Yellowhammer in south-west Surrey

Yellowhammer is one of my favourite species of bird. Whenever I see one, wherever that may be, I feel compelled to soak in views or try and get a photo. Unfortunately, they've undergone a terrible decline in Britain – some 54% between 1970 and 1998, according to the BTO. They are now on the Red List of the nation's most threatened birds. The main factor is low overwinter survival, thought to be because fewer seed food sources are available to them on farmland. This decline has been evident in Surrey, too. 

Yellowhammer, Witley Common, 15 March 2022.

As a comparatively young birder, I often hear older birders mourn the loss of myriad species from our countryside, be it Turtle Dove, Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Spotted Flycatcher, Willow Warbler and so on. I simply haven't been around long enough to have watched many of these species 'slide away'. Yellowhammer, however, is a species I would say I've noticed a decline of in my birding life. Lapwing is probably the only other species I could apply this sorry tag to, but that's another post altogether …

Breeding

My first south-west Surrey record of Yellowhammer came as an enthusiastic seven-year-old on 4 June 1999 at Hambledon church (excuse the typo in the below photo!). Fittingly enough, if someone asked me today where the best place to see a Yellowhammer in south-west Surrey was, I would say the farmland at Hambledon church ...

Yellowhammer notes (and attempted artwork!) from 1999.

This site – and indeed many others in the Low Weald in south-west Surrey – are still good for Yellowhammer, even if numbers aren't exactly burgeoning. If you take a stroll through any patch of farmland south of the Greensand Ridge, you have a fair chance of encountering the species – fields around Alfold, Brook, Chiddingfold, Dunsfold, Grayswood, Hambledon and Loxhill readily produce birds. 

Yellowhammer, Hambledon Church, 30 May 2020.

In south-west Surrey the Greensand Ridge does act as something of an invisible boundary – south of it you can find Marsh Tits, Nightingales and Yellowhammers in almost any suitable patch of habitat. Go north of the ridge, though, and these species become very localised indeed (some, like Hawfinch, don't occur regularly at all). 

There is much more room for habitat and thus birds south of this boundary; birders often comment that going into the Low Weald in south-west Surrey is like venturing into a different, rural county.

Breeding season records between 2021 and 2023, plus the invisible Greensand Ridge boundary.

So, what is the status of Yellowhammer in south-west Surrey in 2023? As I've said, the Low Weald holds a fairly healthy breeding population, which can be seen to some extent in the above map. The outliers on this map are Thursley and Witley Commons. The two Thursley records were very much non-breeders, so can be discarded. 

Witley Common however is still a breeding site – just. One male held fort in 2022 and isn't thought to have found a mate. Surely this site will be abandoned in time, rendering Yellowhammer a 'Low Weald only' breeding species in south-west Surrey.

The number of breeding sites and birds that have been lost in the last 25 years are truly shocking – and this is where I have really noticed a population crash in my lifetime. It's the heathland sites that have been abandoned, all of which lie north of the Greensand Ridge. The below photos are taken from the 1999 and 2019 Surrey Bird Reports. In that 20-year period, no fewer than 68 (!) territories from five heathland sites diminished to three territories at one heathland site (Witley). Truly grim stuff.

1999 Surrey Bird Report section on Yellowhammer versus the 2019 one.

Puttenham has seen the biggest loss. I remember visiting in the early 2000s and you couldn't fail to encounter Yellowhammer after just a short walk from the Top Car Park. There were still 22 territories in 2007; by 2012 this was down to six. One male held fort in 2016 – there hasn't been a bird since. This monumental collapse was attributed by some local birders to a loss of winter stubble around Puttenham (namely Lascombe Farm, where large flocks used to winter). 

There's little doubt the changes in farming practices and land management have had a huge impact on Yellowhammer in south-west Surrey. Presumably these changes paid put to the once thriving heathland population, as well as more blatant sites north of the Greensand Ridge (for example Yellowhammer still bred at Conduit Farm, Loseley, and Tuesley Farm, Milford, into the early 2010s).

Non-breeding status and nearby populations

The non-breeding status of Yellowhammer is a little less clear cut. Although it's a species that doesn't move around much, they still do, and normally I'll have three or four records annually of extralimital birds, typically in early spring or between September and November. Just this afternoon I had a female-type at Eashing Farm – only my second since moving to Eashing at the start of 2022. Eashing Farm was a wintering site for Yellowhammer until roughly 2017, which coincided with the start of major development along Halfway Lane.

Other formerly regular wintering sites north of the Greensand Ridge that appear to have been lost include the aforementioned Conduit, Lascombe and Tuesley Farms, as well as, in more recent times, Thorncombe Street. It may be that a few wintering birds still persist up on The Ridge and Broomy Down at Thorncombe Street, but I've found none on recent visits. However, as recently as the winter of 2019-2020 I was getting up to 30 birds there, so there must be a reasonable chance some still kick about.

Yellowhammer, Thorncombe Street, 7 March 2019.

The Thorncombe Street winterers were from the farmland just beyond the eastern south-west Surrey border (aka the A281!), towards Shamley Green. There, at Rooks Farm, Yellowhammer still breeds – north of the Greensand Ridge, but outside south-west Surrey.

Rooks Farm is not the only population close to south-west Surrey where Yellowhammers still breed. On the North Downs near Wanborough a few pairs remain, part of an apparently healthy population between Blackwell and West Flexford Farms (ironically the last Surrey breeding site for Corn Bunting). 

This winter a few have been present just the other side of the Downs at Shackleford, in south-west Surrey. The improved habitat at Lydling Farm has doubtless attracted Yellowhammers to winter – or at least visit outside the breeding season – and thus Shackleford constitutes a rare but very real lifeline for this species in the region north of the Greensand Ridge. It's not implausible that a pair should stay on one spring and try to breed. I'd also fancy my two Eashing records (October 2022 and today) to involve birds from the Wanborough area population.

Yellowhammer, Eashing Fields, 30 September 2022.

Final thoughts

Little more than 20 years ago most south-west Surrey heaths had breeding Yellowhammers, with some sites holding healthy populations. Now, one site remains – and it looks doomed. If Yellowhammer abandons Witley Common, then the species will no longer be a heathland breeder in my area. The farmland sites north of the Greensand Ridge offer little hope, save perhaps Shackleford, but Yellowhammer recolonising there is, realistically, a long shot.

The Low Weald population looks more stable. Yellowhammer breeds in many locations south of the Greensand Ridge. But how long will this last? Clearly, the reduction in habitat north of the 'invisible boundary' has resulted in population crashes. And development is never-ending around here, even in the Low Weald – just look at Dunsfold Aerodrome, where the recent commencement of building work for a whole new village has already seen off resident Lapwings. How long will it be until Yellowhammers are forced out of these haunts as well?

Yellowhammers, Hambledon Church, 8 January 2021.