Ahead of International Dawn Chorus Day on Sunday 7 May, NFU Graduate trainee Gemma Harvey took part in an early morning farm walk in Warwickshire to experience and capture the amazing sounds of birdsong. She writes:
Organised by Warwickshire Rural Hub and kindly hosted by the Darbishire family, the walk was led by Matt Willmott of Kings Seeds, who provided a wealth of knowledge about the birds that we encountered along the way, identifying each bird song with ease, which is more than I can say for myself, who I’m ashamed to say even struggled with the common Robin’s song.
:: Listen to clips recorded on the farm on Soundcloud here.
The abundance of bird species we encountered was incredible, Matt identified at least 30 different species as we wove our way around the 450 acre mixed sheep and arable farm.
The richness of bird species at Hill Farm is not a coincidence, over the past few years Hugh Darbishire has been working hard to incorporate conservation into everyday farming practice and the richness of bird species highlights the success of his efforts.
Nowhere was this more evident than in the fact that we heard seven Song Thrushes throughout the course of the walk, a bird which is red listed as a bird of serious conservation concern, it’s population declined by 70% between 1970 and 1995, so to encounter so many within the space of just two hours was very encouraging.
:: Download our poster which shows how farmers help farmland birds here
Hugh’s excellent work at Hill Farm serves to illustrate how, with a little bit of effort and a few minor changes to farm practises, the diversity of farmland bird populations can be vastly improved, helping to turn the tide on the widely publicised declining farmland bird populations.