Following input from a young wildlife management volunteer on the RSPB’s Northward Hill nature reserve in Kent, the charity has planted an acre of seed mix to benefit farmland birds and vital insect pollinators.

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Workers at the reserve converted an acre of grazing meadow to wildflower bed, planting 25kg of special plant mix to provide food for bees and farmland birds. The mix is made up of sunflowers, red millet, mustard, barley and kale which will all flower and seed at slightly different times, providing food for birds and insects which provide essential ‘ecosystem services’ including pest control and pollination to neighbouring orchards and farms.

The RSPB wildlife management volunteers said their cover crop will provide year-round benefits for these animals.

Simon Ginnaw, one of the workers benefitting from wildlife management training at Northward Hill, said, “Farmland birds are in sharp decline and farmers can do something about that. RSPB Northward Hill is a farm as well as a nature reserve so I thought I would practise what we preach and the benefits will be worthwhile to the birds, the public, and demonstrate for farmers what is achievable.”

He commented on the effect planting the wildflower mix has had, “The sunflowers were up first, and the mass of insects has attracted hunting little owls and whitethroats into the field. The seed heads will keep the rare corn bunting and skylark through the winter and attract all the other finches and hopefully rarities such as yellowhammer, tree sparrow and migrants like the brambling and Lapland bunting. By spring next year, the remnant seeds on the ground will be attractive to turtle doves. The kale provides shelter to birds from the elements and predators as it remains in leaf through the winter.”

Planting such a seed mix comes as a recommendation for agri-environment measures under the voluntary Campaign for the Farmed Environment, which seeks to improve the environmental record of farming and support farmland biodiversity, which is falling across Europe.

The RSPB is a partner in the industry-dominated campaign, and is urging farmers around the country to act to improve biodiversity and support wildlife. Possible measures include planting wildflower margins on the edges of fields or other unproductive land, which has been shown to provide much needed support for birdlife in the area.

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