The sound of bird song in the early morning is something that reminds us of our responsibilities to our wildlife and how lucky we are to live in this natural habitat. This month as part of the Big Farmland Bird count, we have been out in the fields bird spotting. This initiative by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust is a great opportunity for us to survey our local wildlife and to identify how well our conservation schemes are working.
We pride ourselves on the natural habitats we have created on our farms and we support our native bird population in a number of ways through our Landscape and Nature Conservation Enhancement Plan, which is part of our commitment to the LEAF Marque standard.
Firstly, we install nesting boxes for hole nesting birds; we have purpose built habitats of nesting boxes which have been created on our farms. We've spotted a number of different species recently, including Barn Owls and a Kingfisher.
We also allow our hedgerows to grow which provides suitable nesting habitat for birds such as Song Thrush and Bullfinch, and we avoid trimming them during the observed nesting period. Also by managing the margins and field perimeters we allow birds such as the Song Thrush to thrive with access to some juicy worms!
So good luck to those of you out on the count this week and we look forward to seeing our young as Spring arrives!