Make room for nature. Be paid for it.

Scribble round your fields. See what could live there.

Draw your land on an aerial photo. Scribblelark shows farmers and landowners in England where hedgerows, ponds, flowers and birds could come back, and which government schemes will pay towards it.

Register for the launch offerSee how it works

7 days free. Then £20 a month or £199 a year. Register now for up to half price.

Bring the old pond backFlower marginfor beesLet the hedgegrow tallWinter seedfor yellowhammersSkylark plotsHay meadow,cut late
Example farm. Map image © 2026 Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, used under license
Scribblelark on a phone: the aerial map with fields outlined in yellow and a bar to push a side out or edit corners.

Tap a field.
We find the hedge.
Keep tapping
for the rest.

Example farm. Map image © 2026 Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, used under license
A grasshopper sitting on an oxeye daisy in long grass.
The small things come back firstPhoto: James Andrews

What it is

The schemes exist to pay for nature on farmland. Finding the ones that fit your land is the hard part.

It starts with your land

Mark your fields on an aerial photo. Each one is checked against public data: land grade, slope, protected landscapes, priority habitats, chalk streams and agreements already in place.

It puts nature first

Suggestions lead with what does most for wildlife. The payment covers the work and the income you give up. This is not a profit calculator.

It is for whoever holds the land

Farmers, landowners who let their ground, smallholders, estates. Several schemes are open to any landowner, not just farmers, and Scribblelark tells you which.

How it works

Four steps, about ten minutes

No forms to study first. Start on the sofa with a phone and finish at the desk if you like. Your land is saved to your account, whether it is a farm, an estate or a few paddocks.

1

Sign in on whatever is to hand

Phone, tablet or computer. It is the same Scribblelark on each, laid out to fit the screen. Sign in with your email or mobile and a one-time code. There is no password to remember.

Scribblelark on a computer: the aerial map with five fields outlined on the left and the list of fields on the right.
The same screen on a tablet, with the map above the field list.
The same screen on a phone.
ComputerTabletPhone
2

Scribble round your fields

Tap inside a field. Scribblelark runs the boundary out to the hedge, track or road, and lines it up with the fields next door.

  • A side stops short? Press Push a side out and tap beyond it.
  • Have a farm map? Upload it. The fields come off the drawing, and the field names are offered for you to approve.
  • No clear edge? Draw it by hand.
The map screen. A field has just been added, with buttons to push a side out, make it smaller or bigger, or edit its corners.
3

Say what each field is used for

Arable, a hay meadow, horse paddocks, parkland, scrub, a pond. Pick from the list. Scribblelark suggests actions for that field and says what each helps: pollinators, farmland birds, soil life, clean water.

Tick and untick to make the plan your own.

A field opened in the side panel, showing what was found about the land and a ticked list of suggested actions.
4

Start with the three that matter most

No wall of options. Scribblelark picks the three changes that do most for nature on your land for the least upheaval, and applies each to every field it suits, so you decide once.

Everything else sits on one chart: quick wins, things worth planning, easy extras and ones to think twice about. Then mark each scheme Interested, Already claim or Not for me.

The Plan tab: three numbered Start here cards for flower margins, winter bird food and low-input grassland, each with what it fits and pays.
Step 1 of 4

Screens show an example farm. Figures are estimates at published 2026 rates. Map images © 2026 Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, used under license.

The whole picture

What you gain. What it costs you.

Every holding gets a summary of what would happen if you did all of it: what you could expect to see, year by year, which wildlife it helps, what you would be paid, and what you would give up. We would sooner you knew.

The Summary tab, listing what the plan would cost: land out of cropping, grazing lost, yield risk, yearly work and long-term upkeep.
  • What you could seeFinches and buntings on winter seed from year one. Bees and butterflies on the margins from the second summer. Owls over tussocky corners. Flowers in grass, slowly.
  • What you would be paidThe yearly figure at published rates, and the total over an agreement.
  • Land that stops earningHectares out of cropping. Grazing lost to fenced corners and strips.
  • Work that does not go awayPlots re-sown every year. Hedges and ponds to keep up long after an agreement ends.
  • Things that can go wrongYield risk, weeds at the margin, a 3-year commitment, and schemes that close without warning.

Scribblelark does not submit applications. You apply through the Rural Payments service or the scheme itself, with a prepared sheet from us. Payments shown are estimates from published rates and the areas you mark. It covers public schemes in England today. Wales and Scotland are planned next.

