The Skylark is a familiar bird in the UK, renowned for its magnificent song and display flight. Once very common, it's recent and dramatic population declines have put it on the Red List, in fact the UK population fell by 54% between 1970 and 2001. We are very lucky here at Souter as we still have a reasonably healthy population on the property, but there's no harm in trying to increase the numbers that breed here. So this past week we've been busy creating a number of Skylark Plots in the hope of extending the breeding season a little longer than usual. Skylarks occupy open fields to avoid predators. They nest on the ground, in vegetation that is no more than 50cm high. This vegetation must be open enough to give the birds easy access to the ground. In order to sustain the population they need to make 2 or 3 nesting attempts between April and August. That's where the Skylark Plots come in! What we do is cut an area of 10m x 10m and keep it short while the grassy area around it continues to grow higher. This way there is suitably short areas later in the year that Skylarks can use to breed. It's a proven technique that has worked in lots of other places, so we are very hopeful of it working here. If nothing more it will be an interesting experiment, and if we don't try these things we'll never know if they work or not. And let's face it, if we can help our feathered little friends surely it's worth a go!
Ranger Dougie mowing the lawn!
What we're hoping to achieve, lots of lovely healthy chicks!
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