Don't forget wildlife this Christmas!

The Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group is urging farmers to think about the needs of wildlife on their farms this Christmas.  Leaving appropriate wildlife refuges across the farm and ensuring that birds have sufficient food and available water need not cost time or money, only some care and thought.

It has been a surprising chilly start to the winter, with prolonged frost lasting nearly three weeks in some parts of the country.  This has meant that those farmers that have left their hedgerows until now or preferably even later will have done wildlife a great favour.  The hedges will have been allowed to flower and set fruit, supplying that much needed winter food supply for birds and mammals.  These species will then go into the breeding season in better condition and will therefore be more likely to successfully raise their young.

Bees, butterflies and beneficial insects chose a range of different strategies in order to survive the winter, Each species of butterfly differs in its overwintering habits. Many see the winter through as eggs, some as tiny caterpillars and the remainder as pupae. Most inhabit the food plant that the caterpillars will thrive on, and for many species, including the Peacock, Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell, this plant is the common nettle, while others, the Gatekeeper, Ringlet and Orange-tip, prefer grasses and specific hedgerow plants. Other invertebrates tuck up in small crevices such as the flower heads of teasel and Michaelmas daisy, in hollow stems in plants such as cow parsley and burdock, or in dead wood around the farm. These microhabitats provide places for many different invertebrate species in different life stages to hibernate, including sawflies, ladybirds and solitary bees.

Leaving areas of rough grass or that patch of nettles behind the shed uncut will maintain your populations of butterflies and beneficial insects.  These areas can then be cut on a rotational basis, perhaps every second or third year, to provide greatest possible benefits to invertebrates while preventing the spread of weeds and scrub.  Small mammals and amphibians will also hibernate in rough grass, so they too will benefit from this management.

This year, probably unintentionally, many farmers will still have considerable areas of weedy stubbles as a result of the appalling conditions in the back end of the autumn preventing many from cultivating.  Even if you have these stubbles and wild bird mixes, do not underestimate the benefits of spreading tailings or other seeds on tracks and dry surfaces over the winter.  Tailings can be used to supplement ELS options or to replace them where they cannot be used.  This extra food can be particularly important in February and March, and even through April, when other sources have run out.

So before spending your free time this Christmas tidying up every last corner of the yard or field corner, think about where your wildlife will be spending its Christmas!