Blogs

2026 sees the GWCT’s Big Farmland Bird Count return to its spiritual home of the Allerton Project, the GWCT’s research and demonstration farm on the Leicestershire-Rutland border, where it was originally launched in 2014.

In order to support Scottish participants taking part, the GWCT will be running two free bird ID sessions. These workshops will provide you with the skills required to identify birds you may encounter during the count and how to record them, and will be followed by a short walk to practice your new skills.

As winter seems to be in full swing, many organisations are encouraging us to feed the birds. They are reminding everyone to maintain consistency, while also advising on what and how to feed for the best results. This is largely targeted towards garden birds, which can be significant when our gardens make up 4.6% of the land use in the UK. However, farmland makes up a huge 72% of the land use in the UK.

Farmers from the Arun to Adur Farmer Group have met up with local ornithologists to get some help from the experts to do their Big Farmland Bird Counts.

A group of around 60 farmers and families gathered for a special Big Farmland Bird Count social event at Adfa Village Hall in Powys, mid-Wales, in preparation the UK’s annual census of farmland birds.

As well as providing a snapshot of the bird population on UK farms, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Big Farmland Bird Count aims to raise awareness of the vital role Working Conservationists such as farmers and other land managers play in helping farmland birds. For children it is a chance to look, to listen, and to learn – not only about the birds and how to spot them, but also how counting them can help us understand which of our birds are in the most serious trouble and what we can do to help.

Join FWAG East advisors ahead of this year's Big Farmland Bird Count survey for a two-hour farm walk on the Herts/ Cambs/ Essex border to hone your farmland bird identifications skills.

The annual monitoring of breeding songbirds at the Allerton Project now represents a long-term dataset spanning 33 years. Overall songbird numbers remain around 70% higher than they were at the start of the project in 1992.

Eleanor Williams looks at the Big Farmland Bird Count as it celebrates its 10th birthday.

Songbird feeders come in many shapes and sizes and are a common sight in gardens, filled with hundreds of different seed and grain mixes to suit a variety of birds and beak sizes. Yet despite the options available, the reality is overwinter feeding options for songbirds in farmland settings remain somewhat limited. So that is something we are aiming to change with our new songbird feeder research in Scotland.