GUEST BLOGGER: Melanie Beck, Assistant Leader of the RSPB Norwich Nuthatches children's club
That’s a very good question and one the Norwich Nuthatches hoped would be answered at the January 2014 meeting! Group leader John gave us a picture of a crowd of penguins and asked us to count how many there were. Everyone began counting. There were penguins of all sizes some large ones and some you could hardly see so it was very difficult to do and we quickly lost count.
John explained that scientists have lots of ways of counting large numbers of birds and we would be using one of these ourselves. We moved to the bird feeders outside reception at Strumpshaw Fen and spent a few minutes watching the feeders to see which birds came to them. John explained that you couldn’t just count every bird you saw – it might be the same birds coming and going. We had to count the total number of one type of bird that we saw at the feeder at the same time. We saw lots of great tits going backward and forwards but only counted 3 great tits at the same time. There could have been more but it would have been hard to prove. We saw great tits, blue tits, marsh tits, coal tits, chaffinch, goldfinch, a robin and a nuthatch. Our total was 25 birds and 7 different species. We headed into the woods and tried again. We didn’t see as many birds but we knew they were close by as we could hear several different bird songs. John explained that the birds would not all feed at the same place. They may use all the food in that area but more importantly they would start to fight. It was important for them to have different places to eat and drink.
Continuing our penguin themed morning, our next challenge was to make our own penguin. We used cardboard tubes and made some wonderful penguins in all shapes, sizes and colours (see picture). We then made some rock hopper penguin masks as we were going to become penguins ourselves! When the female penguin lays her egg, she passes the egg to her mate. That’s easy, you might think, but penguins hold their eggs on their feet. Because most penguins live in very cold places, the egg must not touch the ground as it would freeze and the baby would not survive. Our challenge was to see what it felt like to walk with an egg on our feet. We used a scrunched up ball of paper for our eggs. Try it for yourself - it was a lot harder than you’d think!
Now you know how we counted the birds on the feeders at Strumpshaw Fen, try doing it in your own garden during the Big Garden Birdwatch on 25th and 26th January. I’ll be doing it so why not give it a try and send your results to the RSPB. I don’t think you’ll see any penguins though!! Oh and in case you were wondering – we think there were around 250 penguins in the picture, not half a million!