Agri-environment schemes and swallows


Floristically enhanced margins may be more beneficial to foraging swallows when placed mid-field. © Peter Thompson/GWCT


BACKGROUND


To date, research on the use of Agri-Environment Scheme (AES) habitats by farmland birds has been focused on invertebrate- eating species that forage on the ground or within the vegetation. This project aimed to investigate differential use of two AES arable field margin types – grass-only margins (EE3, HE3) and flower-rich margins (HE10, EF4 and HF4) – by swallows.


The swallow (also known as the barn swallow) is a bird typical of open habitats such as pastures, meadows and farmland. They are long-distance migrants and make a 10,000-mile migration from South Africa to spend the summer months in Europe. In Britain, swallows can often be seen on farmland, skimming fields for flying insects or building their characteristic cup-shaped nests inside old buildings. The aerial foraging strategy employed by swallows is unusual as the majority of Britain’s farmland birds feed on the ground or within the vegetation. Because of this, research has been heavily biased towards species exploiting these foraging niches (eg. yellowhammer and cirl bunting). Measures of the success of agri-environment schemes (AES) have therefore


Figure 1


Mean (± SE) probability of observing foraging swallows along grass margin or floristically enhanced margin transects. Means (± SE) are back-transformed following analysis


1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1


0 Grass margin 56 | GAME & WILDLIFE REVIEW 2016 Enhanced margin www.gwct.org.uk


Swallow. © Peter Thompson/GWCT


Probability of barn swallow foraging (± se)


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