THE Big Farmland Bird Count (BFBC) has secured a ‘best-ever year’, with 140 species recorded over 1 million acres.

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) initiative took place between February 8 and 17, and results showed 1,400 people took part - a 40 per cent increase on last year.

In Wiltshire, 53 farmers took part, recording 87 species across 58,671 acres. The most commonly seen species in Wiltshire were woodpigeon, chaffinch, pheasant, blackbird and rook, and a total of 17 red-listed species were recorded.

“It’s brilliant to see an increase in the number of participants,” said Jim Egan, who has co-ordinated the count for the past six years.

“I’m particularly pleased by the way the facilitation funds and farmer clusters have worked together to embrace this across a landscape scale.

“The fact that in, many cases, farmers and birders have worked together and inspired each other shows the power of sharing our skills and knowledge. A huge congratulations to everyone involved.”

The five most recorded birds seen across the whole initiative were woodpigeons, starlings, lapwings, black-headed gulls and rooks. A total of 148,661 of these species were found, making up nearly 50 per cent of the total number of birds recorded.

Minette Batters, president of the National Farmers’ Union of England and Wales (NFU), the main sponsor of the count, said: “It is often unappreciated that many farmers provide habitats and additional feeding for birds during the winter months.

“The BFBC is a fantastic way for farmers to record the birdlife found on their farms. That is why I was really pleased that the NFU could sponsor this year’s count and that so many more farmers took part.”

She added: “I’d like to thank all those farmers who braved Storm Erik on launch day to carry out the count despite driving rain and strong winds. It’s great that many different threatened species were recorded this year such as lapwing and fieldfare that I saw on my own farm.”

Farmers from every county in England took part and there were also responses from Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Austria.

The survey areas included important environmental features such as hedges, woodland ponds, grass margins, ditches and trees.

To view the results go to bfbc.org.uk/2019results