The Scottish Government

Aim: To encourage the management of grazing land for the protection of ground nesting birds, their eggs and fledglings.

Some BAP species that may benefit: Corn bunting, Skylark, Nightjar, Grey partridge and Brown hare.

Other important (bird) species that may benefit: Lapwing, Curlew, Dunlin and Twite.

Eligible sites: Areas of open in-bye grassland, subject to winter grazing to produce a short sward, and with little or no tree cover around the site.

Corn bunting singing from hawthorn hedge Photo: Mark Hamblin (RSPB Images)

The Corn bunting is one of Scotland's fastest declining birds. From being one of our most common and widespread species in the nineteenth century, breeding wherever arable cultivation took place, there are probably now little over 800 breeding pairs. These birds are concentrated along the east coast from Nairn, Moray and the Buchan Plain to the East Neuk of Fife, with an isolated population on the machairs of the Uists and associated islands. Management to reverse the species' decline is best initially focused on the remaining breeding range of the species and areas on the margins of this.

RSS prescriptions to benefit Corn buntings are likely to be most effective if offered in combination on a single undertaking, rather than in isolation.

Important habitats on the farm for Corn bunting

Corn buntings are birds of arable farmland, relying on grain and associated large-seeded grasses and other broad-leaved weeds outside the breeding season. The presence of cereal-based arable agriculture is therefore critical to Corn buntings.

Corn buntings nest much later than most other farmland songbirds. Most females do not lay eggs until June, but nesting attempts may then continue until as late as September. Corn Buntings usually nest on or close to the ground in dense vegetation. Cereal crops are favoured but birds will also nest in hay or silage fields, brassicas or set-aside. The habit of late nesting in cereal crops makes Corn buntings uniquely vulnerable to loss of nests during cereal harvesting, and farms with mixes of autumn-sown and spring-sown cereals may therefore provide optimum conditions for Corn buntings to begin nesting early and then to have opportunities for replacement or second nesting attempts.

Corn buntings specialise to a greater extent on feeding on the grain of cultivated cereals (oats, barley and wheat). Stubble fields, cattle feeding stands, newly-drilled cereals and grain-rich habitat provided under agri-environment schemes (e.g. unharvested crops) are therefore all important feeding habitats. Grain and weed seed are the main food sources for adult birds throughout the year, and partially-ripe (milky) cereal grain is also taken by adults and fed to nestlings.

The combination of a late breeding season, a preference for nesting in growing crops and a seed diet centred on grains is likely to have made Corn bunting populations especially vulnerable to modern agricultural practices. Agri-environment management for Corn buntings needs to provide

i a supply of grain and other large grass and weed seeds (especially late in the winter and through the spring),

ii both early-sown and late-harvested cereal and grass crops on the farm in order to maximise the opportunity for both early and late nesting attempts,

iii rough grass cereal field margins/beetle banks, low-input cereal management and maintenance of areas of unimproved/semi-natural grassland as sources of invertebrate food for nestlings.

What measures can I carry out under the RSS that will benefit the Corn Bunting?

Extensive Management of Mown Grassland for Birds (Prescription 1)

This prescription has the potential to provide nesting habitat for Corn buntings, particularly on farms in and on the edge of the current Corn bunting breeding range in Scotland.

Management of species-rich grassland (Prescription 6)

Use of this prescription in areas within or on the edge of the current Corn bunting breeding range may improve the quality of unimproved grassland patches as foraging habitat for Corn buntings feeding nestlings.

Management of grass margin or beetlebank in arable fields (Prescription 21)

Management of conservation headlands (Prescription 22)

Use of these prescriptions on farms within or on the edge of the current Corn bunting breeding range can help to provide invertebrate-rich foraging habitat during the breeding season. The prescriptions are likely to be most effective when adjacent to cereal fields.

Introduction or retention of extensive cropping (Prescription 25)

This is one of the most important prescriptions for Corn buntings. The encouragement of low-input spring cropping with retention of unsprayed over-winter stubbles has the potential to offer nesting habitat (especially late-season on farms that also have autumn-sown cereals), invertebrate-rich foraging habitat during the breeding season and an over-winter grain and weed seed source on the crop stubble.

Management of cropped machair (Prescription 27)

Although most of the remaining Corn bunting population of the Outer Hebrides nests in dune grassland, the retention of cereal cropping on the machair is critical to the retention of Corn bunting populations because of the species reliance on an over-winter grain and weed seed supply.

Unharvested crops (Prescription 28)

This is a critical prescription for Corn buntings since it is the only one specifically designed to guarantee an over-winter seed and grain supply. It helps provide cover and offers a seed supply right through to the date of ploughing-in.

Combining and locating prescriptions to maximise benefits for Corn Buntings

Prescriptions 24 and 28 with 1, 21 and/or 22.

