They're counting on us

At a time when farming feels very distant from many people's lives, the GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count is a prime opportunity to bridge that gap while helping our wild birds, says Gabriel Stone

- Gabriel Stone

CAN YOU tell a meadow pipit from a corn bunting at 50 yards? Or does your avian taxonomy tend towards the somewhat vaguer LBJ' school of identification? Even if spotting a 'little brown job' does lift the spirits, too often this country's birdlife forms little more than pleasant background music to a busy day. If you have noticed that music has become rather quieter since you were a child, you may well be right. Government data on the UK's wild bird population between 1970 and 2023 shows a 63% decline in farmland birds during that period. When you consider that farmland accounts for 72% of this country, that's a bleak picture both for the birds and the wider ecosystems that sustain them.