In a cooperative project between the German Nature Protection Federation (Naturschutzbund Deutschland, NABU) and the German Farmers’ Association (Deutscher Bauernverband), on more than 1200 fields nationwide over 5000 “skylark windows”were laid out. The spaces in question are so-called “missing areas” of some 20 to 30 square meters—2 to 3 per hectare of land—which emerge through excavation by the sowing machinery or tilling.
On these spaces skylarks can find refuge as ground breeders, since due to modern intensive agriculture and its highly efficient use of space, the “holes” in plant populations which the birds require are scarcely to be found. More than 500 cultivators from all of the states affected took part in the action voluntarily and without pay.
About three quarters of the skylark windows were laid out in fields of winter grain, and the remaining ones were distributed among winter rapeseed, maize and other crops. The scientific part of the investigation demonstrated that, especially in winter grain fields, skylark windows show a positive impact on the usability of the spaces by skylarks in May and June.
Crucial in the process for the effectiveness of the “missing areas” is the proper choice of location, as well as a sufficient size and density of the “windows” in the grain fields (at least two per hectare). The project yielded the following conclusions:
