Last year our flagship Farm Lark Rise received the Redlist Revival Life on Land Award for grey partridge, but this year as well as another honour for Lark Rise we are delighted to say four other Countryside Restoration Trust properties have been similarly recognised: Twyford Farm, for marsh tits, Green Farm for song thrush, Pierrepont Farm for grey wagtail and Mayfields Farm for cuckoo.

Redlist Revival maps form a comprehensive record of bird species numbers across the UK. In any given area, land type is categorised and birds within it surveyed. This creates a Life on Land Benchmark figure, and all five CRT properties reached at least the top 10% of highest recordings in their categories.

The data is produced by combining surveys conducted by the Breeding Bird Survey, the Rare Breeding Birds Panel, the Seabird Monitoring Programme and other surveys carried out by the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology. Vince Lea is one of these survey monitors - he recently undertook Redlist Revival surveys on two areas of land on Lark Rise Farm 

Edward Darling, Redlist Revival’s Chief Executive explains that “Redlist Revival is great because it enables society to see that landholders are interested in sustainable life. The fact that these CRT sites are sustaining abundance levels near or exceeding the national threshold provides a message of hope.” Barbara Scott Young, Baroness Young of Old Scone, praised the idea stating Redlist Revival’s Life Map “is what the RSPB, needed over 30years ago” following Mr Darling presentation of the project at the 25th Anniversary celebration at the RGS in 2018.

Lark Rise Farm 

For the second year running, the work by Tim Scott and the Rustic volunteers on Lark Rise Farm has been acknowledged by Redlist Revival award for the Top 1% highest density of grey partridge and Top 1% highest density of yellowhammer.

Tim Scott says “it’s a great privilege to receive this award for yet another year. Having something tangible to reflect all of the hard work and dedication that goes into environmentally friendly farming is an added bonus.”

This year, it has also acknowledged a many other number of recorded species, on '98 land and Westfield land, on Lark Rise in Barton are in the top 10% highest recordings for range of birds in Food crops and grassland habitat across the UK. The other species include: corn bunting, linnet and of course skylark. Lapwing recordings achieved abundance over 50%. 

Twyford Farm 

Another property that also achieved a top 1% of number of birds counted compared with others in that land type is Twyford Farm in West Sussex, managed by Bob Felton, Liz Wallis and supported by a group of volunteers. As defined by Redlist Revival data, Twyford is classed as a woodland and scrub habitat. Compared with other surveys undertaken on this type of habitat, Twyford Farm had the top 1% of recorded marsh tits.

Green Farm 

Green Farm also achieve top 10% abundance of song thrush in woodland and scrub habitat. This is a testament to their hard work of the volunteer group that manage Green Farm. Song thrushes used to be a popular garden and farmland bird, however its declining numbers in the countryside means that is now considered a red list species.

Mayfields Farm 

Summer visitors earned the award for Mayfields Farm, near Themlethorpe Norfolk. Well-known for their distinctive call but also known as brood parasites, the abundance of cuckoo record on the farm proved to be a good result and reached the top 10%. Mayfields also achieved above 50% abundance for the mistle thrush species.

Pierrepont Farm 

More vibrant and colourful than its name implies, the quantity of recordings of the grey wagtail compared to the Redlist Revival Benchmark meant that Pierrepont Farm in Surrey, Managed by Mike and Beverley Clear, and supported by a large number of volunteers, also have been recognised in top 10% for that species.

Unfortunately, Redlist Revival are not having an awards ceremony this year. But we would like to thank all the efforts of our farmers, volunteers and monitors that have made these habitats and statics possible.

Support our the red-list species on our farms