On the Outer Hebrides, where suitable nesting habitat and invertebrate food supplies are less likely to be limiting, the combination of prescriptions 24, 27 and 28 within crofting townships may be particularly beneficial.

Aim: Using a combination of prescriptions 3 and 4, to create or maintain the conditions essential for corncrakes to breed successfully. In the case of prescription 3, areas of cover suitable for corncrakes to nest and raise broods will be established by excluding stock from hay or silage fields from 15 May. Cutting of these areas will be delayed until on or after 1 August, to ensure that the majority of chicks are old enough to escape from the mower. Mowing must be carried out in a 'bird-friendly' manner in accordance with Scheme guidance to minimise risk of injury (see Figure on p37).

Some BAP species that may benefit: Corncrakes, Corn bunting, Brown hare.

Other important (bird) species that may benefit: Curlew, Meadow pipit.

Eligible sites: A field used for growing an extensive hay or silage crop which is next to an early/late cover area managed for corncrakes or unharvested crops managed under the scheme.

Corncrake in iris bed Photo: Chris Gomershall (RSPB Images)

In the 19th Century, corncrakes bred throughout Britain. Their decline since then has been remarkable. By 1993, the number of singing males had dwindled to around 480 birds. This bird is mainly located in the Western Isles, the Argyll Islands, Orkney, Skye and a handful of other mainland and island sites. This decline has now been stemmed but there is potential for further expansion in numbers.

The future of Scotland's corncrake population lies in the hands of this country's farmers and crofters. Sympathetic management of grassland habitats is the key to long-term recovery. The Rural Stewardship Scheme includes management prescriptions to help farmers and crofters provide corncrakes with their key requirements:

• Patches of early cover - small areas of vegetation such as nettle, iris and cow parsley which grow early in the year and provide cover in early spring. Corncrakes depend on such areas for feeding and roosting as they return to Britain from their wintering grounds in Africa. It is from these areas that the distinctive loud rasping call of the corncrake will first be heard.
• Tall grass, next to early cover, and either cut or grazed late in the season, provides areas of grass or other tall vegetation in which corncrakes can feed, nest and remain concealed. First broods often move into grass meadows from adjacent early cover areas. The female and chicks forage together for food - mainly earthworms, beetles, slugs and snails. Most young birds will be sufficiently mobile to escape the mower if mowing is not started
  until 1 August.
• Mowing in a bird-friendly manner (see illustration). Corncrakes are reluctant to fly, and to break cover by running across cut ground. Conventional cutting can isolate the birds in the middle of the field and leave them unable to escape the mower.

Patches of late cover, such as tall vegetation adjacent to cut fields, provide a refuge to which birds can escape the mower. Birds will occupy these and other suitable areas until they depart for Africa in September or October.

Aim: Using a combination of prescriptions 3 and 4, to create or maintain the conditions essential for corncrakes to breed successfully. In the case of prescription 4, to provide cover not only for corncrakes arriving back from wintering grounds in April and May, but also sanctuary late in the season when most of the surrounding grassland has been cut and/or grazed.

Some BAP species that may benefit: Corncrake, Reed bunting.

Eligible sites: Reverted improved grassland or unimproved grassland on the
in-bye with clumps of tall vegetation such as iris, nettles, cow parsley or rush. Each individual site must be at least 0.15 hectare in size and not be more than 1.0 hectare subject to a maximum area per undertaking of 5 hectares. Such sites must be adjacent to mown grassland managed for corncrakes under this scheme (prescription 3).

Aim: To provide suitable breeding and feeding grounds for wading birds and provide protection for their eggs and fledglings.

Some BAP species that may benefit: Reed bunting, Narrow-bordered bee hawk-moth.

Other important (bird) species that may benefit: Redshank, Snipe, Curlew, Lapwing and Oystercatcher.

Eligible sites: In-bye wet grassland. Wet grassland is pasture or meadow that is periodically inundated with water.

Redshank Photo: Chris Gomershall (RSPB Images)

The redshank is a wading bird often found on livestock farms. They prefer damp pasture susceptible to flooding and marsh, usually with some standing water and tussocky grasses or sedges. Redshank are also found on machair, coastal grazing marsh and saltmarsh.

Redshank tend to nest on sites that have been lightly grazed to produce short vegetation interspersed with tussocks, which provide cover. These birds feed by pecking and probing for earthworms, beetles, spiders, aquatic insects and flies. Their chicks feed by searching for midges and other flies found at the edges of pools and ditches.

In winter, Scottish redshank move south into England and southern Ireland, with some continuing on to Atlantic coasts from the Netherlands to Portugal. Redshank that are found overwintering in Scotland breed in Iceland. These birds spend the winter on both coastal mudflats and rocky shores, where they feed on marine worms, molluscs, shrimps and small crabs.

The Rural Stewardship Scheme, prescription 5 in particular, offers opportunities to manage for redshank and other farmland waders.