Every year at the end of January, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) holds a national garden bird watch, where hundreds of thousands of Brits spend an hour of their weekend counting the birds they see in their garden, and reporting it in. It’s been going on for over 40 years as a way for the RSPB to understand how bird populations are changing and how to plan their conservation efforts.
I heard about it after the fact last year, and by chance this year, a friend mentioned it yesterday morning. People are asked to spend one hour over this weekend to observe and count the birds they see in their garden or park, and then to report in to the RSPB using their postal code as a location identifier. Over 700,000 people participated last year. 700,000!
I want to be part of all things British (well, maybe not all things – I still don’t get the whole carpeting in the bathroom thing), so this afternoon I set up a cosy wee corner in my sitting room, with the stereo on and a cup of tea beside me. I had my Birdwatch Tally Guide and I watched. And learned. What did I learn? I learned that when winds are 40kmh with gusts of 57kmh, birds wisely hide in trees and bushes. And that maybe I should have picked a different time & day this weekend to become a twitcher.