The Creation Care team took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch (https://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch) on behalf of St. Andrew's Church early on the morning of Sunday 26th January. This annual survey, run by the RSPB, combines thousands of individual reports from volunteers to provide a snapshot of the health of avian life in the UK, and hence help set priorities for conservation.
We observed:
• two crows (one of which was using the tops of the scaffolding poles at the east
end of the church as a look-out!)
• two house sparrows
• two magpies
• a collared dove
• two great tits (who seemed to be making a useful contribution to cleaning bugs out of the vestry gutters!)
• five wood-pigeons.
We also saw plenty of over-flying birds (which we're not allowed to record in the survey), including what we suspected to be a group of racing pigeons.
Numbers were slightly lower than we would have expected, particularly for the smaller birds. We're currently aiming to make the church grounds more appealing for smaller birds - in January, a robin nest and a bird box catering to the more compact end of the market were erected close to the Quiet Room, and we look forward to seeing if these get occupied later in the season. A bug hotel was also installed; as well as aiding biodiversity, we hope that this will bolster the food supply for local birds.
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