[Fleecewife]

Today I managed to get to the top of Traprain Law, which is an ancient, weathered volcanic plug, rising abruptly from the plains of East Lothian.   It's not actually all that high but for me it might as well have been Mt Everest, and is the first 'blob' I've been up for six years, because of my wonky heart - so I'm feeling smug    There is a large ancient fort on the top and the whole thing is run by someone like SNH.  There is a herd of a dozen or so Exmoor ponies grazing there, but otherwise the vegetation is left in a natural state, mostly open grassland with herbs and wildflowers.

The whole place was positively heaving with skylarks, singing high above us, then plunging back down to their nests    It was glorious.  We did notice that their song was not exactly the same as the skylarks over our land, so maybe there are regional variations or accents.

This got me to thinking, is the concentration of skylarks here so high because Traprain Law is an isolated oasis in a desert of grain crops, or were there this many skylarks per similar area all over the country in pre-mechanised days?


(Modified to say: Oops, just remembered it's not a volcanic plug but a laccolith.  I think the difference is that a plug forms when a volcano has erupted, then what's left in the vent solidifies there.  I think a laccolith forms when the lava didn't quite reach the surface so forms a dome.  Not a whole lot of difference from the point of view of the skylarks, but someone here is bound to notice  )

[Somewhere_by_the_river]

That must have been lovely Fleecewife, so worth the effort. Interesting question, I've wondered similar - where we used to live we had skylarks over the house at this time of year (wonderful to garden to!), but where we are now... not a one. It's wonderfully green here, more animal than 'vegetable' crop, but it's heavy on the artificial in terms of spraying, herbicides in particular. Iolo Williams gave an impassioned speech about the loss of wildlife in his part of Wales not so long back, so moving we were both in tears watching it. It struck me at the time that it wasn't just a part of Wales, but UK wide. I so love listening to bird song when outside that it's often occurred to me how barren life would be without them. I miss skylarks, we both wonder what it would take to get them back in this area...

[Bramblecot]

I hardly ever hear them over the nearby farmland which is mainly cut for silage. Apparently they nest and fly over the local golf course, which is along the cliff tops bordering NT land.

[Marches Farmer]

I get tired of farming being blamed for everything to do with wild bird numbers when I know that cat predation, European hunters along migration routes and so on, have a big part to play BUT I do think that the skylarks and other ground nesting birds have been affected by things like early ripening, short straw varieties of cereals which are regularly sprayed around nesting time, as well as the use of silage, which may be cut four times a year, instead of hay.  Having said that, we have three fields shut up for hay every year and are in an area rich in wild birds (including skylarks) but have never had a skylark's nest on the land!