Since 1998 the Sky Lark
has done extremely well since the initial breeding bird
surveys were carried out in 1998. Survey findings over
the next seven years showed Sky Larks increased from just
ten breeding pairs in 1998, to a maximum of 39 pairs in
2005. This equated to an average of 4.875 pairs per
square km if the area's population was evenly spread
across the area. Yet despite it's great increase, there
are still large sections of the recording area, which
fail to support any breeding birds. In 1998, breeding Sky Larks were
found chiefly to the west of Eakring Flash, in the Church
Hill area, with single pairs at Eakring Field Farm and
Park Farm. During the intervening period until the 2005
survey, nesting Sky Larks continued to spread out in all
directions from the original survey plots. The spread
continued east of Eakring, roughly following the southern
boundary of the recording area at Church Hill and through
to Eakring Field Farm. Land south of Kersall has remained
sparsely populated, despite permanent set-aside being
created several years ago.
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