Big Garden Birdwatch - January 2009
The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch is the world's biggest bird survey and helps provide a vital snapshot of the UK's birds each winter.
This year the Hickling family took part for the first time. The family was provided with wild bird seed, peanuts and fat balls to encourage as many different birds into their garden as possible. The family spent an hour during the weekend watching the birds and filling in the simple survey sheet provided. The family was then able to register their results online to help the RSPB build up a picture of bird life across the entire country.
“Putting the bird food out really helped attract more birds into the garden. The children enjoyed identifying the birds and filling in the counting sheet. We saw robins, bluetits, sparrows, blackbirds and lots of others. The birds seemed to love the coconut shell filled with fat and seeds, so much so that we’ve already had to go out and get a new one as they’d finished the first one really quickly. It’s been really interesting and we’ve found a new past-time – simply sitting watching the antics of the birds in our garden. Very relaxing.”
