Big Garden Birdwatch Results – Live

[Music] [Music] [Music] so just kind of imagine a very different scenario just for a second because um well hopefully it's the same way you are but down here on the south coast in dorset and the sun's kind of poking through the clouds i'm not wrapped up in many layers and got scarves and hats on like lots of us were back at the end of january for the big garden bird watch and what an incredible one it was i mean you know the winter you know let's not think about the winter as a you know in general um but yeah think of the that last weekend when we're all out there counting our garden birds for the big garden bird watch now we've been incredibly busy crunching all the numbers and it's been absolutely astonishing seeing the the results kind of flooding in and it's taken us uh many hours and people much cleverer than i am to to crunch everything down and analyze and we have got the results for you today um also today we've got some special guests coming up in the live stream we've got miranda kristoff who is our president and we've also got chris packham coming up later on as well and of course we will have the all-important results to share with you very shortly um but i just want to relive something because uh going live on these live streams has been a real treat for the big garden bird watch and hopefully lots of you who are watching this morning um can remember us being live we were live for 16 hours over the three days and to kind of show you some of the best bird action from lots of our reserves and answer all your questions and it was a lot of fun so i think we should go back a little bit and relive some of those amazing moments from big gun bird watch live this is from toby aged six he would like to ask why are birds important for our environment oh my goodness where did we start where did we start a very big question [Music] so i've got my notebook i've got my camera i've got my binoculars one hour starting now so good morning everybody and what a morning it has been so far um is it like there's a live tree [Music] so it's been a really good pick me up in very old times oh we can possibly head oh we've got a blue tits there we go [Music] can hopefully appreciate their urban wildlife even more but that is just incredible absolutely incredible [Music] undoubtedly one of the best citizen science projects anywhere on the planet wasn't that absolutely amazing i was well i was reliving some fantastic moments there particularly interesting to hear myself uh doing my little toenail duet with nick baker there that was a little bit embarrassing um but our live bird cams were the stars of the show uh during our big gambit watch live and we've actually got some cameras to uh to check out this morning as well let's see what we've got on offer let's see where we're heading um so first off we're actually not on bird feeders we're actually going to be very spring-like so we thought actually that bird feeders this time of year um i don't think so i've got a bird feeder behind me and it's one i can see from my my office window and it's been pretty quiet recently so we didn't want to risk some quiet bird feeders and we thought we'd bring you something very very springy and i can't actually see anything in there at the moment but this is a teapot um which is the fantastic kate mcrae um aka wildlife kate you can find wildlife kate on twitter and her fantastic website and she's got a whole host of webcams uh that you can watch and actually some of those starred in our big garbadge live we were uh live from the black island scotland and uh and i think it was in that highlights video actually we saw a nice clip of a blue tits bum which was from kate's window feeder which is fantastic uh and this is one of the case so this is a robin nest and that is pretty much all it actually is at the moment is a nest so i think we should probably head somewhere else just for time being and we can always cut back to that if uh if something decides to come back but we have here that the eggs have actually have actually hatched in that nest which is superb so something should happen but this is lock garten and lock garden is an amazing reserve that really did start in big garden bird watch live it was amazing we had red squirrels we had dozens if not hundreds of coal tits um and colt it's really i think i remember a moment where we counted nearly a dozen in one go on those bird feeders so absolutely incredible and the star of the show here at loch garten was the crested tit which again we saw in that in that highlights video um so don't forget this morning on we're online we're live on youtube and facebook um at the same time uh very clever i don't know how it all works technology wise but we're live on several places and so do comment we've got people checking the comments and they can answer your questions and do you know send us some comments you know reliving your big bird watch moments as well so keep in touch um so i think those are our live cameras for the morning so we'll check back in with those throughout the morning um but like i say that robin hopefully is going to be the star of the so if we can get her coming in uh feeding those chicks that will be incredible um but we've left you hanging for far too long here so we mentioned earlier on that this is results day we've been crunching those numbers and the results are finally in and check this out here they are [Music] got a great big smile on my face yes because it's the big garden bird watch [Music] thank you so much for joining us it's been a real pleasure [Music] [Music] hmm [Music] so [Music] fantastic um so there we go that is the results and one million people that is incredible i mean right back in january you know a few weeks before big garden bird watch you know we knew it could be something really special this year and you