This weekend...Take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch

Well, it’s finally here. The big weekend. You’ve done the preparation, you can only sit back and watch.

Which is exactly what we want you to do! For just one hour on either Saturday or Sunday please sit down, take a look out of the window and count the birds in your garden. Oh, and then submit your results, even if you don’t see anything. We still need to know.

For more information on how to take part see the Big Garden Birdwatch website. It’s so simple!

All welcome

I’ll be taking part too, I wouldn’t dream of missing it! I’ve been doing the Birdwatch since I was fresh-faced youngster staring hopefully out of the patio doors, watching entranced as blue, great and coal tits flew to and fro on their own little missions.

Back then it was only for YOC (now Wildlife Explorers) members. I’m glad that in 2001 the powers that be allowed adults to take part too! Last year 609,177 people took part. Where you one of them?

Tactics

They’re pretty simple, my tactics. But it’s my last Big Garden Birdwatch in this house, so I’d like it to be a good one.

I don’t have a garden, there’s a few plants to attract insects, ivy on the walls where blackbirds nest in spring and a tree across the courtyard. Hung there is a feeder. Or, as it’s known in my house, the ‘finch swing’, on account of the number of finches regularly seen on it! Green-, gold- and chaffinches are all regulars. The goldies appeared just after my Birdwatch hour last year, so I hope they’ll turn up during it this year.

Woodpigeons, collared doves, blackbirds and dunnocks skulk around underneath the feeder, hoovering up any seeds the messy-eating finches drop. I know it’s not a competition, but two years ago I scored a record 12 species. Star bird that year was a blackcap. More of these migrant warblers are spending their winters in the UK and with this year’s mild winter, perhaps we’ll see a few more this year.

Tradition

So, I’ll be watching early(ish) on Saturday morning, with my trusty Birdwatch bacon sarnie. It’s all part of the tradition, it just wouldn’t be the same without my bacon sarnie! I’ll let you know what I see.

What are you hoping to see? Do you have any Birdwatch traditions? Let me know and share in the fun of the world’s largest wildlife survey.