This year the weekend of 25th - 27th January, sees the return of the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. If you would like to take part, you need to put aside an hour at any time over the three days and count the birds visiting your garden or a local park.  

If you go to the  www.rspb.org.uk website, you can ‘sign up’ which will unlock exclusive Birdwatch Extra features.

What is involved if you take part ?

• an hour of your time
• a pen or pencil
• some paper
• means of identification (e.g. https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/identify-a-bird/)
• a place to observe (your garden / local park)

During the course of the hour, you are asked to record the highest number of each bird species actually in your garden / park (not just passing by).    If you see other animals in your garden or park you are asked to note these down as well.   It all helps to build up a picture of how our wildlife is faring. 

The Big Garden Bird Watch has been running for a number of years and has helped build a picture of how various bird populations have changed over recent times. For example, in 1979, the song thrush was in the top ten of birds seen but last year it had fallen to number 20 in the list - a decline of of 76%.  The information from the survey helps ecologists monitor bird populations and understand the pressures on wildlife.

Our local educational charity (Bell House in Dulwich) has a large garden and volunteers there will be monitoring the 'visitors' for the Garden Birdwatch.  Sharon has kindly supplied the images used here - taken in the garden.