BirdWatch 2024 Planning

"It's here!" shouted Teddy, running into the living room waving a large envelope that had just arrived in the post.

Everyone looked up from what they were doing. Teddy wasn't usually so excitable. "What's here?" asked Scary calmly.

"The BirdWatch Pack!" replied Teddy, a little out of breath. "We can start planning for next weekend now."

The bears were quite excited too. Teddy was right. Next weekend is the annual RSPB Big Garden BirdWatch.

The bears try and do this every year and it involves counting how many different birds visit your garden in a given hour. Almost half a million people join in every year.

The idea of the Bird Watch is that you sit very still (not easy for energetic bears!) and keep a note of how many different birds you see in your garden (or the local park or outdoor space if you don't have your own garden) over the space of one hour sometime during the Bird Watch weekend. Even the bears can do that!

"OK," said Scary. "Tell us what we need to do."

Teddy opened his RSPB pack. First of all, they would have to make sure that the bird feeders set up in their garden would be full of all the things that birds like to eat before the Bird Watch started. The bears usually top up the peanuts, niger seeds, sunflower hearts, suet balls and their usual birdseed mix.

If you want to join in but don't have any feeders already, you can usually find some scraps from the kitchen that the birds will like. Throw grated cheese (not blue or strong cheese please), which is a good source of energy and protein, out onto the grass for birds like robins, dunnocks and blackbirds. Put it under garden hedges for wrens too. Cake, cooked potatoes, pastry, rice and pasta, dried porridge or sultanas can be put out on the grass too.

Fruits like apples and pears, even when past their best, will be happily snapped up by blackbirds and thrushes. Birds can't digest salt so avoid bacon rind and salted peanuts - though plain peanuts are very acceptable to blue tits.

The bears have even made their own seed cakes for the birds before - check out their previous story here for the recipe. Do stick to suet and lard when you make these though as other cooking fats can get onto birds feathers and make flying difficult for them.

The bears will also make sure that the bird bath is full of clean water. They may even have to pop outside that morning and break any ice that might have formed over the top of the water - especially as the weather has been so, so freezing recently. They will draw straws to see who might have to go out into the cold.

"But, Teddy, you've forgotten something very important," announced Boo.

"What's that?" asked Teddy, convinced he'd covered everything.

"We're going to need more food and drink….." Boo paused, "for us of course!"

Everybody laughed. Yes, of course they would definitely need their own snacks and drinks while they did the BirdWatch!

With all this preparation, hopefully they will see lots of birds. They will also be keeping Bubbles' bird books close to paw so that they can look up any unfamiliar birds they see, as well as binoculars (to see the birds close up as even the colour of a bird's eyes help to work out which bird they are). Cameras will be at the ready as the bears like to take photos of the birds they see, and pictures can help to figure out which bird is which by comparing them against their bird books after the bird has flown away.

The BirdWatch packs contain counting sheets with all the most popular garden birds pictured on it, but you can also add in any other birds you see too. When you've finished you can upload your results to the RSPB website, or post the form back to them to be included in the full count. You should put a zero next to any birds listed but that you didn't see as this is also very important to know.

This year's BirdWatch takes place between 26th and 28th January. If you want to join in you can visit the RSPB website at www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch to download a free pack which gives you lots of information and explains exactly what to do.