After many members of the Denbigh and Flintshire chapter of the Farmers’ Union of Wales contacted the union expressing concerns over the decline in upland bird populations, the FUW has said it will promote debate and research into the phenomenon.

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The Union will be seeking reasons behind the decline in iconic bird species, such as the curlew and lapwing at the Denbigh & Flint County Show, being hosted on Thursday (August 16) after it revealed “the issue has prompted numerous Farmers’ Union of Wales members to raise their concerns directly with the union.”

FUW said Visitors to its stand will have the opportunity to complete a questionnaire on the topic which will feed into a forum the union’s Denbigh and Flintshire county branches will host in the autumn.

Last month, the union was at the centre of a spat which erupted after its Ceredigion county chair, Fred Williams claimed conservationists have been “failing uplands birds by turning a blind eye to predation” of the birds by foxes, badgers and crows. The comments were made in response to a report released by Welsh environmental consultancy Ecology Matters, which suggested that intensive farming practices and overgrazing by sheep could be contributing to the loss of birdlife from Plynlymon, mid-Wales. 

Studies conducted in Wales’ uplands by Ecology Matters and the Welsh Kite Trust revealed numbers of iconic bird species have dropped dramatically since 1984. Golden plover have declined by 92 per cent on Plynlymon and red grouse numbers have fallen by 48 per cent. Four species, teal, peregrine, ring ouzel and black headed gull, were revealed to have become extinct in the area.

Whilst the situation is undoubtedly a complex one, and the causes for the declines are thought to be manifold, Badger Trust spokesperson Jack Reedy countered the argument that predation is the major cause of declines in these species. He said, “The fact remains that throughout aeons of evolution the badger and the ground nesting birds coexisted quite happily as species until economics - agricultural and sporting - arrived in recent centuries. The RSPB [has] concluded that the badger does not constitute a threat to any bird species.”

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