Hedgerows through the winter provide food and shelter for many of our farmland birds and their leaf litter provides habitat for insects and invertebrates. Hedges also prevent soil erosion, water run-off and flooding and have benefits for pollinators through the warmer months. But the drive particularly towards more intensive farming since the 1950s has seen many hedgerows lost. From late November, the blackthorn, hawthorn and holly cling on to their berries. Hedges, farm woodland, field margins, stubbles and headlands, provide a semi natural habitat on which many farmland birds have come to rely when the cold sets in.