We are addicted!

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I think I have mentioned before that, for the past three or four years, we (as a family) have participated in the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) Big Garden Birdwatch, an annual event at the end of January when anyone can spend an hour making a note of what birds they see in their garden or local park or whatever. Surveyors can take part more than once, for example on two different days or at different locations. This has been running now for over 40 years and is probably the first so-called ‘citizen science’ project. Thousands of people (in fact over a million in 2021!) send in their results and the data have proved valuable in tracking changes in bird populations over the years. Little One is a particularly keen participant, and also gets the best view from her bedroom window. So once it’s all over, watching the birds feels a bit aimless. But then I discovered that the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) also runs a ‘garden birdwatch’ which is a permanent, ongoing survey. Basically you can make a note of the maximum number of any birds you see in your garden during any week (Sunday to Saturday) and submit the results. So we started on that a couple of weeks ago and now we are hooked! Every time we happen to glance out of a window we are constantly keeping on eye on what’s out there, whether we have already recorded that species that week, whether there are more of them than the maximum number we already noted etc etc. It really does make you pay more attention to the wildlife just outside – but it’s also a great distraction. I had terrible trouble getting my work finished last week because I kept looking outside, grabbing the binoculars, and checking my list. Right now there are a couple of bluetits outside, a pair of jays and a chaffinch. If anyone else in the UK is interested in taking part the information is in the link below. And if you think you don’t know enough about birds – once you are really looking, you can quickly learn to recognise one species (by its song, its colours, the way it flies, the way it hops about, its silhouette…) and then another, and then one more, and soon you will know your regular visitors. https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/gbw/join-gbw All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2023.