Crow Predation

Paul, the head keeper at Overbury sent me this picture of a crow that was living on the farm. Under the nest was a total of 56 pheasant eggs and 5 partridge eggs. These eggs were all from wild bird nests and just goes to show the damage that just one pair of these predators can do to the native bird populations. There is lots of evidence published by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust www.gwct.org.uk detailing the need to control these predators to help game bird survival but also to have a very positive effect on the LBJ's (little Brown Jobs) ie the rest of the natural bird population (thrushes, blackbirds, yellow hammers etc).

Adjacent to this nest site was a magpie nest which was taken out earlier in the year and it was swamped with thrush and blackbird eggs.

Walking on a Higher Level

On Monday Paul, Rod and I went to Guiting Power, just up in the Cotswolds to have a look around a farm that is doing lots of really good things for farmland birds. We spent the morning looking at habitat creation for chick feed sources, winter food and nesting sites, then in the afternoon it was off for a walk around the farm to look at some examples in the field.

The trip was organised by Natural England and had some really good speakers, notably Peter Thompson from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust www.gct.org.uk