Blogs

This summer the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) Scotland is inviting supporters and interested members of the public to join them for guided walks on two outstanding grey partridge recovery projects with a chance to spot this increasingly rare bird.

Once found in abundant flocks across Britain's farmland, grey partridges are now largely confined to areas where land managers actively create the conditions they need to thrive. Rebuilding populations requires a carefully balanced approach - providing suitable nesting cover, abundant insect-rich habitat for chicks and effective predator management. 

I visited one of our longest established floral field margins over the weekend. Stepping out of the truck prompted four skylarks to ascend, filling the sky with birdsong. This part of the farm is the bastion of the skylark, away from the wooded areas down by the village, these large open fields are their favorite place.

When people think of wildflower meadows, they often picture colourful displays of orchids, knapweeds and oxeye daisies buzzing with pollinators. What is less obvious is the careful management required to create and maintain these habitats, and the important role that farmers play in ensuring they continue to support wildlife alongside productive agriculture.

Join the GWCT at this year's Game Fair at Ragley Hall on 24-26 July.  

This spring, we have established 6.7 hectares of AB9 Winter Bird Seed Mix across our 320-hectare farm at the GWCT Allerton Project in Loddington. 

Thanks to the generosity of our guests and supporters, the Foraging Feast successfully raised over £10,000 for the GWCT, an incredible achievement that will have a fantastic impact.

For many GWCT supporters, the importance of pollinators hardly needs explaining. So rather than rehearse the usual messages about bees and butterflies, perhaps it is more useful to ask: where should we be focusing our efforts if we want the biggest return for wildlife?

The new Minister of State for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Stephen Morgan, is to be welcomed into his important new role during one of the most consequential months in the department’s history – the rollout of what must, surely, be the final iteration of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) after a decade of arrested development and false starts under his six predecessors.

Across the farmland sites that the GWCT monitors for insects, 2025 will likely be remembered not simply as a poor year for insects, but as a revealing one.