THIS year's wet and dismal summer may have been disastrous for many of our popular garden birds, but it has proved to have been a wonderful year for a rare species of farm and downland bird.

This year there were 121 pairs of stone-curlew across Wiltshire and neighbouring counties, a four-fold increase on the numbers recorded by the RSPB in the 1980s when the society began its rescue work.

This part of the UK is proving to be leading the country's efforts to save the stone-curlew from extinction but on the horizon is a possible threat to the progress so far.

Phil Sheldrake, stone-curlew project manager, told Rural View: "The region's farmers and landowners work with the RSPB to provide the birds with the right sort of habitat. The Ministry of Defence takes advice on managing some of its land on Salisbury Plain and Porton Down for the birds, and SITA Trust has granted some £110,239 through the Government's landfill communities fund over three years towards stone-curlew nest and chick protection.

"Despite their productive summer the shadow of the loss of set-aside is hanging over the birds.

"Ten per cent of the region's stone-curlews nest on set-aside, land on which wheat, barley and other food crops cannot be grown, but it will be scrapped by the EU next year and there are no plans to find an alternative."

Mr Sheldrake said set-aside was never intended as a conservation measure but it turned out to be a boon for stone-curlews and plenty of other wildlife. He said: "We just hope its loss will not lead to already threatened birds paying the price."

Set-aside has also helped other declining farmland birds such as skylarks, yellowhammers, lapwings and barn owls.

This year's wet summer brought out the worms and they provided a rich and plentiful source of food for chicks throughout the season. Some chicks gained weight as much as 25 per cent faster than normal.

They were helped by a mild and dry April and early May when they were making nests and laying eggs and then the wet weather helped feed the chicks.

Pictured is a stone-curlew chick sitting on a bag to help show it against the stony-ground background.