'Tidy' hedges blamed for decline in farmland birds......

[El Annie]

In conserv@tion today - http://www.habitat.org.uk/news1.htm

Hedgerows would produce up to 150 times more berries, the food of many declining birds such as the song thrush, if they were cut every three years instead of every year, scientists said yesterday. A full farm-scale evaluation of the effect of hedge-cutting frequency on hawthorn berry yields has pinpointed the tractor-mounted flail cutter as a likely culprit in the decline of the song thrush on farmland over the past 30 years. Number have fallen nearly 70 per cent.
More information - Telegraph

[Andy Bright]

I read about this one in the Telegraph today.... I wanna know what the Sloe Chocolate is all about that Farmed Environment Company is making??. Should Thorntons be informed?
Oddly enough I sold some pics to them recently, pity they didn't pay in Sloe Chocolate ;)
Andy

[paula]

Around me the farmers cut some hedges twice a year even. It pains me to see it. There is not a berry left for the birds. No wonder I seem to be feeding all the finches from miles around, costing me a fortune in black sunflower seeds.
Farmer down the road absolutely wrecked a lovely wildlife hedge during the summer. All the above to 'Keep Devon Tidy'.
The ploughing is also done in a most destructive manner; right up into the hedge, not to mention the early ploughing in order to get the winter corn in. Not a morsel left for the birds.
Í feel there is only one way and that is for farmers to be paid to treat their land in a more wildlife friendly fashion.

[peter hayes]

I agree, Paula. The way they do it these days is savage. And they reckon they should be paid for being custodians of the environment/landscape!