Chorleywood took part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of last month
The annual event that has helped to monitor bird life in Britain for more than three decades this year involved more than half a million people recording bird sightings in their own gardens. The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, the biggest survey of its kind in the world, asks participants to garden watch for just one hour over one weekend (24/25 Jan 2015) and record the birds seen in or flying over the garden by noting down the largest number of each species seen at one time – (This is to avoid recording the same individual more than once). Photos to help identification come in a promo pack and are posted on the RSPB website
Eleven year old Jamie Broadis and six year old Josh Robinson were two of several Chorleywood youngsters who took part with their families
The Robinsons reported seeing 11 different types of birds on the first day including woodpecker, robins, blackbird and wren and a group of four sparrows.
“We even had a red kite fly over the garden” adds Mum Louise
Seven year old Ben Slatford spotted great tits and robins but again a red kite was the highlight
“His best bit of the hour was’ spotting a red kite in the first five seconds of the watch” says Mum Sylvie
“ Bird populations are a great indicator of the health of the countryside, so surveys like the Big Garden Birdwatch are really important” says Carol Smith, Secretary of Chorleywood RSPB Local group
“Last year 7 million birds were counted by half a million people!
We have an idea what birds to expect around our area from a survey our local RSPB group did from October 2012, to September 2013 when we looked at birds visiting Chorleywood Common. An amazing 52 different species were found to use our Common and in January and February we saw Blackbirds, Blue tits, Buzzards, Carrion crows, Chaffinches, Coal tits, Dunnocks, Goldfinches, Great tits, Green woodpeckers, Jays, Kestrels, Long tailed tits, Magpies, Mistle thrushes, Nuthatches, Red kites, Redwing, Robins, Rooks, Siskin, Song thrushes, Treecreepers, Woodpigeons and Wrens! We would expect to find some of the same species in local gardens and are looking forward to the RSPB results being published.
Chorleywood Local RSPB group meets every month in The Russell School . All wildlife topics included. Monthly Wildlife walks. Non members welcome
contact: Carol Smith 01923 897885 or visit www.rspb.org.uk/groups/chorleywood
Woodpecker Photo: Jane Broadis