There has been a significant decline in songbirds across the UK due to agricultural intensification resulting in the depletion of their food resource. Our work on commonly used game crops has shown that these crops can be attractive to many bird species across the country and can help improve their numbers.
Currently, the majority of research into songbird survival and the benefits of game crops have been conducted in large scale arable farming systems and not upland/hill-edge grazing landscapes. On the farm we have seven game crop plots which were previously used when the farm was a pheasant shoot. Currently we are utilising three plots as trial sites. We aim to contribute towards the research which has been carried out across the UK.
Kings Crops (a specialist cropping organisation) has developed a suitable crop mix which will thrive on our hill edge farm. To begin with we had difficulty establishing the highland cereal mix due to a significant over population of rabbits and a low soil pH (4.7), both of which inhibit crop success. In 2017 we managed to successfully establish our game crops by rabbit fencing each plot.
A noticeable difference in song bird variety and abundance has been noted and we now see greenfinch and brambling which were not present before the establishment of the game crops and there has been an increase in numbers of yellowhammer, chaffinch, linnets, twite and siskin. The game crop plots have also proven invaluable to our wild pheasant population and small wild-bird shoot.