Farmers, landowners and gamekeepers across the country are being urged to take part in the Big Farmland Bird Count (BFBC), which is back for the sixthsuccessive year.
The nationwide citizen science project calls on farmers, land managers and gamekeepers to spend 30 minutes spotting species on their patch of land between February 8 and 17 withthe results establishing which farmland birds are thriving due to good conservation efforts while also identifying those in most need of help.
Dave Parish, Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust Scotland’s head of lowland research, said: ‘Many farmers do a lot on their farms to encourage birds and other wildlife, but the wider public doesn’t really seem to appreciate that yet. ‘We are hoping that as many farmers as possible will spend just half an hour counting birds on a part of their farm so that we can tell everyone about the good work that is going on.’ Last year saw a record-breaking 1,000 responses to the UK count, recording 121 species across 950,000 acres. A total of 25 red-listed species were recorded, withfive appearing in the 25 most commonly seen species list.