RSPB Liverpool Pre-Big Garden Birdwatch Event at Sefton Park Palm House, 19th January 2020

In eager anticipation of the RSPB’s 42^nd Big Garden Birdwatch on 25^th to 27^th January 2020, RSPB Liverpool held a pre-event at Sefton Park Palm House on Sunday, 19^th January. Despite the heavy fog, 562 people found their way to the Palm House, a number of whom took out new national memberships, and bought pin badges (beating John’s 2019 total) and posters, and also made a number of donations on the door. All this support helps us continue our work focusing on the conservation of and education about the UK’s birds.

Sean and Phil had their scopes up outside the Palm House, and the bird feeders had been well stocked, so there was a constant stream of small visitors – including coal tit, long-tailed tit and nuthatch, with a sparrowhawk having a quick look in at one stage. Thrillingly, on a walk around the park, one of the kingfishers was also seen, in the Fairy Glen. (The photo is from the previous day’s bird walk led by our group leader, Chris Tynan, and was taken by Friends of Sefton Park volunteer Tana.)

Photo by Tana, Friends of Sefton Park Volunteer

Inside the Palm House, activities included face painting, and studding apples with sunflower seeds and threading them with twine to make eco-friendly bird feeders which children (and adults) could take home. As can be imagined, there were queues to participate in these activities, and thanks are due to Chris for sourcing the apples and to the volunteers who cored what must have felt like hundreds of them!

Photo by Laura Bimson

Photo by Debra Williams

Other volunteers were on hand to help visitors choose posters and pin badges to buy, and to explain the large range of leaflets on display, as well as the main purpose of the event: to promote the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch, now in the 42^nd year of an extremely important citizen science project.

Photo by Laura Bimson

Almost half a million people across the UK participated in 2019, including over 6,600 on Merseyside, counting over 7.5 million birds in total. Once the data has been submitted, he RSPB team collates and cleans it and then sorts it in different ways, e.g., looking for abundance (average number of species seen in each garden) and distribution (percentage of gardens in which the birds were seen). Comparing this data over the years gives a very good idea of how different species are doing. For example, Merseyside data for 2019 showed a decrease in sightings of both wrens and long-tailed tits, which had been counted in particularly large numbers in 2018. Is the 2019 decline the beginning of a trend or is it just low in comparison to 2018’s large numbers? Hopefully, this year’s data will shed some light on this.

The results help the RSPB spot any troubling declines in our garden birds and alert the public to them and to the ways in which we can all contribute to reversing them, e.g., by putting out different bird feed or making our gardens more wildlife-friendly.

Children attending the event were also told about the RSPB’s Big Schools Birdwatch. Around 400 Merseyside schools took part last year, and we hope that this number will increase this year. Interestingly, although nationally the blackbird was in top spot for this part of the project, the most numerous species seen by Merseyside schoolchildren was black-headed gulls – an indication of the region’s coastal location. (There was a big party of gulls loafing on the field opposite the Palm House, showing that these birds aren’t just found on the water!)

All in all, a great day was had by all – visitors and volunteers – and everyone is now geared up to participating in the Big Garden Birdwatch. Will the house sparrow stay in top spot both in the UK overall and on Merseyside for yet another year, or will it be knocked off its perch (sorry!) by last year’s second-place bird, the starling?

(More information about 2019’s results can be found at: https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/results/.) 

Debra Williams