This blog is largely about the places over the garden fence, but once a year I’m delighted to focus on that patch that is so important to so many of us – our gardens.
The garden is a great nature-connector, a window on the world of wildlife – and once a year we organise that great festival of nature connection – Big Garden Birdwatch. This year it’s taking place over the weekend of 26 – 27 January and you can pre-register here.
One of the great things about Big Garden Birdwatch is that the sheer numbers of people taking part (and that it has been running since 1979) means that the information we all collect is a very valuable snap shot of how our garden birds are doing. A simple survey carried out at the same time each year by thousands of people is ‘scientifically robust’ – which is nice. But for each of us big garden birdwatchers there’s a more instant benefit, it’s actually fun!
Our regular nuthatch tucking into RSPB Birdcare feeder seed - hope it turns up on Big Garden Birdwatch day. Picture Andre Farrar
I’ll be doing it with my eight year old; he had a new camera for Christmas so will no doubt be recording the event for posterity. He’s getting good at naming the birds, though sitting in one place for an hour will be a challenge (at some point he’ll leave me to hold the fort) – if you follow this link you’ll find activities to keep the kids engaged.
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Registered and looking forward to it. Had three new visitors over the course of 2012 - Bullfinch, Redpoll and fabulous dog Fox - so hoping something good shows up during that hour..
CJ