Skylark fluffiness (copied to ID/Behavior)

This was taken about 4 years back while doing an internship on skylarks. I didn't practise photography that fanatically at that time but got of with some nice shots. I really liked this one as it shows how well they try to hide, staying flat in the nest until they are sure it is either mom or dad visiting. Also this shot shows off there extreme fluffiness! Cool little birds they are.

Canon EOS 350D 1/125 f10
ISO 400
Canon 18-55mm EFS

What a wonderful scene, and I like the way you have framed it with the greenery.

Pretty good camouflage, I also like the light and composition. Did you do research or was this a project to protect them?

Thanks for the comments people!

Axel, this was for a research project. We were trying to compare breeding success between organically and conventionally managed farms in the Netherlands. The idea is that organic farms provide more suitable habitat for birds since they don't use pesticides and use more diverse crop scemes. However, the drawback is that these farms practise mechanical farming methods much more than conventional farms do in order to get rid of the weeds. Which poses a problem for the birds breeding on organic farms (with a lot of nests being lost due to these 'extra' farming activities), in a way you could speak of organic farms being an ecological trap.

Basically that was what the research was about.

Cheers,

Krijn

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Krijn Trimbos

Thanks for the comments people!

Axel, this was for a research project. We were trying to compare breeding success between organically and conventionally managed farms in the Netherlands. The idea is that organic farms provide more suitable habitat for birds since they don't use pesticides and use more diverse crop scemes. However, the drawback is that these farms practise mechanical farming methods much more than conventional farms do in order to get rid of the weeds. Which poses a problem for the birds breeding on organic farms (with a lot of nests being lost due to these 'extra' farming activities), in a way you could speak of organic farms being an ecological trap.

Basically that was what the research was about.

Cheers,

Krijn

---

Very interesting! Were your findings that conventional farming increases the success rate of raising skylark chicks?

If you don't mind, I would like to copy this thread to the ID and behavior forum as I guess this topic would interest many people concerned with conservation.

I absolutely don't mind Axel!

I can't really give a straight answer to your question. During the year that we conducted the research we had a very wet spring which limited the farming practises on organic farms. This resulted in higher breeding success on organic farms compared to conventional farms. When looking at nest failure causes, having discriminated between predation and farming activities, we found that higher amount of nests failed due to farming activities compared to predation although this difference was not significant. For other species (Northern Lapwing) it was shown that on organic farms, due to these farming activities, the breeding success was lower than on conventional farms.
What has become apparent is that bird densities of Skylarks are higher on organic farms during the peak of the breading season due to availability of habitat being higher on these farms. This was a significant correlation! It seems as if conventional farms due to their monoculture practises can't provide suitable habitat for this species throughout and during the peak of the breeding season.

Hope this sort of gives an answer to your question.

Thanks,

Krijn

Thanks again, Krijn! This does answer my question and I find this very informative, particularly that it is not a black-and-white issue.