Left: featured bird: Blue tit/ Right: Spring Ivy print
At the end of January every year the RSPB organise the worlds largest garden wildlife survey. Because it happens over three days (26-28 January) there’s plenty of time for anyone to get involved in the Big Garden Birdwatch! It’s also super easy to do so, all you need to do is:
- Find somewhere comfortable to sit for an hour, that has a great view of your garden. Don’t fret if you haven’t got a garden, parks are also fine for birdwatching.
- Make sure you have some delicious refreshments to hand and relax while you watch the birds.
- Now you just need to count the maximum number of each species of bird you see at any one time.
- Finally, head back to the RSPB website to let them know what you’ve seen, even if that was nothing. All the information you get is useful to them!
Left: Juneberry and Bird wallpaper/ Right: Featured bird: great tit
Not only is the Big Garden Birdwatch a perfect excuse to sit back, relax and appreciate your garden for an hour, you’ll also be helping a great cause. The data from this survey is compared year-on-year, making the results very valuable to the RSPB scientists. Your results can point out problems to the RSPB, so work can be done to put things right. As well as this, it’s great for spotting a rise in some species, such as blue tits (which feature in my Spring Ivy fabric), which have risen by 20% since the Big Garden Birdwatch began 40 years ago!
