Today sees the publication of two interesting and important studies of the impacts of predator species on their prey's populations. I'll discuss them both here in this blog. This post is about the analysis carried out by the BTO (with the University of St Andrews and the Game and Wildlife Conservation...
I spent the morning with a group of farmers at a conference at Hatfield House where I talked about what we had achieved at Hope Farm in terms of profitable farming and increased bird numbers. It was a good event and I enjoyed the chat. But it didn't come as a great surprise when the first question...
On Friday i did an interview with BBC Breakfast at the RSPB's Hope Farm. Chris Bailey, our farm project manager, and I did our bit on '2 turtle doves ' from the 12 days of Christmas . You can see it tomorrow if the programme isn't totally dominated by Chris Hollins's winning of Strictly...
The RSPB bought Hope Farm ten years ago. Our aim was to manage a bog-standard arable farm (in Cambridgeshire) as a commercial farm but at the same time to increase its bird numbers. And it has worked! I'm glad it has worked because it felt as though we were sticking our necks out quite a long way...
Back in the spring and summer we were lobbying for set-aside to be replaced with a mandatory set of actions for farmers to implement to benefit wildlife. That didn't happen, instead Defra went for a voluntary option for farmers. The NFU's and CLA's Campaign for the Farmed Environment , their...
Did you know last weekend was ' European Bat Weekend ', organised by the splendidly-named Eurobats ? No, me neither. Despite this oversight, I'm pleased to say that I've enjoyed some bats lately. You've probably read about Hope Farm , the RSPB's farm not far from Cambridge. It's...
The harvest was completed at Hope Farm a week ago. It's a tricky business getting the timing right. We waited for a dry spell so that we could harvest dry grain and not have to spend money on drying it post-harvest. As you can imagine this is a gamble in a British summer but we got it right and saved...
At Hope Farm the oil seed rape was duly harvested and the yields, although not finalised, look good. But as I drove home yesterday evening the heavens opened and I knew that our wheat harvest would be delayed as a result. At this time of year farmers don't want to see a cloud in the sky. The bird...
The second Ashes test came to a glorious conclusion, unhampered by rain, but the oilseed rape harvest at Hope Farm has started and stopped.
...is barn owl, and this afternoon I had the pleasure of seeing one of the two chicks in the presence of Peter Kendall, President of the National Farmers Union. Everyone likes barn owls - I know they are one of my favourite birds - and it's great to have them at the RSPB's arable farm in Cambridgeshire...
Today was an Open Day at the RSPB's arable farm near Cambridge - for founding members of, and donors to, the project. We bought Hope Farm almost 10 years ago and our aim was to increase wildlife there, particularly those farmland birds whose populations have declined so dramatically, whilst maintaining...