Update - May 2011
BirdAid report - October 2010 to May 2011
The BirdAid Project is now in its 8th year. Funding is provided by the Friends of Wychwood on an annual basis and by Alan & Louise Spicer. The Ditchley Estate continues to support three sites by providing two tons of tailings (left over seed and small grain), enabling the scheme to be a great benefit to large numbers of yellowhammers and other farmland birds. The number of volunteers involved in this project on a regular basis is up to 20 many of whom put in daily effort at most of the feeding stations. An exciting event took place this spring as BBC South commissioned a programme on the British countryside and Chris Packham came to a site in West Oxfordshire to talk about the demise of the farmland birds with Dr. Alan Larkman and how they could be helped. This programme appeared on 30th May and most the birds shown were flocks of birds at this site. Also BBC South Today News programme ran a small item on feeding farmland birds in February and filming took place at two sites nearby.
The key site at Over Norton continues to support huge numbers of farmland birds on a daily basis. This year a large area of land (50 acres) was entered into Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) with planting of wild bird seed mix aimed at helping the seed eating birds survive the winter. During the autumn huge flocks of finches and tree sparrows were seen constantly moving around sometimes numbering up to a thousand. An estimate in the region of 1000 tree sparrows were seen taking advantage of the food provided in the form of hanging feeders together with planted seed. Many will have bred (successfully) locally and some may have been attracted from small colonies in the surrounding countryside. It was estimated that in order to keep this population sustained during the year we needed to purchase a metric tonne of millet costing approximately £380 which provided a 20k bag of millet each week.
Yellowhammers continue to be fed along the farm track with up to a tonne and a half of grain a year and numbers regularly peaked at 500 birds, making this the most important site for yellowhammers in Oxfordshire. Corn buntings are fed at a separate feeding station and small numbers of birds have been recorded during winter and spring with one pair setting up a nesting territory.
During the winter large flocks of up to 200 skylarks were seen foraging on the HLS land and in early Spring a flock of approx 300 linnets appeared and were successfully helped through the lean times with oilseed rape and linseed supplied by Alan Larkman, sunflower seeds from the Ditchley Estate and millet seed. Many other birds use the feeding stations including bramblings, stock doves, a covey of grey partridge, goldfinches, blackbirds, song thrushes and house sparrows.
An additional site at Over Norton site is also continuing to improve in the quantity of birds attracted with increasing numbers of yellowhammers (100), tree sparrows and a few corn and reed buntings. This site has also entered HLS and large flocks of seed eating birds have been recorded including brambling (50), linnets (200), chaffinch (250). Other birds seen include lapwing (11), buzzard, kestrel, ravens and red kite. This site uses over half a tonne of grain and birds also benefit from food provided for the cattle.
At the Chipping Norton site there were very few birds until the pheasant feeding stopped in early February when the yellowhammers returned with up to 35 birds a day.. There is a large pheasant feeding farm next door which attracts all the seed eating birds. On one day in February up to 17 corn buntings were sighted. However tree sparrows have disappeared - probably drawn to the large flocks at another bird aid site 2 miles away. Chaffinch numbers were lower and skylarks have disappeared. Up to a tonne of grain is provided at this farm for the birds.
The Charlbury site generally has a similar number of yellowhammers to last winter (max.35) with birds feeding well into May. Other birds such as wood pigeon, robin, blackbird etc also took advantage of the food supply. Another feeding station in Charlbury has had limited success during the winter with only half a dozen birds sighted, but numbers have increased during the summer as feeding continues. A tonne of tailings altogether is provided at the two sites.
Hailey now has several feeding stations starting in the paddocks and progressing into the garden. Large numbers of yellowhammers are seen daily with flocks of over 50 birds. Feeding again continuing into summer taking advantage of food provided. Both yellowhammers and linnets are nesting in local Breach Wood - possibly a spin-off of feeding here. Millet is being provided as there has been the occasional sighting of tree sparrows. Up to a tonne of tailings and wheat is provided at this site.
The site at Crawley continues to improve in hedgerow cover and consequently attracting more birds. The target species of yellowhammers are increasing with up to a dozen seen regularly. Again these birds continue to feed during the summer months. Other birds such as goldfinch, dunnock, greenfinch and song thrushes are taking advantage on the increased hedgerows and feeding stations. Half a tonne of tailings is provided at this site.
A site at Fawler to replace the Finstock site was tried for most of the winter but failed to attract any of the target species.
Conclusions
This winter started very early with vicious conditions for all birds and many must have perished due to extreme cold and very deep snow cover. Accessing feeding stations was an endurance test for all volunteers and areas of land had to be continually cleared in order to provide a hard surface for feeding to take place successfully. I am indebted to all those people who struggled to keep the birds fed especially those sites out in the deeper countryside.
Although the benefits of seed feeding areas provided by Higher Level Sterwardship mean that huge numbers of seed eating birds are sustained during the winter, this still leaves a gap in available food for late winter and the whole of spring when supplementary feeding is essential. Thus the Bird Aid Project is providing a lifeline for farmland birds and enabling numbers to build up significantly. In particular the endangered tree sparrow has responded in an incredible and unforseen way to the provision of millet which it takes throughout the whole year. However in order to progress its recovery it would be good to expand the number of feeding stations in the area. This is unfortunately not viable at present as the cost would be too much and also more volunteers would be needed on an almost daily basis to look after the sites. Generally most of the sites came into their own after pheasant feeding had stopped in early February. However it is important to start feeding in November so that the birds know where food is available when it is needed.
I must also thank all those people who have kept records for me - every sighting is valuable and helps us to understand the bigger picture of what is happening in the countryside.
Louise Spicer
June 2011
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