Ping! Into my email inbox was a friendly reminder for me to take part in Make your Nature Count. I had signed up a week or so ago and not quite got around to doing it (blame a teething baby). Apparently our summer wildlife survey has revealed some unexpected results in its first few days this year. Over half of participants so far have reported sightings of bats, showing how important gardens are for them. And numbers of amphibians spotted so far are also high, with half of participants reporting frogs in their gardens and a third recording toads.
Make Your Nature Count is a UK wide stock take of summer wildlife and gives us information about the creatures visiting gardens at this time of year. This year, as well as common garden birds, we are interested in creatures that are associated with water, such as frogs, toads, newts and beetles – very poignant with drought threats at the moment. Make Your Nature Count follows on from the popular Big Garden Bird Watch in January which gives a picture of winter bird numbers, but information on garden birds in summer will complete the picture.
The survey runs until Sunday and so I have just enough time (it only takes an hour) to take part, fill in my form and then submit my own little bit of science for the masses. This will let those clever people at head office to paint an even bigger picture of garden wildlife in the summer.
Take time out this weekend and make a difference, make your nature count www.rspb.org.uk/naturecount