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| Goldfinch |
Here in the UK, members of the public are asked once a year to spend an hour counting the birds in their garden (or park or any other place) and submit the figures to help map the population of birds in Britain.
The Big Garden Birdwatch is on this weekend (28th and 29th January 2012)!
Here is what the website says:
"For over 30 years, we've been asking you to count the birds in your garden – and you've been brilliant at it.You can register here and download your bird sheet.
Every year, even more of you join in with the count, and 2011 turned out to be one of our best yet. Thank you.
With results from so many gardens, we are able to create a 'snapshot' of bird numbers in each region. This is important because we've been able to see that some of our birds are disappearing in scary numbers.
We've lost more than half our house sparrows and some three-quarters of our starlings. And your results have helped highlight these dramatic declines.
However, it isn't all doom and gloom - these surveys help us spot problems, but more importantly, they are also the first step in putting things right.
We look forward to finding out what you've seen."
Give it a go!
We do something similar in the US called the Christmas Bird Count, held in various areas at various times but all around Christmas. I participated last December for the first time. The weather was not that great so my counts were low, but it was a good introduction to the event for me. Happy counting!
ReplyDeleteI bet the birds in the US are quite different to our British species ...
DeleteI don't expect this year's count to be particularly exciting. It has been very mild - and that usually means that birds can still find food out in the wild and may not bother coming into the more urban areas.
Still, we will see ...
Hope you see lots of birds! The Goldfinchis one of my favourites
ReplyDeleteThis post nicely ties in with the giveaway i recently ran, to win kits to make fat cakes for your garden birds! Well, you won't get one in time for the Big Garden Birdwatch, but if you send your address to me at juliet.m.wilsonATgmailDOTcom then I'll forward it to Yorkshire Water and they'll send you your prize directly!
Perfect timing for fat ball kits, Julie!
ReplyDeleteI am really excited to be one of the winners. Email is on its way ...