BIRDS THAT BENEFIT

Modern seed mixes usually offer far more benefit to farmland birds than single crops, especially if they contain a range of seed sizes.

A charm of goldfinches is always a delight, and they just love chicory seeds. There were several hundred on one of my strips last winter. Corn buntings like the bigger seeds of cereals, so adding a bit of barley to the mix can help.

Tree sparrows are rare, but you might just see them picking apart the seed pods of kale in its second winter. Song thrushes love to forage for invertebrates under kale-based mixtures. Linnets, meanwhile, like small seeds and can often be seen in mixes with mustard or linseed.