I’ve often mentioned, or perhaps gone on at great and boring length, about keeping records of the activity in the garden, and of course I do this for the birds. I’ve also tried to encourage all of my lovely blog followers to do the same.
Well great news is upon us. Next Weekend, not this weekend but Next Weekend, is the ‘Great Garden Bird Watch Weekend’ and we can all participate.
It is a campaign to ask everybody to record the birds visiting their garden for any one hour during the same weekend. Hundreds of thousands of people participate and upload their data so a comprehensive map of bird activity can be built up.
This very fabulous ‘citizen science’ project has been going for many years and it has been used to record evolutions in bird populations and activity which ultimately help to inform conservation efforts and decisions.
Also very wonderfully it is an internationally effort with very constructive cooperation between countries, something we could likely do with a little bit more of. The campaign is run over the same weekend in both the UK and France, so we can all participate.
In France the campaign is organised by the LPO and all of the information can be found via the following link:
Les 30 & 31 janvier 2021 Comptage national des oiseaux des jardins – Actualités – LPO
And in the UK by the RSPB at the following link:
Big Garden Birdwatch | Join the fun – The RSPB
The websites explain how to participate, giving information on how to record the activity and upload the data. There are also lots of tips on which birds to look for and how to recognise them.
So it takes one hour, Next Weekend, to participate in the biggest and longest running citizen science project in Europe. You get to watch the birds whilst sitting inside drinking tea, or another hot beverage of your choice.
Come on, have a go.
Chatou Nature Blog 