The Big Garden Bird Watch
What is the Big Garden Bird Watch?
From Saturday 25th January to Monday 27th January, the RSPB is running its annual Big Garden Bird Watch.
The conservation charity wants to encourage all of us to take a moment to identify and count the birds which are visiting our gardens, local parks or nature reserves.
If you’re new to bird identification, then you can request or download a pack from the RSPB which includes a bird ID wall chart full of interesting facts about the birds you might spot as well as handy hints on how to differentiate your dunnock from your house sparrow.
You can submit your results online or via the post using their specially designed form. All you need to do is watch the birds for one hour. And then count those which land, but not those that are in flight. They want to know the number of the most birds which land at any one time. Not the total number which you count over one hour.
They would also like to know about any other wildlife which you see visiting your garden or green space. Perhaps you have a hedgehog snuffling around, or you see grey or red squirrels climbing your trees, or even a fox passing through at night.
The Big Garden Bird Watch helps the RSPB to compare year on year, how our wildlife is faring across Britain. They can watch for trends and see when numbers become statistically worrying. So far, they have collated more than 40 years’ worth of data. And, for example, it sadly has shown us that numbers of starlings have declined by 80 per cent but in more positive news, wrens have risen by 58 per cent.
Wildlife World Founder, Norman Sellers says “For me, long tailed tits are a joy to watch as they arrive in their teams to feed and then disappear again into the fields. Nuthatches are very common now. They realise there is a good feed source in the garden. Their reverse feed style and defensive nature makes them quite different to most garden birds.
“But Britain’s favourite bird remains the robin. The robin loves human activity and acts as a companion to gardeners, investigating every food opportunity and often preferring to nest in man-made nesters.”
At Wildlife World we will be getting involved in the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch because it enables us to understand where both national and local changes to species population are happening, and how we can interpret these changes and help individually in our own garden practices.
You can find out more about the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch through this link. We will be publishing some of our results on our social media, including our Facebook page. Make sure you like us so you can keep abreast of our news and product developments.
If you want to attract more birds into your garden, take a look at our extensive selection of bird feeders, baths, food and nest boxes.
And watch the How To guides on our You Tube channel to find out more.