A number of new houses at Eakring, has resulted in some loss of breeding habitat and Swallows were thought to have been one of the most likely species to suffer through a series of recent barn conversions, but a more thorough survey this year, with improved access to nesting areas, resulted in a very surprising 21 pairs being recorded. There had obviously been a considerable underestimate of the Swallow population in previous surveys.

Two birds which have showed complete contrasts in fortunes over the years are Blackbird and Willow Warbler. Willow Warbler showed the largest drop in breeding pairs during 2008, compared to when they were last surveyed in 2001 and is the only warbler to have shown such a drop.

At the time this seemed surprising as much of Sherwood Forest and other sites visited, seemed full of them this year and the same amount of habitat has remained at Eakring for years now and has even increased with scrub and vegetation growth at Eakring Flash.

Blackbird numbers have risen enormously over the years at Eakring, so much so that the 2008 population of 163 pairs must be nearing the maximum breeding population the entire area can support. Whether recent new housing developments throughout the village will affect numbers during future surveys, remains to be seen.

The table below shows the various results from breeding surveys at Eakring since 1998. Over the years, a number of specific species' have been surveyed and these counts are shown in the various columns. The R/F (rise or fall) column compares the 2008 counts to either the 1998 breeding bird survey or a species' most recent survey. For some this is as recently as 2007 or 2004. Where P appears in any of the columns, this represents the species as being present, but actual breeding not confirmed. Note:- Pheasant has not been included due to the annual release of birds.

Despite the fact that on the whole, much of the area's available habitat has changed relatively little since 1998, there have been genuine breeding pair increases. Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird and Chaffinch have all showed very large increases in numbers, but already had existing healthy populations in 1998. On the other hand, Lesser Whitethroat has probably shown one of the most prolific increases which began back in 2004. After just one pair was found in 1998, numbers have slowly risen to an exceptional 11 pairs in 2008. Whitethroat has always been common here, with pairs numbering virtually the same as in 1998, but have increased on a poor year in 2004 when there were just 28 pairs.

Sky Lark continued to produce record numbers of breeding pairs in what has really been an astonishing comeback from just ten pairs in 1998, to 50 pairs in 2008. The spread has generally been an eastwards one and began before set-aside strips surrounded many fields. Set-aside strips containing mostly grass have been well utilised by hunting Barn Owls, but their returning to breed at Eakring and Kersall, has been through the siting of three artificial nest boxes. With one pair first appearing in 2005 and breeding each year since, a second pair were found using a box in the west of the recording area. A third box near Kersall appeared to remain unused during 2008.

2008 turned out to be a record year for Lapwing, with 16 pairs breeding in the Park Farm area. Many pairs nested on newly created grass areas, but nesting was by no means confined to areas such as this. Bullfinch was another species which showed an increase and were up by five pairs on 2004 results. Pairs were generally at well scattered locations throughout the Eakring village and Eakring Meadows areas. Yellowhammer were up by one pair on 2002 survey results, but by eight on those found in 1998. Yellowhammer and Linnet have both preferred hedgerow habitats for nesting, but in a similar situation to both Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat, regularly maintained hedgerows are favoured. The few examples of ancient and uncut hedgerows in the area, are considerably less well used as nesting sites.