February

It’s been a busy start to the new year for the Scottish Lowlands research team. We’ve spent the last few weeks setting up gamebird feeders to carry out research into supplementary winter feeding for farmland birds.

GWCT research has repeatedly demonstrated the importance and benefits of targeted, legal and humane predator control for the conservation and management of game and wildlife. Trapping in Scotland, be it for foxes, mustelids or corvids, is regulated by a large number of laws, General Licenses and codes of best practice. Acting in accordance with these various regulations is now more challenging and important than ever.

As one of the PepsiCo FAB pilot farms, Easter Rhynd is currently working with the project team to demonstrate how productive farming does not need to suffer when measures for biodiversity are introduced. Each of the farms in the project is slightly different, which provides some brilliant assets to learn from.

Although farmer clusters have been going in England since 2012 and have been immensely successful (with over 100 connected to GWCT now established) unfortunately in Scotland we have not seen this same level realised. So why is this, and what can we do to kick-start their uptake in Scotland?

Now that the shooting season is over, many gamekeepers in the uplands are able to dedicate more time again to the condition of their grouse populations. February and March is the ideal time for assessing the infestation with strongyle worms and adjusting the administration of medicated grit accordingly.

Last year more than 1,700 farms across the UK took part in the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Big Farmland Bird Count and more than 460,000 birds of 149 different species were recorded across over 1.5 million acres of farmland. A huge achievement.