know a million people taking part was you know it was in the back of our minds it was something we really wanted to happen um but you know lots of us were kind of cautious we were thinking maybe maybe not but you guys did it you absolutely nailed it and one million people took part which is incredible and we're joined by uh miranda kristoff now who is our president and tv broadcaster and miranda good morning but a million people what do you reckon i know i couldn't quite believe it when i got the results in i was sent these yesterday and i you know i had to sort of pinch myself it's brilliant so well done everybody and thank you so much for for taking part in making this a real landmark year and i think that really just goes to show just how connected people are with nature how important nature's become to so many more of us during the pandemic um and and how much it's done for us really how much we value it um you know how important those birds are in the garden i mean i've noticed my children are watching birds a whole lot more now because especially during when times when they've been doing homeschooling and they've been stuck watching screens they need to go and watch something else that's live and real and tangible and not on a screen so yeah it's been amazing absolutely amazing totally it's you know i think you you've kind of really brought it together there nicely because it it is a family activity isn't it you know the the big garden bird watch is for everybody you know it's a real easy thing to do it's just an hour counting birds in the garden and kind of sending them in um but you know you you've got the you've got the family you've already mentioned that so how did your your big gun bid watch go back in jerry can you remember it was a way it was a long time ago yeah well no i know we still remember it well though yeah lots of tea and cake um and we sort of post different people at different windows looking all around the garden um and yeah it was brilliant we've got eight out of the top ten um we don't really see um starlings in the garden and the the sparrows the house sparrows we hear them a lot but they don't seem to come into the feeders but we've got pretty much everything else and um we've got a pair of kestrels um that we logged on uh for the golden bird watch and um great spotted woodpecker as well and some red wing which is really exciting so yeah really really good and it's always just i don't know it's just a lovely lovely thing to do with a family when you explain it to people it's an hour of watching birds some people don't get it until they try it and then they realize actually how exciting it is just taking that time out so it's yeah really really good i'm so pleased we had such a momentous result as well this year it's amazing now we're under actually we i think are we able to cut quickly to the robbing cam oh yeah we might be able to something oh there we go something's actually happening we've got um yeah one of the birds is either feeding some of the chicks there or they do this amazing thing where they uh when the chicks um need to get rid of some waste they'll put it that way um the adult robins can pick up the little fecal sack and take it away she might see that in a second and but whilst we're watching this you mentioned your kestrels there uh miranda and i know that you actually have a camera on your orchestral so what what are they up to at the moment oh we do well i have to say yesterday i was watching i was sitting doing um some work on my laptop and out of the corner of my eye i was watching the female kestrel and all day long she was just moving around in the in the nest box making this indentation and she kept picking up sticks and moving them you know from one place to the next and i was like oh she laid on easter sunday last year so we're just you know full of anticipation for this first egg to come in and she's showing all the right behaviors and lots of sort of you know moving around and just sort of looking slightly agitated and she we still haven't got it yet but any day now we will have our first kestrel egg and it's just always a source of just amazing excitement in the house and then she'll lay another and another last year we had six eggs five hatched so um you know it just absolutely incredible and these these um cameras and nest boxes are so easy to install and they're so cheap and i know lots and lots of people who've got them now and it just gives you that incredible connection with the birds these birds suddenly become your birds because you're watching them every single day it's not just something in your garden it's something actually comes into your home you know you've got a monitor in your kitchen or whatever it's really really magical so yeah aren't we lucky with all this amazing technology it gives us a much more of an insight into the birds in our garden yeah absolutely for sure i mean i think that's why you know we were like i mentioned at the start we were live streaming for what 16 hours over the three days of big on bird watch and you know we had at times you know thousands and thousands of people tuned in you know just at one time and i think you're absolutely right that it's so mesmerizing to kind of watch birds up close because normally you know they're a little bit far away in the garden but just seeing them up close and they're kind of secret lives you know that's this robin that's just you know they're really busy um oh yeah there was a fecal circle apparently that that came back sorry just know it's my little box on the when i'm peering in i'm actually looking the way at the camera it looks really unusual i've just looked at myself on the screen but um yeah but it's fantastic to see that and see that secret world going on um so absolutely great to watch um but let's look forward to next year because i mean these the results