Rare stubble draws in farmland visitors

A bird count in two such fields off Hoddy Cows Lane near the village of Buckton, East Yorkshire totalled 20 Lapland buntings, 30 snow buntings, 200 corn buntings, at least 700 skylarks, 40 linnets, 25 reed buntings, 65 fieldfares, 15 yellowhammers and five song thrushes.

Not surprisingly two peregrine falcons have been seen regularly as well.

Such stubble fields at this time of year are something of a rarity now, as the majority of fields, once the harvest is completed, are quickly ploughed over and sown with winter wheat or other crops.

Sometimes in a wet autumn some fields are left unploughed because the land is too heavy, while in some places margins are left untouched to try and help farmland birds, many of which have declined in numbers.

The Filey Ornithological Group sowed crops with high seed content on the the site of theformer town tip at Parish Wood which it bought after a public appeal and its efforts have been rewarded with large numbers of tree sparrows and singing corncrakes among the birds attracted. This week there was a count of 4,100 skylarks in fields between Long Nab, Burniston and Scalby Mills, Scarborough.

There is also a strip of land near the Fog Station at Flamborough left unploughed in the hopes of attracting rare buntings – an Ortolan bunting was there last autumn.

But there is alwaysscope for more fields to be left in this way to help farmland birds.

Also at Flamborough two shore larks were on the clifftop path between North Landing and Breil's Nook.

Shore larks breed in the high Arctic tundra and also prefer bare open habitat in winter, staying on ploughed fields or saltings – there are six at the Saltfleetby reserve North Lincolnshire.

This is probably the easiest lark to identify as it has a bold yellow and black face pattern. If they linger into early spring the males develop two tiny tufts on the head which gives this bird its alternative name of horned lark.

The birds we see here in winter probably originate in Lapland, where numbers have shown a sharp decline in recent years, They have also shown a similar decline in North America and as a result numbers arriving here each winter have also fallen.

The coldnortherly winds have brought some white-winged gulls to the region with glaucous and Iceland gulls seen at Pugney's Country Park near Wakefield and two Iceland gulls seen at Swillington Ings.

More bitterns have been reported across the region with two at Fairburn Ings near Castleford andothers at Carlton Marsh, South Yorkshireand Pugneys. Four have been seen at Potteric Carr near Doncaster and four at Far Ings on the Humber, a breeding site.

Three redhead smews were at Swillington Ings, a drake and redhead at Tophill Low and drakes at Pugneys, Horbury, West Yorkshire and Far Ings.

Five white-fronted geese , an Egyptian goose and six pink-footed geese were seen at the Nosterfield Nature Reserve, North Yorkshire.

Two ringtail hen harriers were seen over the Thorne Moors Nature reserve, South Yorkshire and may be also visiting the nearby Blacktoft Sands reserve, still closed this week because of icy paths. Males were seen at Sunk Island on the Humber and Long Nab.

Four hawfinches are being seen behind the chapel at Clumber Park, north Nottinghamshire and three lesser spotted woodpeckers are also there.

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