Supplementary Bird Feeding (2022-2025)
This 3-year Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) funded project has significantly scaled up our area’s winter supplementary feeding of farmland birds. 40+ farms now help these farmland birds that have been in such trouble recently.
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In the 2022/2023 winter season we produced and distributed 37 tonnes of bird feed all supplied from farms within the Cluster. For 2023/2024 we've produced 60 tonnes. The added-value of the Cluster enables economies of scale and the birdfeed is much cheaper than buying commercially.
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We have teamed up with ecologists of WildCRU and Oxford’s department of Zoology to undertake some new
research to optimise our efforts. Our farmland bird surveys are producing very encouraging results. We have surveyed farmland bird populations, in feeding sites and non-feeding control sites. On a feeding site in Lyneham, receiving 20kg of birdseed per day, a 2023 survey counted 130 yellow hammers, 460 linnets, 100 chaffinch, 13 reed buntings, 25 goldfinch and 1 brambling in 30 minutes. This provides an invaluable baseline to help Lyneham continue hosting birds and supply the right habitat for them in future.