Where have all the skylarks gone?
A summer sky and the sound of the lark are often the ingredients for those perfect days that we are privileged to enjoy

Unfortunately such delights can no longer be taken for granted. The skylark has suffered a dramatic decline. Numbers have fallen by more than half in the last 20 years.

Loss of habitat and reduced food available to nourish young chicks are thought to be the main causes, largely brought about by the changing copping patterns and use of pesticides associated with intensive agriculture.

Welcome back
Golf courses can offer a valuable refuge and an important helping hand in trying to stabilise and even increase skylark numbers

If clubs plan to leave and manage certain areas of rough in the right way, skylarks are likely to return or breed more successfully. Here are some simple management thoughts:

Rough grassland
Skylarks like relatively large open areas of grass in which to breed. They nest in grass from 10 to 50 cms high, but need to be some 10 metres away from any boundary hedge or cover which might harbour predators. Can you identify any areas on your golf course that could provide such habitat?

Breeding and protecting nests
Skylarks need to breed 2-3 times between April and August, so any areas set aside for them should remain undisturbed if possible during this period and certainly not cut between 1st April and the end of June. If all areas of rough cannot be managed in this way, a rotational scheme can be devised to there is always some grassland attractive to skylarks in any one year.

Sometimes nests appear in semi rough which is frequented by golfers. Decision 1-4/9 allows free relief from a position where a stroke at a ball might damage or disturb a nest. When nests are found in this situation, a successful procedure followed by some clubs is to place wire hoops around the nest (not too close) and declare the area G.U.R. from which play is prohibited (Rule 25). Members are usually only too pleased to report nests they find and are sympathetic to their protection.

Where dogs are allowed on the course, members can be asked to keep them under control and away from areas where skylarks are being encouraged.

Food
Skylark chicks are fed exclusively on insects and spiders for the first week of life. This diet is also important to adults during the breeding season.

The use of pesticides, which reduce the number of insects, is therefore to be avoided. The use of pesticides on agricultural land is one of the main reasons why many birds have declined - there simply is not enough food on which to sustain chicks and they die.

This factsheet has been produced in conjunction with the Suffolk Golf Union.

For further information on conservation management of golf courses contact:
Suffolk Wildline, Suffolk Wildlife Trust, Brooke House, Ashbocking, Ipswich, IP6 9JY Tel 01473 890089 email wildline@suffolkwildlifetrust.org