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Wildlife on the Farm

Wildlife on the Farm

Modern farming has unfortunately taken its toll on many farm land bird species who are finding survival increasingly difficult as our modern farms are becoming ever more efficient at reducing weeds and unwanted insects. Please visit our conservation page to see some of the measures we have put in place that has enabled some of these species to increase.

Barn Owl

In 1984 I could only find three pairs of Barn Owls in Deeping Fen, we had redundant buildings and so I started putting nest boxes in them, which were taken up the next year. This has clearly shown us that nesting habitat was one of the barn owls main hold backs. Over the years I have put more nest boxes up and built three brick towers for them. Countryside Stewardship and Entry Level schemes have helped with wide grass margins and there can be up to 15 pairs of Barn Owls breeding in Deeping Fen in a good vole year. I have wide grass margins and 35 km of cultivated margins all of these must provide food for voles which are Barn Owls main source of food. Last year I had 9 pairs of Barn Owls breeding on my farm. This year I have erected another 6 nesting boxes for them.

Tree Sparrow

Tree Sparrows have always been in Deeping Fen, nesting in old farm buildings or even in the base of Carrion Crow nests as we have so few trees with holes in. About five years ago I noticed I had some centred around some ponds I had dug so I started to feed them on millet. They seemed to like the red millet best so that is what I feed them on. In the last 2 or 3 years numbers have been building up, I now have a colony of 200 in the surrounding area around the ponds where I have been feeding them. I have put up nest boxes for them and they nest in the surrounding redundant farm buildings. The whole population of Deeping Fen is centred around these ponds. Last year I started to replicate these ponds in five other places around my farms hoping for the Tree Sparrows to spread.

Tree Sparrows like House Sparrows need insects to feed their young on and we have more food than nest sites so I have put nest boxes up at various sites around the farms near water as that is where the most insects can be found.

Whitethroat

Whitethroats have increased steadily throughout the years of my surveys. There have always been more pairs on my farms than on other farms.

Whitethroats like to nest in vegetation that is still standing from the previous year, in other words places that weren’t flail mown the previous autumn. I was the first farmer in this area to have wide grass margins and with a redundant ditch beside the wide grass margin, which I have several of, it all helps to widen the type of habitat that they require. I also try to use the flail mower as little as possible.

Whitethroats are summer visitors and arrive during the second half of April. The males arrive first and set up their territories and it gives me great pleasure to hear their scratchy song in various parts of the farm because I know they are in habitat I have created. Like all birds some males move around a bit, maybe if they haven’t attracted a wife after a while they will move. They build a delicate nest always off the ground amongst dead nettle stalks or other dead stalks from the previous year and lay four or five eggs. They are double brooded and have finished their second brood before the end of July.

Numbers fluctuate annually but in the mid 90s we started off with three pairs at Deeping Fen Farm and have had as many as twenty two pairs on that farm of 662 acres.

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warblers like to nest in a wet drain or ditch that has not been mown out for at least two years, they like to nest in more tangled vegetation than Reed Warblers. They arrive with us in April and have finished their second brood by the end of July. They also like to nest in a wet ditch next to an oil seed rape field and in fact three quarters of those birds nesting in Deeping Fen will be next to or in a field of oil seed rape. Their population crashed between 2002 and 2006 but by 2010 it was back up to 2002 levels. The population had dropped because the acreage of oil seed rape had dropped and increased because the oil seed rape acreage had increased.

There is no doubt that the high numbers that I have on Deeping Fen Farm are due to the network of redundant ditches that I have retained. These ditches are cleaned out about every 10 years, by cleaning them out it makes sure that water can flow in them.

Other species

Of course we have other farmland birds on our farm and in our local area. Some of these species are thriving while others are sadly declining and struggling to survive due to our modern world. I could carry on writing for an age but here is a brief list of some of the other farmland bird species we see here in my survey area:

Skylark- in decline from 300 pairs to 200 in the last 20 years.

Grey Partridge- there is a small steady population.

Corn Bunting- in decline - they are one of my favourite birds that I would love to be able to help!

Meadow pipit- sharp decline although they do enjoy my wild flower meadows.

Reed Warbler- enjoy nesting in year old reeds in our drains.

Yellow Wagtail- a major strong hold area for the species but the population is in decline.

Linnet- there are far more Linnets on my farms than others in the area as they enjoy my cultivated weed margins, although the population is in decline.

Lapwing- a local success story with several more species nesting in the last few years.

Mallard duck- they have seen a catastrophic decline due to lack of insects and modern drainage.

Yellow Hammer- a small but stable population.

Turtle Dove- these summer visitors have only ever been declining in my life time.

Pheasant- our wild pheasants are also in decline in the area due to increased predator numbers.

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