2024 Big Farmland Bird Count under way as farmers urged to take part
Date of alert:
Wednesday, 7 February 2024
Crime Ref:
Force:
National
This year's Big Farmland Bird Count has officially begun, with farmers and landowners encouraged to find out what's on their land.
Around 60 people attended the 2024 launch on Friday 2 February, which saw the count return to the place where it began 10 years ago – the Barker family’s farm in Suffolk.
It was here, at Lodge Farm, a 545-hectre arable farm near Stowmarket, that the launch of the first ever Big Farmland Bird Count (BFBC) was held in 2014.
Farmers and representatives from the RSPB, NFU, Wildlife Trusts, Natural England, Defra and Suffolk County Council came along, as did the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, Martin Seeley, who has a keen interest in wildlife and agriculture.
Founder of the BFBC, Jim Egan, of Kings Crops, was also present and gave a glimpse of how it all started back in 2014 when he was working for the GWCT.
Encouraging farmers to take part, he said: “Please don’t be scared. Even if you think ‘I don’t know my birds well enough’, don’t worry.
"Just get out there and have a go, find out what’s on your land and even if all you recognise is a robin, blue tit and pigeon, that fine.
