Big Garden Birdwatch 2022

Citizen science is defined as "public participation in scientific research". The biggest example of this in the UK is the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, originally launched in 1978 in partnership with the Blue Peter television programme to encourage young people to enjoy nature. Now, about 500,000 people take part.

This has coincided with enormous declines in some bird species once thought common. Since the first Big Garden Bird Watch, house sparrow numbers have declined by 57% and starlings by 80%. If that decline continues, the famous starling displays known as murmurations will be just a memory.

This year I (Ian) entered St Luke’s into the Big Garden Birdwatch, spending an hour in the grounds on Sunday morning (30 January) before the service. I didn’t see anything terribly exotic, but my list was:

Blue tit (3), Crow (1), Robin (5), Blackbird (3), Chaffinch (2), Magpie (2), Woodpigeon (2)

The chaffinches are unusual here, so must have been passing through. I could hear great tit in an adjacent garden, and a raven flying overhead, but they don’t count!