);
The 2021 GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count is underway. From today (February 5) until Valentine’s Day farmers and land managers across the country will be picking up their binoculars and heading to a corner of their land to spend 30 minutes counting birds. And it is not too late to get involved.
The event, organised by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), is a nationwide survey of farmland birds undertaken voluntarily by farmers and land managers. Last year more than 1,500 people took part.
Participants are asked to spend just 30 minutes recording the birds they see on their land and submit the results to the GWCT for analysis. The count helps to identify the farmland birds that are flourishing and the ones most in need of support.
Farmers to showcase farmland bird conservation work
24 January 2021 |
Farmers and gamekeepers play a crucial role in the future survival of farmland birds
Farmers are being encouraged to get behind this year s Big Farmland Bird Count to showcase the conservation work being done on farms across the country.
The Big Farmland Bird Count returns in 2021, and organisers are asking farmers and land managers - who look after 71% of Britain s countryside - to join in.
The project helps show which farmland birds are benefitting from conservation efforts while identifying the species most in need of help.
The annual count, run by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), is scheduled for the 5 – 14 February 2021.
Feed sheep tree leaves to cut greenhouse gases, study says
20 January 2021 |
Scientists say feeding tree leaves to sheep could help cut greenhouse gases
Introducing tree leaves to a sheep’s diet could play an important role in reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions, new research suggests.
Scientists monitored four groups of six Aberfield x lambs, half of which were fed around 200g of goat willow leaves each per day.
When their urine patches were monitored, they found significant reductions in both nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide in those groups which fed on willow leaves.
The work by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) also found lower emissions of ammonia from urine patches where lambs were fed willow.
The Big Farmland Bird Count is winging its way you - Dr Dave Parish
Last year more than 1,500 farmers across Britain overcame challenging February conditions to make the 2020 Big Farmland Bird Count (BFBC) the biggest across the UK since it was launched in 2014.
Thursday, 7th January 2021, 7:00 am
The five most commonly seen farmland species in Scotland last year were the blackbird (above), pheasant, robin, blue tit and carrion crow