I have signed up for the event, and look forward to it.My question is; I live on a mobile home site,the gardens are open.So do i count just the birds that land and feed on the food i put out,or can i count all birds that i can see feeding around me?As i am the garden & maintenance man,i could say that it is all my garden
If its not worth doing today,is it worth doing at all
I guess the term "garden" is arbitrary, the idea is to just log the birds you see which actually land within your garden/boundary within your hour of surveying.
By a process of repetition (400,000+) the results will even out to give us accurate average counts and therefore the overall data would not be affected by a few expected errors. The truth is it cant be expected that every single indentification will be correct or every single aspect of the procedure fully adhered to. However, by far the vast majority will be correct and to the procedure described, so the results are significantly valid. The BGBW procedure it perhaps thee best example of scientific survey on this scale EVER! The studies which tell us what is safe to eat, what helps to cure illnesses etc aren't anywhere near as large a sample size as the BGBW. Rest assured the data will be accurate as average counts and figures per region!
Please remember to direct BGBW discussion to the BGBW group page:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/groups/birdwatch/default.aspx
Ta muchly!