Yellowhammer

Peek-a-boo!

Sunshine on a cloudy day

Sunshine is at a premium at the moment, so this Yellowhammer is the only brightness I have encountered lately.

A bit of bread, but no cheese

The sound of Spring to me is the `little bit of bread and no cheese` song of the Yellowhammer.

A bird that is found on farmland, which is possibly one of the reasons for its fall in numbers. The changes in farming practices over the past few years have led to a decimation in all farmland bird species. The Linnet has fallen by 55%, the Skylark by over 50%, the Lapwing by 49%, the Grey Partridge by a staggering 84%, the Twite by over 50%, the Reed Bunting by 50%, the Corn Bunting by 85%, the Cirl Bunting is now only found in the south-west of England with a population thought to be of around 450 pairs and finally the Yellowhammer has fallen by over 50%. These numbers are quite staggering and can make quite depressing reading were it not for the fact that in some areas of the country these birds are still fairly common. The Yellowhammer, for example is found in over 1,200,000 territories, imagine what it would be like were it not for the population crash!?

Farmland birds have had it tough in the past and they still have a fight on their feathers to remain a sight in our countryside. Hopefully we will learn our lessons from the past, but am I being over-optimistic?

Yellowhammer

The male Yellowhammer (also known as the Yellow Bunting) is one of Britains brightest birds. In spring he has a yellow head and breast, a rich brown streaky back and a plain reddish-brown rump. The female is much duller, with pale yellow below the bill and in front of the eyes, lines of brown along the breast and flanks and two dull wing-bars.

The song is the famous `little-bit-of-bread-and-no-cheese`, a sound which is heard from late winter into spring. It is repeated monotonously during the breeding season.

The Yellowhammer breeds in areas of grassland and arable fields with hedges and banks, as well as railway embankments, commons and heaths. Outside the breeding season it relies on visiting stubble fields and fields with winter feed crops. It is mainly a seed eater, eating seeds from grasses, nettles, docks and chickweed, but also feeds on insects and other invertebrates such as grasshoppers, sawfly larvae and caterpillars in the summer.

This bird is still relatively common in Britain with over 1 million territories. This figure is falling at a drastic rate though, with the population having fallen by over 50% since 1970. This mirrors the decline of other farmland birds with the same reasons given for the drop in numbers, such as loss of stubble fields in winter, an increase in insecticide and herbicide use and the destruction of hedges.

The photo`s below were taken on a windy day at a place called Northorpe Fen where I found a flock of approximately 150 feeding on spilt grain and taking shelter from the buffeting wind.

All photo`s digiscoped using Lumix FS15 and Kowa TSN-883 x30