THE biggest annual census of wild birds on UK farmland, takes place from Friday, February 7 to 23.
The GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count is organised by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), supported in Scotland by NFUS and sponsored by the NFU across the UK. It has been providing vital data for the past decade about which species are struggling and which are benefiting from on farm conservation efforts.
Farmland birds have declined by 63 per cent in the past 50 years and GWCT says the key to reversing the trend is held by the people who look after 72 per cent of the UK which is agricultural land.
The organisers of the Big Farmland Bird Count are appealing to farmers, and land and wildlife managers and rangers in this region to spend just 30 minutes recording the bird species and numbers of birds on their ground and surrounding land during a two-week window in winter.
Spokesman Ross MacLeod said: “The more farmers and land managers who take part then the more comprehensive a picture we can build about the health of our wild bird populations, and what we could do to help them in balancing productive farming with sound environmental stewardship.”
To find out more, go to