Your Village Hordle April May 19

WILDLIFE MATTERS ……... to all of us
RSPB – ‘Hope Farm’ Project
This article is the first of two about ‘Re-wilding/
Farmland’ projects. Three-quarters of the UK is
farmland. Farmland birds have fallen between
1970 and the present day by 54%. Turtle Dove
numbers plummeted by 97%, Grey Partridge by
92% and Corn Bunting by 91%.
In 2000, I was privileged to be a founder
member of the RSPB Hope Farm project, a 450
acre arable farm in Knapwell, Cambridgeshire.
The project was designed to demonstrate that
farming for wildlife can work and yet still be
profitable. In part, wildlife has declined
because of the removal of hedgerows and
planting crops right up to boundary edges thus,
removing the last areas for wild flowers and
insects to flourish.
The RSPB purchased Hope Farm to research and
demonstrate management techniques which
could be followed by other farmers. Nearly
twenty years later the experimental farming
project has realised many key aspirations.
Skylark: 2010 - 10 territories. 2015 - 43.
The increase is put down to the use of Skylark
plots i.e. land left free of crops to create safe
areas where birds could breed.
Yellowhammer: 2010 - 14 territories, 2015 - 35
territories. 2000/01 - peak winter count - 2.
2015/16 - 723
Turtle Dove: Since 1995 numbers have dropped
by 94%.
Owing to
loss of
habitat e.g.
hedgerows,
scrub and
woodland,
crucial in
providing
nesting
sites. Low
open
Turtle Dove
vegetation
with an abundance of weed seeds is also
required as is fresh water to drink.
England’s ‘Farmland Bird Index’ (FBI) has
dropped by around 10% since 2000. Hope
Farm’s increased in 2015 by 174% from 2000
levels.
Winter Bird Counts: In 2000 the maximum
winter count was 308. In 2015, it had increased
to 2,542.
The three essential ingredients to increasing
farmland birds:
• Safe nesting places
• Food in spring/summer for growing chicks and
• Food and shelter over the winter.
Marbled White butterfly
Butterflies: 2015 - Numbers up by 223% from
2000 levels. The increase is put down to more
wild flowers along the edges of fields that
provide both food and plants that provide egglaying
niches for the butterflies.
Bumblebees: The farm has three times as many
bumblebees as a nearby farm which doesn’t
have so many wild flowers.
Conclusion: The RSPB farming experiment tells
us that not only can a lot be done for wildlife
but the farm can also remain viable.
There’s ‘Hope’ yet.
Further information from:
Keith Metcalf – MCV Conservation Officer
(01590) 645825 or (07771) 918449 or email
keithmetcalf@btinternet.com
www.milfordcv.org
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