A farming business based in the Cotswolds has received a special award for its contribution to this year's Big Farmland Bird Count.
Overbury Enterprises was hailed for its long-term participation in the national bird survey, run by the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT).
The business, which includes farming services and contracting, has taken part every year since it began in 2014.
The Big Farmland Bird Count asks land managers to spend half an hour each February counting and recording the birds they see on their land.
The aim is to encourage farmers to support farmland birds, and to highlight the work already done by many of them to help reverse species’ declines.
The count gives a vital national snapshot of the health of the UK’s birdlife.
Each year the team at Overbury submits more counts than the previous year, as well as spreading the word about the count to their social media followers.
Penelope Bossom, managing partner at Overbury, received three PERDIX farmland bird feeders, a trail camera and two PERDIX bird nesting boxes at the Game Fair at Ragley Hall on 29 July.
She said: “The beauty of taking part in the GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count is that it gives us an opportunity to get everyone together, from local people who love birds, to our farming and gardening teams, and it’s a great winter teambuilding activity.”
The 2022 count saw more than 1,900 farmers and land managers overcome challenging weather conditions to count over 420,000 individual birds.
Between 4 – 20 February, they spotted 130 species across more than 1.5 million acres, or 607,000 hectares.
