An army of farmers, gamekeepers and land managers looking after nearly one million acres of farmland turned out in their droves this winter to count their birds in the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s second Big Farmland Bird Count, between February 7 and 15.

Spending only half-an-hour during the week-long count nearly 1,000 people, representing every county in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, swapped their tractors for binoculars to see how their conservation efforts are boosting the recovery of farmland birds.

Leading counties for counting their birds were: Norfolk, Suffolk, Somerset, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Devon, Hampshire, Dorset, Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, Wiltshire, North and East Yorkshire and Lancashire.

Jim Egan, from the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust’s Allerton Project, who originated the idea, said: “We are delighted to have received so much industry support. Double the number of farmers turned out this winter and between them they recorded more than 127 different species on their farms. This was a remarkable achievement, particularly as they monitored an additional 11 species compared to 2014.”

The five most common birds on farms this winter were blackbird, seen by nearly 90 per cent of farmers, followed by robin (80 per cent), blue tit (79 per cent), chaffinch (75 per cent) and carrion crow seen by more than 70 per cent of the farmers taking part.

A total of 19 red-list species of conservation concern were also recorded with six appearing in the list of 25 most commonly seen species list. Starlings and fieldfare were seen on more than 40 per cent of the farms taking part and were the most abundant red-listed species recorded followed by linnet, yellowhammer, house sparrow, lapwing and redwing.

Compared with last year, 10 additional species of birds were added to the list of birds recorded, including cirl bunting and Cettie’s warbler. In addition, 13 species of raptor were counted with goshawk included in the results for the first time this year.

More bird identification days will be arranged for January 2016 and people can already start to register their interest in these at gwct.org.uk/bfbcregister