Farm News  |   July 23, 2024

Bird Survey 2024

Thank you to everyone who took part in the 2024 bird survey. In this article, Professor John Frank gives an update on the bird census work so far and shares this year’s count…

A young person walks companionably with an adult along one of the farm tracks. The young person is carrying a book and a protective case - perhaps for a camera or binoculars

Over the last three years, I have led four walks each spring to count all the birds nesting on, or using, Lauriston Agroecology Farm and the bordering hedgerows and woods. The bird survey is vital to monitor the success of habitat restoration work at the farm. We hope to see an increase in the number of local species (‘biodiversification’) as a main ecological result. Birds are among the first wildlife to respond to changes in land use – in this case, removing sheep after many decades of grazing, and starting to use agroecology. Therefore, the spring bird census is important for documenting new species of birds nesting for the first time in living memory, particularly meadow birds in the north and middle fields of the farm, now that sheep no longer trample and disturb those grasslands. Sadly, dogs are still occasionally seen in that central protected area, despite clear signage asking dog-walkers not to allow their pets in that area, to protect ground-nesting birds.

 

Using Birdsong for the Count

It is difficult to identify some birds by sight, especially ground-nesters in tall meadow grass, so we use birdsong to get an accurate census. Most volunteers who sign up for the monthly walks from March to June are unfamiliar with the songs and calls of the species we encounter on these walks. Thus, I teach the volunteers all the songs and calls we hear. About thirty people participate each spring, in small groups (the group numbers are kept limited to reduce human conversation, which is not good for hearing bird song!).

We always do the count in the breeding season, when bird song peaks. In the breeding season, birds use their calls to stake out nesting territories, to warn off members of the same species by saying “This spot (and its food resources) are taken!” But we also count birds which do not show clear evidence of breeding, together with birds engaged in breeding who may be carrying nesting materials, actually nesting, or feeding offspring. This is because we are interested in species that visit or fly over and perhaps forage at the farm, not just the local breeders.

 

Participating in the Nationwide Bird Census

We use the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) survey methodology. If you would like to know more about that, click here to go to the BTO Breeding Bird Survey project website.
Following the BTO guidance makes the nationwide census counts as consistent as possible.

The only difference is we don’t use 200 metre transects. The farm is only about 100 acres in total, so we walk around the perimeter, just under two kilometres, following the trail outside the main farm fence. Since birds sing mostly in the early morning hours, our walks start “at the crack of dawn”, at 7am in late March, through to 5:30 am in late June.

 

Encouraging Results

Our census results over the three years so far are very encouraging. They show slowly increasing numbers of species, including some that have clearly returned to the central meadow, such as Skylarks. The hauntingly beautiful song of the Skylark is usually rendered from high in the sky as the males execute their upward spiral and downward ‘float’ display. You can now hear this song every day all spring over the centre of Lauriston Farm, as the birds capitalize on the protected nesting space.

Other species that appear to be increasing in numbers are mostly found in the hedgerows and woodland around the edge of the property: Reed Buntings (along the north edge, nearest the Firth of Forth), Willow Warblers, Whitethroats and Blackcaps (in the copses of trees at the north and west), and, to a greater extent each year, Meadow Pipits (which are quite difficult to see in the grassy areas, but may sit up on the fences/posts, and are clearly breeding, given their calls and behaviour). Meadow Pipits are a keystone species for meadowland, indicating healthy insect populations, on which they feed.

 

Birds Benefiting From Farming Activity

The second type of bird which has appeared in ever-larger numbers over the last few springs are Swallows, House Martins and Swifts. All are insectivores which feed on the wing (and, in the case of Swifts, do not land except when entering their nearby chimney pot/hollow-tree nesting sites). This clearly shows their prey (flying insects) are now back in much greater abundance at the farm, because there is more varied plant life, including many flowering grasses. But the main reason the Swallows have shown up at the farm is the newly-built packing shed has excellent eaves for nesting under! This is an example of how birds can benefit from farming activity – wilding doesn’t have to mean no farming and no humans.

 

Using the Merlin App to Identify Birds

I can support total beginners to carry out the bird surveys thanks to the invaluable, free, mobile phone app Merlin, by Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology. The Merlin app can accurately identify any birdsong or call in Europe, when you use the ‘Western Palearctic’ library. (It has separate libraries for other areas.) It uses a massive library of birdsong recordings submitted by observers from many countries, on which its AI software has been ‘trained’. It is so acoustically sensitive that it can pick up songs and calls too faint for some humans to hear. Remarkably, after using it many times in various parts of Europe and North America, my estimate of its false-positive error rate – i.e. stating a specific species has been heard which is not there, due to mistaking another species for it – comes to only a few percent of all the species it identifies. Almost all these misidentifications by Merlin involve call-notes, which are much more similar across species than full territorial songs. Best of all, Merlin is so easy to use that just one census walk allows me to teach participants to use it on their own phones independently. Returning participants have told me that learning to use Merlin has allowed them to identify any bird sounds they hear, anywhere in Europe or farther afield – much to their delight. As I say to them on parting, “You won’t need me any more.”

 

Role of Human Observers

Merlin has created a slight dilemma for census work because it systematically ‘hears’ more species than most observers hear at the same time and place – typically an extra 10-15 % of species observed at the Farm. Therefore, I make a separate note, in the short report I prepare for each census walk, of birds heard ‘only by Merlin’. Also, of course, Merlin cannot identify any bird which remains silent. This will often include larger birds such as waterfowl on the ponds, or the gulls and raptors flying overhead, especially before and after the breeding season peaks in April and May. So we need observers to be alert and looking for these species as well.

 

Plans for 2025

Next year, I will lead the monthly census walks again, from late March to late June. The dates and signup sheets will be in the Lauriston Farm newsletter – so if you get the regular emails from the farm, you will get the chance to sign up to join a walk.
If you have questions or comments about this article or the census walks themselves, please contact me at john.frank@ed.ac.uk – and I am always delighted to hear reports of unusual species seen at Lauriston Farm!

The Results in Detail

If you would like to see the data, here are the recording sheets for each of the 2024 walks…

Click here to see the recording sheet from 16th March 2024

Click here to see the recording sheet from 20th April 2024

Click here to see the recording sheet from 1st June 2024

Click here to see the recording sheet from 29th June 2024

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