| Big Garden Birdwatch | Last year 9,815 people in West Yorkshire took part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch. To take part, simply spend one hour over the weekend of 28/29 January, counting the birds in your garden or local park, and record the highest number of each bird species seen at any one time. The morning is the best time to look, when the birds are out and about feeding after a cold winter night. For further information and online resources to help you with your birdwatch, visit the RSPB website. |
I've got a garden with five mature trees and we've tried to build a garden for wildlife. That means putting in bushes and plants with berries, and not using slug pellets or other chemicals. I make sure I put food out for the birds every day, we've got special bird feeders in the garden and we add peanuts and fat and I put out ground food like dried fruit for the blackbirds. I understand the advice now is to feed the bird all the year round, not just during the winter, because the bird's sources of natural food are declining. The blackbirds know that I put the food out and sometimes they follow me into the garage because they know where I keep the food. Watching the birds in your garden is a great hobby - you can put your feet up and sit back while you watch the garden. The most numerous bird I see in my garden is the starling. Also there a lot of the time, but you don't always see them, are the wrens who are a perky little bird. There is also a group of long-tailed tits that are very pretty.
 | | Bird feeders encourage garden visitors |
The blackbirds arrive and sit in the trees waiting to be fed and there can be two dozen waiting. I think it really helps the birds to put out food for them and to make sure there are nesting places by having some bushes in your garden and perhaps putting a few nesting boxes up. The craze for having really tidy gardens isn't helping the birds. You've got to be prepared for a bit of untidiness and you mustn't manicure the garden too much. Bird-watching in the garden is also a great way to waste time. The day slips by as I keep looking up to see what is happening in the garden at any time. A garden without birds wouldn't be alive. I will be taking part in the Big Garden Birdwatch survey again, it is good fun trying to count the different types of birds in the garden. Sometimes we have so many visitors it can be a bit of an estmate in our garden. And the colder it gets - which is forecast for that weekend - the more birds turn up. I've got a good view of my back garden and I like to use it. | 
