Big Garden Birdwatch
This month sees the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, an amazing piece of citizen science for anyone in the UK to sign up, top up their feeders, and count whatever feathery friends visit.
It's a genius way to examine which species need help, which are thriving, and how each species is adapting over time.
It's uncovered some incredible data over the years including the impact of climate change, habitat and disease, plus patterns in feeding, migratory, and breeding behaviour. It's also seen recovering or increasing numbers for some species, such as long-tailed tits and wood pigeons.
Although we live less than two miles from the city centre, just like every year, I will be sticking the kettle on and doing my bit - partly because it's important to help out with the science wherever we can, but partly also because there's usually more drama and scheming among garden birds than in a whole series of The Traitors! So it's frankly just great fun to watch them.
I can pretty much guarantee who is most likely to be checked off the list already as we have a permanent entourage in our tiny back yard. Most of them are so regular, they have been given nicknames!
There's Chunk and Plop the Pigeons; a female blackbird I simply call 'My Best Girl'; Ruby 'Rubes' (Wax) and Magenta 'Mags' (de Vine) the robins... Sometimes the resident magpies bob down - but mostly they just scream at everyone from the roof or clatter about on our chimney cap. We also have intermittent visits from a couple of blue tits, who grub about in the water, throw mealworms all over the yard and leave. Very occasionally, a magnificent crow visits. He never feeds, just sits silently judging us on the fence like a tennis umpire. Plus we're lucky enough to have sparrows nesting over the fence, so they will no doubt be around too.
Being a tiny space, and the only yard in our whole row of terraced housing with any plants or feeders in it, means we're pretty much the only house that gets any wildlife in it. And its's gone from seeing nothing at all when we first moved in, to a pretty incredible diversity of birdlife for the area, thanks to the changes we've made. I am incredibly proud of this.
Visitors in the past have included waxwings, coal tits, a mistle thrush, and even a family of redwings clearing our ivy berries. Our buzzard pair became five buzzards circling overhead, clearly training their young up for a whole blissful Summer.
But of course sod's law will dictate that, just as they have in previous years, because I especially want them to show up for the count, most of our garden visitors will stay hidden out of sheer spite and my list will show nothing at all.
To add insult to injury, undoubtedly, the most visible visitor on the big day will be the squirrel, 'Shelley from Strelley' - who seems hermetically sealed to the feeder at the best of times, unable to extricate herself from it, even if I need her to bog off and let the blue tits in for a minute. (So brazen is she, that her most recent habit is - literally - tapping on our dining room window when the sunflower seeds run out!) But of course the RSPB probably don't need her counting...
My next issue is the feeder itself. Recent studies have suggested that feeders can spread infections and diseases - some of which (e.g. trichomonosis) are having devastating effects on finch populations.
It's vital, of course, that we take issues like these seriously - and I will definitely stop feeding the birds from my feeder if I find that using it is causing ANY health (or other) issues. But so far we've never had any finches visiting the garden to begin with, and everyone we've been feeding appears healthy enough, seems to live a long life, and returns regularly for more.
So until I know more, I will continue to ensure my feeder is cleaned properly and regularly using boiling water and my dedicated stiff-bristled brush, and monitor the wildlife that stops by for any signs of ill health or declining numbers.
I have already vastly reduced fat balls and pellets on the table, as they turn to sludge on the feeder in poor weather and I was concerned about bacteria - and I am more than happy to sacrifice my enjoyment of my regular garden visitors if it means keeping birds safer.
As long as we keep up with projects like the Big Garden Bird Watch, we will see more of the bigger picture and learn how to adapt our own practices to ensure we are helping, not hindering wildlife. That's why these pieces of data collection are so incredibly important - and why every year I will do whatever I can to take part, and encourage others to do so.
Which brings me round to you - if you haven't already, I'd highly recommend signing up. Even the no-show birds are still scientific data, made conspicuous by their absence. Plus the more of us who take part, the wider geographical range we can cover, giving us a much better overview of how our birdlife is faring.
You can literally wear your care for endangered UK birds by shopping my Birdlife section!
Click below to browse the range
