Allerton Project: game and songbirds
Song thrush numbers have increased 193% since 1992. © Dave Kjaer
BACKGROUND
Game and songbird numbers have been monitored annually at the Allerton Project at Loddington since it began in 1992, providing an insight into how both have been influenced by changes of management over this period. In particular, they have provided valuable information on the effects of predator control and winter feeding.
Through our long-term monitoring, we are able to evaluate the effect of the shoot management on game and non-game species. Reared pheasant shoots can rely less on control of predators during the breeding season compared with wild bird shoots. As our previous research has shown that predator control can influence breeding numbers of some songbird species, we attributed the lack of any substantial increase in their numbers, at least in part, to the absence of predator control. Our data also suggested that the prolonged wet weather during 2012 had also checked an already modest increase. In the past two years, we have introduced additional predator control during the breeding season, specifically for the conservation of songbird species that are susceptible to nest predation. Overall songbird numbers are now 93% above the 1992 baseline (see Figure 3). Those species for which we have published the most convincing evidence for an effect of predator control on breeding numbers are among the species to be faring best under the new regime. Blackbird numbers almost doubled since 2010 when the new system started, and spotted flycatcher territories increased from just one to 10. Other species to have followed similar upward trends over the years with and without predator control include dunnock (165%), song thrush (193%), skylark (42%) and robin (140%). The focus of the predator control is on crows and magpies, as these are known to be major predators of songbird nests, but there is also some trapping of small ground predators such as rats and stoats. This is a skilled and labour-intensive process. The cost of it amounts to about £25 per hectare, or £10 per acre per year. This figure will vary especially at farms with less suitable habitat for crows, magpies and other predators requiring lower levels of predator control, or none at all in the case of open farmland without trees. Our earlier research on blackbirds showed that nest predation was highest where nests were exposed, especially in the early nesting season and when predator numbers were high. Although predator control is an obvious means of reducing nest losses, habitat management may also have a role. In Dunn et al., 2016, published
Figure 1
Autumn wild pheasant numbers from 1992 to 2016
500
Young Hens Cocks
Keepered period 600
400 feeders 300 removed
200
100
0 1992 62 | GAME & WILDLIFE REVIEW 2016 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016
www.gwct.org.uk
Number of pheasants
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