Advance notice of Garden Birdwatch

I wondered about that as well.  Last year I got an email reminding me about the Big Garden Birdwatch.  I'm also a member with the Homes for Wildlife and it was not in their newsheets either. 

This year I saw some literature that my mother had from the RSPB (she is a member) and looked it up online, so as usual, I will be doing my counts this weekend.

Happy counting anyway!!

Hi Tony,

This years BGBW has had more coverage than any of the previous 30 years the event has been going for! It was mentioned in the recent edition of Birds magazine which goes out to our members, was also included in the recent e-newsletter whcih goes out to registered members. We have also had this as one of the main news points on the homepage of the website rspb.org all January. As well as all the coverage and discussion which has been buzzing away here on the community since way before Christmas!

We also had advertisments in all the national press since wed (27th) each day and numerous TV and Radio items. Apologies if you missed the radar on this but glad to see you find out in time. Hope you managed to get the survey done and thanks so much for taking an interest!

Best wishes

It has been on our local radio (BBC) for weeks

Hi Flutterbie9,

Our last  Homes for Wildlife enewsletter went out at the end of December - I think Kate Humble mentioned the birdwatch but it was certainly the focus of the last general enewsletter last week - more of a Big Garden Birdwatch newsletter to be honest!  Nothing else gets much of a look in in January!  With that going out just before the birdwatch and our Homes for Wildlife went out today, Kate just mentioned it and asked people to submit their results - and my word, you've been doing so in incredible numbers - this is amazing!

I did mine on Saturday morning - the afternoon was much better though - I even had two Stock Doves - only the third time they've been in the garden in ten years.

Thanks

Richard

Yes. I got the December Homes for Wildlife enewsletter but missed any mention of the Birdwatch.  I have indeed received the January Homes for Wildlife one today, but what is this other general enewsletter you mention?  I do not seem to receive any others and certainly not one last week. 

I did say that I had picked it up in my mother's RPSB literature (it was actually Birds magazine) but I admit that I do not get daily newspapers, very rarely get newspapers at the weekend, only watch specific programs I wish to on tv (one of which is Countryfile) ~ and miss the adverts, and can only listen to radio (always BBC really) when there is no-one in the office but me.  Consequently, I can miss a lot of the depressing items others call 'news' but do also miss the occasional item I would like to know about.  I lead a very sheltered life in many ways.

I did my count on Sunday afternoon and like you, wished I had done it a few hours earlier when there was much more of a variety around enjoying the feast I've been putting out for them over this winter.  Instead, when I sat down to count I had a mini horde of starlings descend and not a lot else!  

However, I can add that later that afternoon, it was the best display I've had this year of the starlings and so very close to the house.  Magnificent, glad I didn't have to atempt to count that lot.

Well I seem not to be getting the e-news letters for some reason, I don't know whether the coverage has changed but on the February Homes for Wildlife site, the coverage is under surveys, with a further link (below)

"Look out for our 2010 surveys - Big Garden Birdwatch (30-31 January)"

Which then takes you to the actual site - something's wrong somewhere and I am with Flutterbies on this.

Hi Tony, When registering to RSPB websites (Community, BGBW, Homes for Wildlife etc) you are prompted to tick or untick a box to recieve e-correspondance. I assume you must of unchecked this when signing up?

Its easy to receive these notifications though, either see www.rspb.org/plus or click "e-newsletter" which is at the top of every web page on the main site next to contact us (i didnt notice either!). Hope that helps for future reference!

Best wishes L 

Thanks a lot for this.  I discovered that though I was on both sites, I must have only had the Homes for Wildlife e-newsletter ticked.  I think I must have mistakenly thought that it would give me all the e-newsletters from RSPB if I ticked it in one place in the RSPB sites.  Rectified now; signed on to the main site and found everything "easy as pie" from these instructions, so I'll wait and see what other e-newsletters emerge in the future.

BTW, when I did enter my BGBW results this year I had a query on the large number of starlings.  Perhaps when they check my address they will realise that I live very close to two Somerset reserves known for their starling flocks.  I did feel very guilty but  I couldn't  be 100% accurate and count them all in time as they moved about so much and as I'd looked up the advice on here about counting larger numbers of birds, I did it that way and was probably a little down on the number anyway rather than over!  Good fun and I'll keep practicising counting large numbers for next time.

Thanks again.

Thanks for this tip, thought that I had signed up but....