Big Garden Birdwatch

Happy new year all!

If you're heading out to the reserve for some fresh air and exercise after the festivites, remember to bring your wellies. The car park is open again following more flooding over the holidays but it's still very muddy. Some sections of path are still under a bit of water and are best avoided unless you're very sure of your footing.

However, I'm happy to say it's nearly time for the annual Big Garden Birdwatch - an opportunity to enjoy and help your garden wildlife from the comfort of your own home, mud-free!

If you've not heard of the Big Garden Birdwatch before, it's the world’s largest wildlife survey. All you have to do is watch the birds in your garden or local park for one hour on the weekend of 26-27 January and send your results in to the RSPB.

You can find all the information you need the website here, including a handy sheet to help you identify and count all your visitors.

The Big Garden Birdwatch was born over 30 years ago as an activity for our junior members which turned out to be amazingly popular. With over half a million people now regularly taking part, Big Garden Birdwatch allows us to monitor trends and helps us understand how birds are doing.

As the format of the survey has stayed the same, the scientific data can be compared year-on-year, making your results very valuable.

With results from so many gardens, we’re able to create a 'snapshot' of bird numbers across the UK. While the changes we’re seeing over the years can be scary - we've lost more than half our house sparrows and some three-quarters of our starlings since 1979 - it isn't all doom and gloom.

Your results help us spot problems, but more importantly, they are also the first step in putting things right. And this is why it's so important that we count the garden birds.

The more people involved, the more we can learn, so please encourage your family, friends and neighbours to take part and make 2013 the best ever Big Garden Birdwatch!

If you love wildlife too and want to help, this is your chance to get involved in something that really counts.