Dave Parish News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

The two Rotary clubs in Guernsey come together to plant 28,000 purple crocus bulbs.

The count, run by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, is investigating farmyard bird populations to help reverse their decline.

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 re...

SPECIES RICH border planted next to crops THERE IS still time for farmers to have a say on the future of agri-environment schemes, if they can spare a moment to fill in yet another form. Head of Lowland Research Scotland, at the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, Dave Parish, said: “We recognise that one of the banes of farming is the amount of form filling, and the number of surveys where farmers and land managers are being invited to participate is excessive right now. "Regrettably this is just another one – but it is especially important in terms of how our farms will look and...

Blackbirds remain most common bird species on Scottish farms Blackbirds remain the most commonly seen species of bird on Scottish farms Blackbirds remain the most commonly seen species of birds on Scottish farms, crofts and estates, according to results from this year’s Big Farmland Bird Count. The count, which was launched in 2014 by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), aims to assess the effect of conservation schemes on farms and estates, such as supplementary feeding or growing wild bird seed or game cover crops. A total of 93 species were recorded by 117 Scottish farmers, who...