IT was a chilly morning and the backdrop of the stunning snow capped Black Mountains of the Brecon Beacons provided the perfect setting to join in on the Big Farmland Bird Count to identify farmland birds, thanks to Keri and Julie Davies, who farm organically and have five star award winning luxury eco lodges in the village of Crai, near Brecon.
Hosting the Big Farmland Bird Count for the first time, GWCT expert Mike Swan, spoke of what birds to see and what birds to find. With binoculars out in force, farmers and neighbours gathered to find out what birds were present at this time of the year & the challenges they faced.
Birds seen included the Dunncock, Bluetits, Sparrows, Starling, Buzzards, Fieldfare, Pigeon,
“As well as meeting some interesting people and catching up with some old friends, GWCT’s head of education Mike Swan made the day incredibly informative,” says Keri, who having just lambed the first batch of ewes was delighted to turn his attention to finding out what was making the lovely sounds on his farm that he admits are taken for granted far too often.
Although Keri was encouraged to see the rewards of the farms environmental approach having farmed organically for 17 years participating in agri-environment schemes such as Tir Gofal and Glastir, he was surprised to hear that even more could be done to encourage a greater number of birds through planting Kale, Quinoa and Rye buffer zones to help improve the so called hungry gap between Feb and March.
Birds seen were Sparrows, Bluetits, Starling, Robin, Fieldfare, Buzzards, Dunnock.
“We are looking forward to taking part in the National bird count between the 9-18 Feb & encourage everyone to get involved and will be working closely with GWCT in the future to help improve our visitor experience by providing detailed bird identification literature,” concludes Keri.
For more information on the eco-lodges check out www.craivalleyecolodges.co.uk