Encouraging more birds to make the Estate their home is one of our environmental missions.

Each year we take part in the GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count, which is sponsored by the NFU.

The event, which takes place between February 7–23 this year, encourages farmers and land managers across the UK to record different species of birds and their numbers on their farms.

It’s a good way for us, as farmers, to measure the impact of our own conservation work.

Statistics shows that the UK has lost over 70 million wild birds in the last half a century.

Armed with our Bird Count Record Sheets and a handy app we headed out into the parkland this week to make a note of each species we spotted, where we heard them and what the weather was like.

We found species including: Barn Owl, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Common Kingfisher, Dunnock, Green Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Mistle Thrush, Tree Creeper and Song Thrush.

Courteenhall’s Estate Manager Rosie Davis said: “We went out to eight different places in the woodlands across the parkland and used an app to record the birds we could hear around us.

“Many of the birds we heard have already been picked up by Chris Payne, a licenced Senior Ringer and Trainer for Northants Ringing Group, who carries out regular audits of our bird populations and helps us to understand what we can do to increase our bird numbers.

“We were really pleased to hear Barn Owls as we installed lots of new owl boxes in 2023.

“We’re aiming to carry out surveys like this every three months so that we can keep an eye on the various species living on the Estate. This allows us to target out environmental work to support those less common birds that we find.”