from big garden bird watch really are important you know they they tell us a lot about our garden birds and a million people doing that survey you know gives us an incredible insight into our garden birds and it's vital so next year we need kind of everybody to rally together again don't we around miranda we really do i think it's important that we sort of retain this interest now that there's definitely we've obviously reached out and and got a massively big audience um and it's just retaining that engagement and making sure that people don't lose this love for nature that they hopefully if you know a lot of new people have found this during the pandemic um you know when our lives go back to normal whatever that's going to be um i just hope that we can just hang on to these connections with with wildlife especially the wildlife in our garden that we've sort of rekindled over the last year so yeah just encourage people just to keep on putting out food for your birds keep on looking at your birds in your garden enjoying nature you know going out being there smelling the bluebells hearing the amazing bird song i mean i i've got the window at the moment i can hear the birds chorusing outside at the moment it's such a beautiful time of year you know let's really enjoy that's really celebrate that and don't forget it when life goes back to normal yeah totally with you and on that note i'll let you get back um we were joking at the start that i haven't got a coffee out here i'm in the garden i've totally forgot to bring a coffee with me but you've got yours so we'll leave you get on with that but thanks very much for your time miranda great to speak to you and yeah what a result fantastic so delighted thanks very much everybody no problem so we're going to cut back to our live cams just to check in again see what's going on um obviously the robins are getting really really busy again um but we are cutting oh where is this that was that was my bird feeder very briefly nothing on there because i'm standing right next to it um but here's the robin live cam again and so actually at the moment we're not sure how many chicks are in there the hat the eggs only hatched just the other day um so we'll keep an eye on this just see what's going on is here's one got some food fantastic so they'll be feeding on you know little insects and grubs that you know gardens spend a lot of robin spend a lot of time with gardeners um i've been really getting into my garden doing the kind of winter lockdown and i've nearly always had a robin uh by my side which is great um but should we check in with loch garten again just to see what's going on there are we heading to lockhart and yes we are you saw the sun's kind of getting up nicely uh up north in uh borneo scotland there um we have seen some birds nipping in and out probably cultivates we've seen a traffic this morning um but just referring back to those cameras that we had oh there we go there's a cult hit fantastic little little cult it and uh yeah nice with the little white stripe on the back of the head so i'm primarily a black head with white stripe but our live camera is doing big garden bird watch believe it or not we counted up all the species that we saw and we saw 32 different species so we're including some that we heard which actually aren't isn't allowed in the begun bird watch so we did cheat we'll admit to that but yeah on our cameras we had yeah 32 different species and a particular camera up at saltome in the north of england was the star because we had more hens we had coots we had malads we had widgeon pink footed goose all range of species but that was back in january on our live cams but we need to focus in on what you guys have seen at home and we've got samuel with us i believe are you there samuel i am good morning luke good morning and yeah samuel's been uh he's been crunching those numbers with our scientists and he's been looking through and we've got a few observations we're going to kind of talk you through some of the some of the things we've found uh in the big garden bird watch so what what did you see samuel yeah i mean it's good to be back first of all it's you know it's nice to reminisce about um big island bird watching everything that we we saw back then and these the data that we got back from that is just so incredible to watch um it gets a little bit confusing obviously from that video you've got a species going up in places but down in numbers so we're comparing that from 1979 till now and how that all changes over time which is great to see why we watched that happening throughout the the each year year on year out um one of the top things that we noticed was starlings went down and blue tits went up so blue tits have gone up a place um that's really really interesting to see you're noticing that top 10 a lot of those common birds the things like the blue tits the house sparrows the great tits the long tail tips in there as well um these are all sort of what you can sort of consider woodland generalists so they're woodland species but they're not specific they don't mind whether as long as they've got a bit of food they've got a nesting spot and they're happy which is probably why we get to see them a lot in our gardens you know a lot of our gardening areas um used to be woodland um and so as our gardeners have expanded and grown and so many amazing people out there we've all been putting nest boxes up we've been putting feeders out these species have been able to transfer um and use a lot of those as well so i mean you we both of us were saying yesterday weren't we look that we've noticed that change we've noticed more species like that show up in the top ten um which has been great to see yeah you're definitely right so there's kind of two two term things to woodland birds you've got your like you say you're woodland generalists