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| Brown Hares and Corn Buntings |
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Page 5 of 5 Skylarks also declined as farming grew more intense, and these grassy areas provide nesting sites and food for them too. As for hares, the long grass and hedges are essential for cover, especially for leverets (young hares); grasses and herbs are needed for food when there are no young cereal crops and fields are left bare. Hares need a continual supply of young growth to feed on all through the year, as there would have been in the days of crop rotation and mixed farming. Modern cereal growing usually means growing crops on the same ground year after year, with all fields cleared and harvested at once, leaving bare soil for long stretches. At such times hares may starve. It is an irony that the first cultivations in Britain once encouraged and benefited these species, but modern day farming is seeing to their decline. The facts are that Skylark populations are down by well over 50 per cent since 1970, and Corn Buntings by over 60 per cent. Hares have declined also, and at present, they, and their close relatives Mountain Hares, are the only game animal in Britain with no closed season. As they start to breed in February, tens of thousands of leverets starve to death every year because their parents are shot in February or March. This scheme at Trevose Head shows what can be achieved by cooperation between farmers and conservationists, leaving a legacy that can be enjoyed by future generations. It is part of a parcel of land from Watergate Bay to Pentire, managed sensitively by local farmers under a stewardship scheme. Advice and some funding come from the Action for Birds in England programme, involving a partnership between Natural England and the RSPB. The Corn Buntings and other wildlife have certainly benefited from this. I plan to visit next spring in the hope of seeing the hares boxing (when females fend off the attentions of unwanted males) and also to see and enjoy the birds that were once so plentiful in our countryside. |
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