FARMERS are being urged to watch the birdie, particularly tree sparrows and corn buntings.
Decades after being encouraged to remove hundreds of miles of hedgerows, creating prairie-like vistas - central government is paying farmers to put them back.
Farmers from across Teesside were invited by the Rural Development Service to go bird watching on a farm at Yearby, near Redcar, east Cleveland, yesterday, to learn how they can turn their farmland into havens for birds.
If birds, particularly species such as sparrows and buntings, are near, a farmer has a good chance of being able to join the higher level of the Environmental Stewardship Scheme and receive up to £600 for every hectare of replanted hedge.
A similar visit is being organised to a farm at Bishop Middleham, County Durham, later this month.
Ingo Schuder, of the Rural Development Service, said: "Certainly, there have been mistakes in the past. Over the whole of Europe, there was an agreement for an intensive boost to food production."
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