Populations Of Skylarks, Other British Birds Of Song & Story, Falling Rapidly - Guardian

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It is not just the professional birdwatchers of the RSPB who have seen their local landscape transformed. Across Britain, and with little fanfare, the face of the countryside has subtly changed in recent years. Farm fields that stood idle for years under EU schemes to prevent overproduction, such as the one across the road from the RSPB, have been conscripted back into active service. The uncultivated land, previously a haven for wildlife, has been ploughed, and farmers have planted crops such as wheat and barley, with occasional hemp for use in paper and textiles. As a result, the amount of land available for birds such as the woodlark has halved in the last two years. Without efforts to stem this loss of habitat, conservation experts warn that the countryside of the future could look and sound very different.

Starved of insects in the spring and seeds through the winter, the metallic-sounding corn bunting and plump grey partridge, formerly one of the most common birds on UK shores, are on the brink. And the skylark, whose twittering has provided the soundtrack to millions of countryside walks and inspired Percy Bysshe Shelley, in Ode to a Skylark, to praise its "profuse strains of unpremeditated art", is struggling and could soon vanish from many areas. Numbers fell 53% from 1970 to 2006. "This is not just about birdwatchers. These birds are part of our common heritage," says Gareth Morgan, head of agriculture policy at the RSPB.

Government figures show that populations of 19 bird species that rely on farmland have halved since serious counting started in the 1970s - a decline conservationists blame on intensive farming methods, with insecticide and herbicide sprayed on to monoculture fields shorn of vibrant hedges. The unmistakable yellowhammer, which likes to sing while perched as a dash of colour on hedges and bushes, has steadily disappeared with the hedges and bushes. And a startling 80% drop across England in 40 years has diluted the shifting Rorschach blots painted on the dusk sky by massed flocks of starling - though urban changes are blamed for this too.

Farmland birds may sound a niche problem, and you may think that the rest of the countryside is doing OK, but for most people, farmland is the British countryside. About 75% of Britain is farmed, and about half of that is arable fields. Take a train between two UK towns, particularly in eastern counties, and almost all of the countryside you see is farmland. As Simon Gillings of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) puts it: "For most people, farmland is the countryside and farmland birds are the birds they see." If birds are struggling, then it is a fair bet that other wildlife is too. "Birds are indicative of other things," Gillings says. "If birds are declining then what does that say about the plants and insects they rely on? It's all linked together."

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/25/birds-wildlife-conservation