There are still a few yellowhammers in the farmland hedges singing, as tradition has it, about their "little bit of bread and no cheese". But there is a danger that yellowhammers will soon be wailing that there is no bread and no cheese - and after that, it will not be long before they will all be gone.
The new danger comes from genetically modified farm crops, and what they might do to the insects and weed seeds that so many birds, like yellowhammers, depend on for food. There has already been one near-disaster of this kind since the war, when in the 1960s DDT and other organo-chloride pesticides were sprayed indiscriminately over the fields. Then small birds ate poisoned seeds, and sparrowhawks ate the small birds, and before long the sparrowhawk was practically extinct in Britain. As DDT built up inside their bodies, the deaths of other bird species would undoubtedly have taken place and "silent spring" was averted only by the outcry of conservationists and the banning of DDT.
Now there is the threat of another silent spring. There are at present two main areas of experiment with genetically modified organisms, (GMOs), in agriculture. One is the production of what are called herbicide-resistant crops; experiments are mostly taking place on oilseed rape and sugar beet. What the successful outcome of these experiments would mean is that the new rape or beet would not be affected by very powerful or "broad spectrum" weedkillers, so that farmers could use these on their fields without fear.
If these modifications were extended to all crops, even the remaining weeds in the fields, on whose seeds so many birds still depend, would vanish. Of course "weeds" here usually means what the rest of us would call flowers, such
as the big yellow sowthistles and rusty-red sorrel; at present these are adorning the fields quite spectacularly after the rainy summer, with goldfinches and greenfinches and linnets all coming down in flocks and families to feed on them. Ultimately, all these birds would starve.
The other kind of genetically modified crops that are being introduced are those that produce their own insecticides; insects using these habitually would either die or abandon them. Even if the insects leave them, where will they go if there are no wild plants left? Insects are even more important than seeds to birds in the summer, for linnets and skylarks and other mainly seed-eaters all feed their tender young with insects.
A third danger that is being much talked about at the moment is that the GMOs might, through cross-fertilisation, pass their new features on to other plants, and chemical-resistant "superweeds" might appear in the countryside. However this, it must be said, is mainly a danger for farmers - and rather a cause for cheering for conservationists - especially if the superweeds do not have the gene that repels insects. The great superweeds might become strong, safe homes for butterflies and bees, as well as impregnable food sources for birds. However, it is hardly a good idea to trust to that!
Farmland birds are already suffering badly, even though DDT has gone. Other changed farming practices have hit them. Not so long ago, farmers left their stubble fields all winter, and ploughed them in the spring. Keats's "rosy hue" that fell on them in autumn brought numerous birds to glean on the spilt grain - even sparrows came out in noisy crowds from the towns - and throughout the winter, weeds flourished on them and produced seeds.
Nowadays the combine harvester goes round relentlessly and not an ear of corn is left on the earth for the gleaners. Then, even before the field is harvested, the ploughing begins again, and soon afterwards the winter corn is planted. Only last week I watched a combine and a plough clattering along side by side on a hilly field in Hertfordshire. There was nothing for small birds there.
Now GMOs carry the threat of taking the deadly process much further. That is why the good folk of Fife were out last March pulling up a mutant crop of oilseed rape and dancing on the field afterwards, and the Aberdonians cut a giant X in a GM rape field in May.
This time, unlike what happened with DDT, we can prevent a potential disaster - if we want to. English Nature has called on the Government and other bodies throughout Europe to carry out long-term testing before deciding whether these crops are acceptable. It adds, tactfully, that "we do not want to reject any potential benefits from these crops".
But that is self-deception. Farmers who use them will be in a head-on clash with wild life. They want to get rid of the insects and weed seeds. So the rest of us must make up our mind whether we can accept any further inroads into the numbers of our birds, butterflies and flowers.
The Edwardian poet Gordon Bottomley wrote: "When you destroy a blade of grass/You poison England at the root."
A hundred years on, would he be tempted to write: "When you mutate a blade of grass you poison England at the root"?
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