Volunteering

Practical conservation and survey work

Volunteers and farmers making a difference - Liz Taylor

Adult yellowhammer
Do you fancy helping out with our Volunteer & Farmer Alliance?

Over the past four years, I have participated in the Volunteer & Farmer Alliance surveys of farms. It was a way of combining my hobby with some useful research and contributing to knowledge about the effects of changes in farming practice on the bird populations.

As a by-product, I found that regularly visiting sites at a key time of year honed my bird call and song identification skills.

Each year I have added some more special moments to my birding memories, but I wanted to share just one morning from one year with you. I started my survey at just after 5.30 am. The sun was just rising and it was of those early summer mornings when the dew burnt off quickly and the dawn chorus was not at full throttle, but there was plenty of bird activity.

The yellowhammers and whitethroats were still singing from the vantage points, with the whitethroats performing their short but acrobatic flights above the hedges, and scolding loudly when you got too near to their nest territories. 

Swallows and house martins were trying to encourage their first broods to fly calling to them for the overhead telegraph wires

The tree sparrows were taking advantage of the feed that had been put out for the pheasant poults, and collared doves, greenfinches and house sparrows were making full use of the leftover grain in the barns. Swallows and house martins were trying to encourage their first broods to fly calling to them for the overhead telegraph wires. 

A turtle dove was calling from a tree on the edge of the farm and green woodpeckers were ‘yaffling’ as if there was no tomorrow. 

A buzzard was sitting in a boundary tree, waiting for the day to warm up sufficiently to create some good thermals, a kestrel concentrating on its prey hovered just a little too close and, for the ensuing five minutes, I watched enthralled as the two birds established boundaries and ‘pecking order’. 

Hare raising

The wheat was about a foot high and I was able to walk through without too much disturbance. I was recording some sightings of a kingfisher that had passed through the azure and orange flash alerting me to its shortcut, when I heard a rustling in the wheat. 

There was no sign of movement and I put it down to the wind, and started to walk forward. As I did so, the rustling occurred again and down the tractor track came a hare. It was so intent on its journey that it had not noticed me and it wasn’t until it reached my boots that it looked up and realised that it was not alone. 

For a split second we stood still, looking at one another and assessing the situation, then I spoke quietly –’excuse me’, and the hare turned and took an intersection towards the edge of the field. I continued on my way, noting that the buzzard was now starting his morning flight and the kestrel had been successful in his hunt. 

My records for the day reflect the birds I saw and their behaviour and will contribute to the Volunteer & Farmer Alliance scheme. My own memories of the day make me want to continue to participate, how else would I have the opportunity for such special moments?

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Last modified: 10 December 2004