Country diary: No weeds, no tree sparrows – only a few are hanging on | David Bellamy

Poyll Vaaish, Isle of Man: One field on the island is a throwback to the heyday of mixed farming, full of veg and weeds. The resulting biodiversity is astonishing

On the south coast of the Isle of Man there exists a field so impossibly teeming with birds that I don't know where to begin. I was last there on Christmas Day - an odd day to go birding perhaps, but not here. The island's annual Bird Race, a collective effort to find as many species as possible, runs between Christmas and the new year. In 2022 we set a record: 121 species, three of which were found in this field and nowhere else.

So what's this field got that makes it so popular for birds? Weeds, glorious weeds - which modern society tells us to hate. Aren't they wildflowers too? The field is a throwback to 70 years ago, to the heyday of mixed farming, when every farm had an acre of vegetables - and lots of weeds.