The home of Britain's Working Conservationists
One of the first tasks when I started my role as Uplands Research Assistant was to investigate if there was a relationship between the start time of a transect and the number of sightings of meadow pipit, the most common insectivorous moorland bird and a key food of breeding merlin.
With the merlin gone for the winter, we have been busy in the uplands taking field measurements to understand what makes habitats suitable for nesting merlin.
As farmers across the country focus their attention on the Big Farmland Bird Count it’s time to reflect on how songbird numbers on our own farm have changed since the Allerton Project started thirty years ago.
The capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) is a truly magnificent species, one that almost seems too significant and primeval to occur in the small remaining pockets of Caledonian pine forests in the 21st century.
Although it is widely thought that the little owl is a native species, it is not, having been introduced to Britain from the continent in the 1800s. From then they quickly spread, and by the 1920s they could be found in Scotland and Wales.
All bird ringing is conducted under licenses issued by the British Trust for Ornithology. Filmed by Ted Cornish, part funded by Welsh Government Green Recovery Fund.
The grey partridge’s annual appearance in festive carols and cards is a good reminder to make plans for habitat improvements to help this much-loved farmland bird throughout the year.
If you read the headlines around the recent Birds of Conservation Concern report, you’d have been rightly worried about the fate of many of our much-loved bird species. One group that is suffering more than most is aerial insectivores – birds that feed by capturing insects in flight, or ‘on the wing’ as it is more commonly known.
The Owl Box Initiative is delighted to be celebrating it’s one year anniversary and after a busy year for everyone involved, and particularly for the breeding barn owls across our study sites, we thought we would look back on an exciting year of conservation, monitoring and engagement.
The UK’s farmers, gamekeepers and land managers are being urged to get involved in the GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count from 4-20 February 2022, and make a crucial difference to wildlife.