The washout weather experienced in spring and summer has wrought misery for horticulture, arable and fruit growers, but wildlife will also potentially suffer as a result. Farmland birds and other species arriving in the UK for winter will find food they rely upon in scarce supply this season.

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As migrant birds flock to the UK to overwinter, the government has agreed to help farmers provide extra food. The wet summer has led to very meagre supplies of nuts and berries, which could otherwise be a serious threat to many species after long journeys to this country.

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust has described the outlook for a number of farmland bird species as "extremely grim;" this is especially worrying as a number of these species are already seriously threatened, their numbers having plummeted over the last two decades.

Peter Thompson, Farmland Biodiversity Advisor to GWCT said, "The appalling weather in the UK this summer has proved disastrous for hedgerow berries and fruit and even acorn and beech mast crops are in limited supply. This means that there will not only be a very limited supply of food for a wide range of birds. If we have a prolonged cold winter with a lot of snow, many birds are destined not to survive."

From January 2013 farmers will be paid to provide additional grain during the 'hungry gap' from January to late March, when food supplies are incredibly limited for birds. Mr Thompson added, "This year, it will be even more important for farmers to offer additional food during this critical time of year. This will ensure that many more birds will survive the winter and breed successfully next summer."

However, the task will not be a simple one; the situation in the UK is compounded by the fact that farmers have struggled to grow wild bird seed mixes and cover crops this summer. Continual rain during the growing impacted upon germination and in many cases crops had to be re-sown.

GWCT said its research showed numbers of species including yellowhammers doubled in years when additional grain seeds were provided in feed hoppers during the leanest months of winter.

However, In July, researchers from the UK examined current environmental stewardship measures being adopted in the country, and concluded that uptake and delivery are insufficient to support threatened species, particularly birds. They concluded that "A combination of low uptake of key in-field options that provide winter seed and a failure to cover the late-winter period effectively explains the lack of national population responses [to ES schemes]. Such issues need to be addressed before schemes like Environmental Stewardship will achieve their goals."

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