Friday, 4 December 2020

Outdoor meetings and checking sheep

We had a meeting earlier in the week with the RSPB - to talk about Corncrakes.  Corncrake numbers are falling, and so the RSPB are embarking on a project to support farmers and crofters in doing more to enhance existing or create new habitats for Corncrakes.  Dave Sexton, the Mull RSPB officer, brought Louise from Islay to look and see if we could do anything more than we are already doing. 

We have been farming with wildlife in mind for 25 years and the fields with the best Corncrake potential are managed to enable ground nesting birds to safely rear several broods.  

Because we have already got a management agreement on most of the in bye fields, the only fields not in the scheme are needed for grazing when the other fields are closed off.   It would be lovely to be able to do more, but we can't!