Yellowhammer

A yellowhammer perched on the transmission line along Thorney Lane.  I had gone in search of the barn owl seen a week ago, but it wasn't showing today.  So this cheery little chap will have to do.  Although I see yellowhammers most days, this mild day was the first day this season that I've heard the 'Little bit of bread and no cheese' song.  There are few hedgerow trees of any size left along the Lane, so the power lines are important as vantage points and song 'posts'.

Yellowhammers are numerous in the agricultural landscape around the village, though probably less plentiful than they would once have been.  In some parts of the country they have declined hugely. Last Saturday, I did a timed bird count for the farmers as part of the Big Farmland Bird Count.  I counted 20 yellowhammers there, and Farmer A had counted 50 birds earlier in the week.  On their farm the birds are attracted to grain that spills from the cattle feeding troughs.  There is less food for wintering birds in the landscape beyond than there would once have been when harvesting was less efficient and there were lots of winter stubbles.  Hence the farm will attract birds from the surrounding countryside.