Property News · August 1, 2016

Help the birds – resist the tyranny of the tidy hedge | Patrick Barkham


Though farmers are annoyed by the environment department’s hedge-cutting restrictions, they help our later-nesting birdsMy garden hedge is full of empty nests. The blackbirds have fledged, twice, and so have the dunnocks. Successfully fending off sparrowhawks and cats, their exhausted parents are now enjoying a well-earned holiday. In the fields beyond our home, though, parents still slave away, feeding baby bullfinches, linnets and yellowhammers tucked in the hedges that grace our countryside.As well as the usual predators, every August these declining species have had to fend off another ravenous monster: the hedge-trimmer. This summer and last, however, the cutting machines are silent because the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has taken an excellent, science-led policy decision: to protect these birds by extending the farmland hedge-cutting ban by a month, to 31 August. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…Help the birds – resist the tyranny of the tidy hedge | Patrick Barkham

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