The diversity and behaviour of farmland birds on solar parks in the UK

Secker, Ben and Sharp, Stuart and Armstrong, Alona (2024) The diversity and behaviour of farmland birds on solar parks in the UK. Masters thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

Ground-mounted solar photovoltaic parks are the largest renewable terrestrial land use in the UK, and as such are an emerging anthropogenic habitat. Despite birds being a well-studied and ubiquitous taxon, relatively little is known about how avian diversity and behaviour are impacted by solar parks. This study begins to address these unknowns by using an existing dataset of 28 solar parks across the UK to model the relationship between solar park age, size, sward height, predator abundance and grazing management regimes, on all bird and farmland species richness, and skylark presence and abundance. This study also reports evidence of the first systematic searches for nesting skylarks on solar parks in the UK, using thermal imaging technology, and focal watches to quantitatively assess skylark behaviour on solar parks. The results reveal that all bird and farmland bird species richness increase with age of solar parks, but that grazing was negatively associated with all bird species richness and abundance and presence of skylarks. Nest searches indicated that no skylarks were nesting at the sites in this study but do indicate solar parks may potentially provide valuable foraging resources compared to the surrounding agricultural landscape, with evidence that skylarks were taking food offsite to nestlings or recently fledged young on adjacent land. The solar parks included in this study were primarily designed and managed for electricity generation, with some biodiversity improvement measures. This indicates that those designed with a greater focus on wildlife would have a greater positive impact on birds in an increasingly depleted agricultural landscape. Indeed, one site managed with a focus on biodiversity had multiple pairs of corn buntings nesting successfully over a period of three years. Major improvements in pre- and post-construction monitoring data are now required to understand the short- and longer-term effects of the development and management of solar parks on birds.