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.
It is a misty Saturday morning when we set off from Madehurst Cricket Club near Arundel, heading across the fields with farmer Tim Lock to see if we can spot some birds. It is not long before we hear them, and the binoculars come out.
Adam Huttly from Sussex Ornithological Society is there with two fellow experts, offering advice and help to identify the birds we see and hear.
Ten farmers from around the area have joined the walk to try to learn more about farmland birds and to link up with Adam and the other experts who are offering to come out to their farms to help with their counts.
The list of birds we have recorded by the end of the hour-long walk is impressive:
- Red kite
- Grey partridge
- Greenfinch
- Buzzard
- Starling
- Wagtail
- Song thrush
- Reed bunting
- Pigeon
- Dunnock
- Chaffinch
- Robin
- Skylark
- Common gull
- Pheasant
- Great spotted woodpecker
- Green woodpecker
- Kestrel
- Mistle thrush
Farmer Georgie Heath has enlisted Adam’s help to do the count on her farm at Findon. She says: “This will be the first time for me doing the survey and I’m really looking forward to finding out what birds we have.
“I see lots of birds of prey, but I don’t know all the little birds and it’s really good to learn more about them. We have our own cover crops which provide food for them, but it is also good to understand what else we can do to help them.”
Adam says: “The key here is collaboration. In the past there been too much of a divide between farmers and birders and what we’re doing here is coming together and sharing our knowledge.
“Often farmers are so busy, working flat out seven days a week, that fitting a bird survey in can be hard. That’s where we can step in and help out and try to motivate them to learn and eventually do it themselves.
“We’ve got the expertise and can come onto their land and help identify species and it inspires people. They get excited when they see a bird that they didn’t know they had.
“We also have so much to learn. As birders we know a lot, but as farmers we know nothing, and we need their expertise. By listening to what they are doing, how they are putting in measures such a wildflower margins and cover crops, we learn so much. They can share that knowledge with us, and we can share it with the bird community as positive news.”