5. Wildlife 1970/80 Part 2

During 1970/80 we saw a big decline in the numbers of Starlings, House Sparrows and Swallows in the Parish. We are quite often these days, led into believing that excessive use of pesticides in farming practices and the loss of habitat is due to their decline. In our Parish, the main reason for their decline is that in the two decades mentioned, their food source almost dried up, when the marshes went under the plough, the cattle and sheep went, and the production of Turkey’s at Monkton Court Farm ceased.

Many of you have seen film footage of the Murmuration’s of Starlings on the Somerset Levels. We too had such sights on our marshes. With thousands of these birds forming large flocks in September/October. They would settle on the electricity pylons and cables to rest during the day, sometimes covering the width of three pylons. These birds fed on the insects that were abundant in the grass on the marshes, the cattle’s winter feed was much loved by them, and also the food that was meant for the Turkeys. Most of the Turkeys were bred under conditions we now call free-range. All the adult Turkey’s feeding stations were open for easy access to small birds.

House Sparrow’s suffered similarly. My mother and father both worked for Monkton Court on the Turkey side of the farm when I was growing up and I spent a lot of my younger days around the farm. The food stations for the Turkeys were like giant bird feeders to the Sparrow’s. Today we put up nesting boxes for them to encourage them to breed. In those days, there were so many of them, that they used to make nests out of grass and feathers in the Hawthorne hedges that surrounded the farm. With the going of the Turkeys, and farms having to bird proof their grain barns (EU rules), the Sparrow’s source of food almost dried up. Visit any farm these days and you will see no more Sparrows there than you have visiting your garden feeder.

Swallows like to nest under cover, not under the eaves of your house. Today you will say that there are hardly any buildings that Swallows can freely build their nests. Go to any horse stables and you will probably find a few Swallows nesting. Another reason why you will find Swallows where there are horse, cattle and sheep, is because, as is their nature, their dung attracts large numbers of flying insects, a Swallows bread and butter. Up to the mid 1980’s Swallows would be nesting on the marshes

under every bridge that crossed a river or dyke, even under the railway bridges that went over main streams – they would make a nest any safe place they could. Their food supply came from the flying insects that fed

on the dung of the cattle & the sheep that spent the summers on the marshes. With the going of the cattle and sheep, their main food source dried up long before their habitat did. Most of the bridges over the rivers and dykes are still there but the Swallows are not.

Next Month: The School Outing

Terry Marsh

Originally published in the Monkton News (January 2023).