For members

More than a list of schemes

Finding the scheme is the start. Membership is built to help with what comes after. Everything in these three columns is planned. None of it is live yet.

Pay less for what the work needs

  • Seed mixes checked against the scheme's specification.
  • Trees, hedge plants and guards.
  • Contractors near you for drilling, hedge laying and pond work.
  • Group orders with members nearby.

Stay on top of it

  • Date reminders for sowing, cutting and yearly declarations.
  • An evidence log. Dated photos pinned to each field.
  • A yearly nature summary to show a buyer, a landlord or the bank.

Help when you want it

  • A fixed-fee application check by a qualified adviser.
  • Vet partners for the animal health and welfare review.
  • Farm walks and local groups.
Coming later

Private money for nature

Government schemes are not the only ones paying. We cover public schemes first because the rules are published and the same for everyone. Private funding is next.

  • Biodiversity net gain. Developers pay landowners to create habitat. Good money, and a 30-year commitment.
  • Carbon. The Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code pay for trees planted and peat re-wetted.
  • Water companies. Several pay for cover crops and buffer strips in the catchments they draw from.
  • Buyers and processors. Some supply contracts now pay a premium for nature-friendly practice.
  • Charities and local funds. Small grants for ponds, hedges, orchards and owl boxes.

Partner offers never change what Scribblelark suggests. Actions are chosen for what they do for nature. If a supplier pays us for a referral, we will say so. Private schemes will be shown with the same plain account of what they tie you into.

Pricing

Try it free. Stay for the updates.

Schemes open, close and change their rules through the year. Membership keeps your plan current, sends a monthly update, and tells you straight away when a scheme you marked Interested moves.

Early bird

Register before launch and choose your offer

Half price for your first 6 months on monthly membership, or 25% off yearly membership for as long as you stay. That is £149.25 a year in place of £199. Half price monthly is £10 a month for your first 6 months.

Register now

Free trial

7 days no charge
  • Up to 3 fields, or 200 acres
  • See which schemes your land may fit
  • Scheme details are kept short
  • No help with applying

Monthly

£20 a month

Everything, for up to 3 holdings. Stop when you like.

Saves £41 a year

Yearly

£199 a year

Everything, for up to 3 holdings. Works out at £16.58 a month.

Estate

POA

For estates, land agents and advisers with more than 3 holdings.

Get in touch

Who we are

Named after a bird that needs the room

Scribble lark: an old country name for the yellowhammer

68%fewer breeding in the UK than in 1967
2002on the UK Red List ever since
Figures: British Trust for Ornithology, BirdTrends 2025.

Why Scribblelark

The yellowhammer is one of Britain's brightest birds. The cock is lemon-yellow and sings from the top of a hedge all summer. Its eggs are covered in fine dark squiggles, as if someone had tested a pen on them. Country people called it the scribble lark.

It was once on every farm. Since the 1960s more than two thirds have gone. Autumn sowing took away the winter stubbles it fed on, hedges and rough margins were lost, and by late winter there is too little seed left to see it through to spring.

What it needs is not complicated: a thick hedge, a rough margin and seed in winter. Those are the things the schemes pay for. Scribblelark was started to give birds like this more places to live, by making it easy for the people who hold the land to say yes.

Working on Helen Browning's organic farm at Bishopstone, under the Wiltshire downs, showed James what farmland can hold when it is given the room: corn buntings, yellowhammers, linnets, skylarks, barn owls and hares.

Founder

James Andrews

Wildlife photographer and digital delivery lead

  • Head of Delivery, TBSCG
  • Runs ProHides on Eastbrook Farm since 2018
  • BSc Marine and Freshwater Biology

I've spent years on a farm where the hedges are left thick and the margins are left for wildlife, and I've watched corn buntings and yellowhammers come back to it. Most landowners I meet would do the same tomorrow. What stops them isn't will. It's knowing where the money is, and finding a way through schemes and applications that are far more complicated than they need to be. Scribblelark is my way of making the right thing the easy thing.

James Andrews, founder

Since 2018 James has run ProHides, the wildlife photography hides on Helen Browning's organic farm at Bishopstone. He has a BSc in Marine and Freshwater Biology and has watched birds since childhood.

He is also Head of Delivery at TBSCG, a digital consultancy, where he leads the teams building content and AI platforms for large organisations. Before that he built the Jessops training academy. Scribblelark is where the two worlds meet.

Register your interest

Be told when Scribblelark opens, and keep the launch offer

Leave an email address, a mobile number, or both. We will contact you once, when sign-up opens.