Bird Watching magazine offer
03 March 2008
Here's a great offer for Food for the Birds readers from GreatMagazines.co.uk.
Each issue of Bird Watching Magazine will inform and inspire you for the month ahead with advice on how to get the most from your birding, whether you're a beginner, an improver or an expert.
It will help you keep up with what's been seen, reveal some fabulous bird walks and entertain you with some of the world's best photography. 12 issues are published per year.
Buy a subscription to Bird Watching magazine and you already get a free bird care kit including three roosting pockets, a seed feeder and two kilogrammes of Ultiva feed mix.
But, if your subscription costs more than £10, you can get a £2.50 discount if you sign up before March 31. Just type the code GreatMags£ when prompted at the checkout to take advantage of this offer (not available when you pay by direct debit).
Learn more about Bird Watching magazine and subscription rates here.
The Big Garden Birdwatch: what we saw
04 February 2008
Were you among the 133,000 people who took part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch and have so far submitted their results online? If so, we'd love to hear from you about your experiences.
Here at Food for the Birds we nipped home to watch the wildlife over a cup of tea in the middle of a day spent walking the country footpaths that still exist in surprising numbers around our increasingly-urbanised Hertfordshire home.
We're on the edge of town, so there's a field at the end of the road - but despite this we tend to only get urban birds in our smallish, sheltered garden. We'd consider ourselves lucky to see any of the more colourful finches that fill country hedgerows, and so it proved during the hour we spent on alert for the Big Garden Birdwatch.
At first, we saw nothing but heard a lot. Even the bird feeder with its suety treat was ignored, although the house was surrounded by song and a pair of rooks took up their usual ominous perch on a roof in the next street. But then our regular visitors started to appear.
There was a great tit, friendly inquisitive robins, a pair of blackbirds, wood pigeons swooping across the garden to land in the neighbour's encroaching leylandii. A couple of blue tits, which were a bonus - we hadn't seen them before and if they've been back since then we've missed them. Apart from them, there was everything we expected to see and nothing that we didn't.
A day later, the feeder was discovered by flock of a dozen noisy starlings which stage occasional smash-and-grab raids and disappear like teenage gatecrashers who've heard the police pull up outside. Even so, the report we submitted to the RSPB website was a good picture of what we usually see in our garden.
Which suggests that whoever decided that it only needed an hour's observation to get an accurate picture of your local birdlife knew what they were talking about. We're looking forward to seeing the results, and learning what conclusions the RSPB draw from them about the state of the country's birdlife.
And, of course, we'll take part again next year.
Climate change effects 'will show during RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch'
24 January 2008
With the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch just days away, the charity is predicting the results will show evidence of the effects of climate change on British garden birds.
It says goldfinches are likely to feature strongly as warmer weather has helped their breeding and made them less likely to migrate - but blue tits could well have suffered badly because of last year's wet summer.
Up to half a million people are expected to take part in this year's Big Garden Birdwatch, where volunteers spend an hour surveying the numbers of birds in their garden or local park. The combined information makes a valuable contribution to understanding changing bird populations, says the RSPB.
The survey has been running for 29 years and goldfinches have never before appeared in the top 10 list of most-spotted birds - but that will almost certainly change this year.
The RSPB's Dr Andre Farrar said: "The last six years have been the warmest since records began. Over the same time, numbers of goldfinches seen in gardens during the Big Garden Birdwatch have steadily increased."
He said that goldfinch numbers had increased by half during the last three decades and last year appeared to have been a very good breeding season for them, with twice as many chicks as 2006.
They have also benefited from changing garden fashions: "Putting out nyjer seed, to encourage goldfinches, is becoming increasingly popular. Also, the trend for less manicured gardens encourages plants such as thistles and teasels, which provide vital seeds for finches."
Last year's wet summer may possibly have helped blackbirds and song thrushes by making it easier to find snails, slugs and earthworms to feed their young. But it's played havoc with blue tits, condemning them to their worst ever breeding season since records began. Only slightly more than half of young blue tits fledged.
Dr Farrar said: "We know that in the last 40 years blue tits have begun laying eggs earlier and earlier. This means they are increasingly out-of-sync with the appearance of caterpillars. Last year, not only did they have to deal with this, but they also had the terrible weather conditions. I would expect numbers seen during the Big Garden Birdwatch to decrease this year."
With so much vital trend-spotting information potentially up for grabs, the charity is keen that as many people as possible take part. Sarah Kelly, co-ordinator of the event, said: "The great thing about Big Garden Birdwatch is that anyone can do it. You don't need to be an expert, all you need is a pen and paper. It's easy, it's fun and it only takes an hour.
"Grab a cuppa, sit down, relax and enjoying looking at your garden and the birds in it. Just record the highest number of each species seen at any one time and send us your results. That's it."
To take part, simply spend one hour over the weekend of 26/27 January, counting the birds in your garden or local park, and record the highest number of each bird species seen at any one time.
Visit the RSPB's dedicated Big Garden Birdwatch website for more information and to submit your results online.
Coming up: The Big Garden Birdwatch
21 January 2008
The next big thing on the RSPB calendar is The Big Garden Birdwatch on January 26-27 2008.
Now's your chance to be part of one of the most popular RSPB promotions of the year. The Big Garden Birdwatch is the world's biggest bird survey and the organisation's single biggest event.
Last year more than 400,000 people took part by counting the birds in their garden for an hour. It is really simple to do so you don't have to be an expert and it gives the RSPB a vital snapshot of the UK's birds each winter.
Over a period of an hour, participants are asked to record the highest number of each bird species seen in their garden (not flying over) at any one time. Then all you do is note them on the counting sheet provided and send it in.
The RSPB's scientists can then use the information and patterns in bird numbers to help prioritise its conservation work.
Spending just one enjoyable hour watching birds in the garden, getting the kids involved and re-engaging with nature is a fantastic way to participate in a bit of practical conservation.
To take part, simply click here to find all the help and advice you need. Or, if you'd like to join the RSPB, click here.
