CWCT meeting of Trustees and members on Wed 7th April

An item of interest is to discuss the management of a small area to be reserved as a meadow. A goverment report on this topic has beeen circulated for comment. GUIDELINES FOR GROWING SEED CROPS TO FEED FARMLAND BIRDS IN WINTER INTRODUCTION These guidelines have been produced using the results of a three-year DEFRA-funded project carried out by the Allerton Research and Educational Trust with the Game Conservancy Trust, which researched the use of seeding crops and other plants by seed-eating birds in winter and also measured seed persistence and depletion rates. Also as part of the project, a large scale survey carried out by the British Trust for Ornithology quantified the value of game crops, wild bird cover on set-aside, and wildlife seed mixtures in the pilot Arable Stewardship scheme. Information from other trials has also been drawn on where relevant. The work showed that growing crops to feed seed-eating birds over winter can be a valuable way of providing food for these species which can otherwise be scarce on modern farmland. It is thought that lack of food during winter may be an important factor in the decline of seed-eating farmland birds. The crops were also used by predominantly insectivorous birds such as thrushes and the dunnock, and by gamebirds. For these species, the provision of cover and favourable conditions for invertebrates may also be important.