Completing The Big Garden Bird Watch 2021

The bears have already done their counting for the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch this year. They chose to do it while it wasn't raining or snowing, hoping that would mean that they would see more birds who, if they are anything like bears, would otherwise be snuggled up in the warmth of their nests until the weather was better.

The Big Garden Bird Watch is the world's largest wildlife survey and has been going for over forty years!

The RSPB is the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and all the information everyone provides each year from the Bird Watch will tell them which birds are thriving and which birds might need a helping hand. Last year the top ten birds counted were: house sparrow, starling, blue tit, wood pigeon, blackbird, goldfinch, great tit, robin, long-tailed tit, and magpie.

The house sparrow has been top of the list for the past seventeen years!! And the top three in the list were the same as they were the year before. Actually, the only new bird in the list was the long-tailed tit, which meant that the chaffinch was no longer in the list. Poor chaffinch!

Another bird not in the list last year was the wren. The bears quite often see a wren in their garden. They have to look really carefully for it though because it is so tiny!

As well as counting birds, the RSPB also asks you if you have seen different wild animals to see how they are faring. One of the bears' favourites to tick off is the hedgehog. If the bears stay up late enough in the summer, they sometimes see a hedgehog in their garden. But last year, only 1 in 4 people saw a hedgehog so the bears feel very privileged.

Of course, the bears haven't been joining in for quite as long as forty years, but they have done it for the last few years and so are old paws at getting themselves organised. They have lots of bird feeders set up in their garden and they made sure that they were full of all the things that birds like to eat before they started their hour of counting.

They also made sure that the new bird bath was full of clean water. You can read about how they made that here. And they put out two of the home-made suet cakes they made for the birds. If you want to make some yourselves, you can follow the recipe here.

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. Put grated cheese, cake, cooked potatoes, pastry, dried porridge or sultanas out on the grass and wait for the birds to visit.

The bears also made sure they had their counting sheet and a sharp pencil, their bird books, camera and binoculars, and lots of biscuits! Although you only have to count for one hour, the bears enjoyed watching the birds so much that they stayed at the window for over two!

Edward hadn't learned lots of the names of birds yet, so he offered to fill in the counting sheet for everyone.

If you do take part, you can download a counting sheet from the RSPB website at rspb.org.uk, and then go back to the website to fill in your numbers. Happy bird watching!