Wintering birds on arable land

In the 2011-12 winter we looked at which birds were using which field types. We made fifty visits to count birds in plots on sixteen different field types. The counts excluded birds in hedges or field margins. The results have not yet been analysed in full, but seem to indicate the following:

  • The habitats that seemed of most overall importance were stubbles of cereals (especially if unsprayed), oilseed rape and millet, plus unharvested organic vetch
  • Other habitats like beet stubble and organic green manures can be important in certain situations or for particular species
  • Some species had strong individual preferences
  • Some preferences changed when there was snow cover
  • Having a diverse range of winter arable habitats, especially long-term, well-established stubbles, would help conserve a wide range of species.
Arable land for wintering birds
Oilseed rape stubble – good for Skylark and thrushes

For more detail on all these points read more…

Wintering birds on arable land...read more

In the 2011-12 winter we made counts of birds on sixteen different field types in the part of the farm that is mainly arable. The counts were made by driving through 50m wide plots on each field counting birds seen there, but excluding any less than 20m from the field edge. There were 25 counts in mid-winter (December – January) and again in late winter (January – February). The later period included some days with snow cover, which caused some birds to change their behaviour.

The results have not yet been analysed in full so my comments here need to be treated with some caution. However, below I have summarised what the counts seem to suggest about some of the key bird species on our arable fields:

Species Mid-winter Late winter
(no snow cover)		 Late winter
with snow cover		 Notes
Skylark The most widespread species. Commonest on stubbles of cereals (especially unsprayed), millet, sugar beet and oilseed rape The most widespread species. Commonest on stubbles of oilseed rape and cereals (especially unsprayed), and  mature green manure Mature green manure remained important but most other Skylark moved onto autumn-sown oilseed rape Use of beet and sprayed cereal stubble may be more frequent where weeds like fathen or volunteer millet have grown in the crop or stubble
Linnet Highly dependent on unsprayed cereal stubble with some use of beet stubble Commonest on cereal stubbles (especially unsprayed), but also occasional use of mature green manure Only seen making occasional use of autumn-sown oilseed rape During the period of snow cover, Linnets were seen using wild bird cover strips. They do not usually use this habitat
Yellowhammer By far the greatest concentrations were on millet stubble Only seen on millet stubble None seen on arable fields Yellowhammer use wild bird cover strips throughout the winter. During snow cover they probably moved to these strips
Starling None seen on arable fields On mature green manure and also occasional on pea stubble None seen on arable fields –
Lapwing Commonest on some unsprayed cereal stubble and beet stubble Numbers started to increase with them commonest on cultivated organic land, and pea and oilseed rape stubbles Just one record of a small group on mature green manure –
Meadow Pipit
 Most common on oilseed rape stubble and cultivated cereal stubble Only on oilseed rape stubble On oilseed rape stubble and mature green manure –
Mistle Thrush Commonest on oilseed rape and sugar beet stubble Commonest on oilseed rape stubble, with some use of dry grassland and pea and sugar beet stubbles Oilseed rape stubble use continued and dry grassland became more important –
Stock Dove Commonest on unharvested vetch, with some use of millet and unsprayed cereal stubbles Commonest on unharvested vetch None seen on arable fields The vetch was a seed crop that was not harvested due to late ripening. It is not a regularly grown crop on Abbey Farm
Grey Partridge The second most widespread species. Most frequent in cereal stubbles (especially one sprayed stubble), a cultivated cereal stubble and winter barley This remained a widespread species. Unsprayed stubble became more important along with autumn-drilled oilseed rape and unharvested vetch Commonest in mature green manure, dry grassland, unsprayed cereal stubble and autumn-drilled oilseed rape –
Species Mid-winter Late winter
(no snow cover)		 Late winter
with snow cover		 Notes