Getting ready for #BigGardenBirdWatch with the RSPB’s Anna Allum
With the nature reserve at RSPB Pulborough Brooks being open 7 days a week, it’s a treat to have a Sunday off and take a slower, more mindful, start to the day, drinking coffee from my favourite mug and watching the birds visit my garden.
Blackbirds are often the earliest to arrive, knowing that they’ll get the pick of the treats I have scattered on the lawn – a few sultanas and a handful of sunflower seeds. Robins are also quick off the mark, although they seem to spend as much time and energy chasing one another as they do feeding. And then a flurry of birds arrives; a large family party of Long-tailed Tits who crowd around the suet balls, with one or two acting as sentries whilst the rest of the group feed.
The finches have a lie-in but I might add Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch and even Bullfinch to my list. Several finch species have been badly hit by disease in the past decade, so I always give my bird feeders a thorough weekly clean.
This coming weekend, 23 – 25 January, is the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, so whilst enjoying my Sunday ritual, I can contribute to the world’s largest wildlife survey. Counting birds from your garden, balcony or your local park will play a vital role in helping us to understand how UK birds are doing. Together, let’s make it count:
Watch the birds around you for one hour.
Count the highest number of each species that land in your patch at any one time – not the total you see in the hour.
Submit your results on the RSPB website.
Over its four decades, this annual survey has helped highlight the winners and losers in the garden bird world and can give us a welcome dose of nature even on the dullest January day.