The Big Garden Birdwatch and Big Schools Birdwatch

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig 

A young birder doing The Big Garden Birdwatch

The annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch is an hour snap shot survey of garden birds that people to take part in across the country.  This year, it could be done anytime over the last weekend, 24^th or 25^th January 2015.

The Big Garden Birdwatch is brilliant for lots of reasons; anyone can take part, you can do it on your own or with others and it’s really easy to do (you can just look out of a window).  It’s great to get children involved, so that they feel connected to nature. You just had to write down what birds you see.  Garden birds are not hard to identify with lots of people knowing what a Robin or Blackbird look like.  If you are still having difficulty identifying what you saw at the weekend, check out the RSPB website http://bit.ly/1dOxbQc.

Feeders in my garden
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

I made sure that I had filled all our bird feeders a couple of days before and topped them all up on the Saturday afternoon.  I was doing my Big Garden Birdwatch on Sunday morning and so also put out ground food on that morning. I also reminded my friends from school, Guides and Scouts that you don’t have to be into birds like me to do the Big Garden Birdwatch.  It is interesting for anyone to take part, especially if they have younger brothers or sisters.

Coal Tit on feeder in my garden during Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig 

I did the Big Garden Birdwatch on Sunday morning, 25^th January 2015.  I spent the Saturday ringing Yellowhammer, so had to wait until the Sunday. It was quite a nice day, dull and cloudy but not too cold or too warm.  We live on the Mendip Hills escarpment and so the weather affects the birds that we see in our garden.  When the weather turns really cold, we get lots more birds coming to our feeders, which normally live in woods at the top of our lane. 

Everything was going well, I was watching the garden, when 2 Grey Squirrels came into the garden and onto the feeders, scaring all the birds away and eating all the food from the feeders. 

In my hour, I saw 3 Blackbirds, 5 Blue Tits, 3 Chaffinches, 1 Goldfinch, 2 Great Tits, 2 Long-tailed Tits, 1 Crow, 2 Magpies and 1 Woodpigeon and best of all a Bullfinch, which was a fabulous male, and a fantastic Marsh Tit, which is really unusual as a garden bird.

I saw the Bulfinch almost at the end of my hour and was really happy because I haven’t seen a Bullfinch in the garden for ages.  As soon has I had finished the Big Garden Birdwatch, all the birds turned up again on our feeders, which was rather infuriating!  Our neighbour’s garden has a lot of dense vegetation, is full of bushes and apples and very massive.  It seems to attract most the Blackbirds and Chaffinches, leaving ours to be relatively empty.

Long-tailed Tit in garden during The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

The squirrels never seem to go into next door’s garden but always into ours, which does not seem fair, but is probably because they are attracted to the nut feeders in our garden.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig 

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

The RSPB asked people to send in selfies whilst doing The Big Garden Birdwatch, so here are mine: 

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig 

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig doing The Big Garden Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig 

Young Birder doing The Big Schools Birdwatch

Then on Wednesday 28^th Jan 2015, I took part in the Big Schools Birdwatch during 4^th period, for 50 minutes rather than an hour.  It was organised by one of our teachers Mr Morton, which was brilliant.  We saw 23 Black-headed Gull, 1 Dunnock, 1 Robin, 2 Black Birds, 3 Great Tit, 2 Blue Tit, 2 Coal Tit, 6 Pied Wagtail, 2 Carrion Crow and a rat!  We did the bird watching from Lake View House but for the last 15 minutes walked around the school grounds.  There were six of us from Year 8 that took part plus three Year 12 girls.   Bird watching from the building worked out well and we managed to count the Black-headed Gull and see the Carrion Crow from there.  I really enjoyed doing the Big Schools Birdwatch and I think it’s great because it gets young people interested in birds.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Y8 from Chew Valley School 

doing The Big Schools Birdwatch

Photograph taken by and copyright Mr Morton, Chew Valley School 

Great Tit on Feeders at Chew valley School during Big Schools Birdwatch
Photograph taken by and copyright Mr Morton, Chew Valley School 

It is really interesting to see the results and compare them to our own. For example the most common bird in my garden could be really rare elsewhere or visa versa. For example, in 2014 the commonest garden bird was House Sparrow, which is rare in our garden.  Last year nearly half a million people took part in The Big Garden Birdwatch and over 7 million birds were recorded.  Hopefully this year will be even better.

The Big Garden Birdwatch is important because it helps the RSPB examine the population of bird species in the UK. For example it shows that since 1979, Song Thrushes are down 81% and Starlings are down 84%. In my area the most noticeable decrease are the House Sparrows that used to feed in our garden in winter, but sadly are now rare. Their numbers in the UK have dropped by 62%.

It’s funny to think my Dad has done it since he was 11, from when it started in 1979.

About the Author

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is 12 years old and lives just outside Bristol.  She writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from Britain and around the world.  She has recently been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams as one of Bristol's most influential young people.  Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter