Comment: eric :  We sold our farm and at the time there were 57 mature deciduous trees in the hedgerows. Five of those near the farmyard were home to a large Rookery and the rest of the trees housed our less noisy neighbours, pidgeon, squirrel, birds of prey, etc. Hedgerows were busy with Linnet, Jay, Blackbird, Thrush and all their other pals. Every year the lower fields along the river course would flood during the winter and spring months and thousands of migratory birds would visit. The reluctant pools that hung on into late spring would fill with frog spawn. The river banks were wild with every riparian plant that could be named and was home to dragonfly and otter and the river trout, eel and pike. There was a sand wall dug into the side of a small drumlin and was a nesting area for thousands of Sandmartin who hunted the fields for flying insects all summer long. I met the new owner about 12years later and he asked me to visit the farm and it was a year later when I did. He had transformed the yard into modern farm buildings and the fields were much larger and easier to manage because a lot of hedgerows had been removed. Not a tall tree was left standing and the drumlin had been removed leaving a level field. The river Bank had new smooth levees to prevent flooding. It looked so progressive but very clinical and lonely.