outputs with a shot of a leaping pacific salmon.
I read the FW article &, as usual, personal views are deemed to carry more weight than actual scientific numbers. No surprise in that.
Too many farmers & their Union are in denial about wildlife. This does them no credit. Surely they must be concerned that the debate is very likely to move to tackle the huge ££ support they get from the public purse. Every aspect of public spending is under scrutiny.
Farmers in the lowlands get £200/ha subsidy (yes – wow!), & for this they have to meet cross-compliance regulations, most of which are about animal registration, chemical use/storage, & only a small amount requires aspects of land management (such as 1m of unploughed buffer against hedges/ditches – normally full of cleavers, nettles, chickweed).
ELS pays an extra £30/ha, for slightly more work, such as 2m, 4m, or 6m grassy margins, slightly less frequently cut hedges. These dont make a difference.
ELS should be abolished and these basic efforts should be part of the cross-compliance requirements. (ie you dont get £200/ha unless the farm scores enough environmental ‘points’).
This would be a start.
I want to see an overall of farm subsidies, abolishment of ELS, plus better targeted HLS that allows the best bits of farms for wildlife to be improved further, would be my wish for the CAP reform in the UK.
Redwood – very well put, thank you.
From my farm, in the last ten years, I have watched as my neighbours have systematically removed ditches, fences, hedges and inconvenient stands of mature trees to make their fields larger and easier to manage. It is pretty obvious that there is less wildlife as a result, just as it is easy to see the increase when habitats for wildlife are created elsewhere. The personal motivations of farmers vary enormously in respect of wildlife but agriculture is an industry where increasing opportunities for nature is not necessarily profitable and damaging it may not have any negative consequences. In that environment you can expect that the majority view will be defensive indifference.
Giles – welcome and thank you for a very interesting comment.
If anyone wants sources of the facts I use I am happy to give them.
As for the tired old cat-call ‘he’s in denial’, I bow to the sophistication of your argument.
Guy – there’s nothing wrong with the facts you use (more or less) it’s just that there are lots of facts that you don’t use. Just tell us what the Farmland Bird index has done since 1970 – go on! You can do it! Or maybe you can’t bring yourself to say, in public, that farmland birds reached their lowest ever level in 2010? http://archive.defra.gov.uk/evidence/statistics/foodfarm/enviro/observatory/indicators/d/de5_data.htm
and http://www.defra.gov.uk/statistics/files/Wild-bird-populations-in-the-UK-1970-2010-National-Statistics-Release.pdf
Here’s a reminder of my blog at the time which quotes the Defra news release fairly extensively. https://markavery.info/2011/12/02/farmland-birds-reach-lowest-point-records-began/
Think Giles may live in a strange area totally opposite to all the farms in this area.To remove ditches is stupid as they are need to carry water away and not many farmers would do that.Mature trees of course are a crop.Thought that hedges could only be removed by getting permission but of course fields have to be big enough for modern machinery and do not forget who planted all these hedges(previous farmers).Would think it a fact that more miles of hedges set on farms today than are taken out.
In short I question some peoples observation of what majority of farmers are doing.
Dennis – I’m pretty sure you are right that more hedges going in than coming out these days – which is very good. Of course, old hedges are often much better for wildlife than new ones, but we have to start rebuilding the wildlife of the countryside somehow.
Mark – have you noticed the bird on the header of the Early Bird column in the football section of the Racing Post?
Peter – no I can’t say I have. i don’t buy the RP that often these days and rarely look at the football pages. Is it online? Or – do tell…
Ah, I just assumed you would have one to hand. Anyway it ‘s a bit blurry, but it looks decidedly like an American Robin to me. I keep meaning to get on to them about it to ask what’s wrong with using a British bird.
Peter – ahhh yes – I have seen that and you are right. I thought the same but you’ve reminded me. Good point! We should mount a campaign!
I caught the bit of ‘Mary Poppins’ this weekend – look, it was on, and I was busy in the kitchen, OK? – when Julie Andrews launches into the ‘Spoonfull of Sugar’ number.
During the second verse, that talks about a robin feathering its nest, a robin lands on Mary’s hand. Despite the story being set on London, it’s clearly an American Robin.
Hell of a find on Mary’s part…..
Andrew – yes I always switch over after that bit! Radio 4 used to have a ‘countryside’ background noise that was redolent with bee-eater calls.
Speaking as a dreaded ecologist, when I look at most pastures I see monoculture. We know that one species (or very few) supports fewer insects, and so on up the food chain (or web). I have met many farmers who have little or no understanding of this at all. They look at the land and see the same land they always have and you can understand why they feel there is no problem. The facts speak for themselves though and the government and farming bodies (NFU etc) should be properly and proactively communicating them.
Jo – thank you, you dreaded ecologist, you!
Jo,it is more complicated than it may seem to the general public.Almost all businesses including farming have had to become larger to survive and in farming that has meant that almost all farms have had to specialise in mostly one or two crops or one type of animal and so farmers are concentrating on these.Probably the only way forward for more wildlife I would suggest is to grow specialist small areas for these birds and butterflys and insects etc.Think most farmers are aware that monoculture not good for wildlife if they told the truth but unfortunately the environment schemes do not reward those most important areas well enough compared to the simple things that are not working to improve wildlife.