which are you know birds like blue tits and grey tits which are fairly adaptable you know they can adapt to you know various habitats um but there's other species which you know in severe decline which are the woodland specialists and i think the other day yesterday did we mention willow tick which is you know a remarkably rare bird but you know it's a very close relative to the you know the great and the blue tit and yet you know they're in decline by was it 97 in the last four years which is incredible you know that's insane you know they're on the brink of extinction which which isn't good news um but you know on the flip side i'm gonna make a real bold claim here because we focused on or did bluetooth and great it and colt hit is a really interesting one to watch and we saw dozens of them at lock garten um but i reckon it's teaching on the edge of getting into that top ten it's it's climbing the ranks really really quickly and and seven you know 70 years ago it wasn't actually you know in the top 40 it was you know it wasn't really there um in the top 20 sorry um but yeah i'm gonna go for five years time it'll be in the top ten i reckon can we make a note of that and see if it actually happens so i've well you've said it now live it's recorded so we shall see we'll check back in five years time and see see where the cult is at yeah that's the problem with these live things it all gets recorded and yeah the evidence is there to be seen um so what else did we find uh house barrel was top samuel which is good news yeah great news um it's top almost year in year out as well when we go back to sort of um and you need back in 1979 as well it was it was still in the top 10 it was number two then i think so it's always near the top um one thing as well but if we go back to big on a bird watch live we saw there in the highlights video how excited we got from seeing a tree sparrow there is a difference um it's something that we wanted to sort of highlight and talk about here is um tree sparrows and house bros are different and that's linking back to matlab specialist again um tree sparrows are more farmlandy you know they like farmland insects they like the crops that you find around the farmland and with sort of um changes in that they've really suffered so i think tree sprouts declined by about 95 whereas house sparrows it's still a decline you know we just saw in that video it's 54 35 which is you know they're still at the top but they're declining that much um but that's that real clear difference there different food sources they look similar but they are using different and food for food sources sorry habitats and you can really see that difference it's really interesting with house flowers and trees burgers i mean we got really excited when we when we saw them up at salton and they were on bird feeders then so you know it is interesting that you know some of the remaining tree sparrows are starting to kind of head into gardens um and i'm just checking i've got my little special flash cards here this is really so high tech and yeah house barrel was number two uh way back in 1979 but yeah it's still declined in a in a big way so yeah the numbers are way way down um so yeah so what else have we what else have we got here samuel yeah so that that's just on that as well that's that it is still the top but it's that's why it's so important we look at this over such a long period of time um to be able to actually get the trends how they're changing um and that enables us to see other things as well uh normally some species don't do as well one year and they do well the next year it sort of goes in a cycle um you know one species for example is the wax wing any excuse for us to talk about a wax wing we'll we'll get with this this is a stunning species oh look at that yeah you're dead right samuel i think you know when we were thinking of some of the things to cover here you know we noticed one of the things we've noticed was that it wasn't actually a wax wing year um but that was just a blatant excuse to put wax wings on the screen because what this bird does these are scandinavian birds uh primarily from kind of finland sweden and lots in russia um and it depends on the food situation in scandinavia and russia and if the food's quite depleted what the birds do they descend on the uk and further western europe and you know as you can see in this clip here they're quite urban so they're actually a bird that will show up in the in the garden and what i've done here where i live um i moved about three or four months ago and just behind the camera i've planted a a rowan tree which is one of their favorites so i'm even though this year wasn't a wax ring year i'm preparing my garden for whenever there is a wax ring invasion so you know i'm super prepared i'm getting ahead of the game it's a good good plan i mean they just don't they don't look like a one you'd find in the uk i think that's why they're so so special to see no they're real punk actually aren't they with their with their you know funky hairdos and uh yeah and talking of punks we've got um chris packham joining us in a little while haven't we so um yeah we'll be interested to see see if as 80s hairstyle has reappeared definitely and it was you spoke about there about them sort of coming over from scandinavia and we did get a few other random species turning up not necessarily on the garden birdwatch but we do get a little bit of that in winter as well um i mean talking one we got sent something a few weeks before big garden bird watch actually from um heather moga and she had this very special species so you can see here the wood pigeon above but just in front of that that's a turtle dove isn't it luke it is yeah this is a real really unusual bird so turtle doves you know traditionally are summer visitors you know they head down to africa in the winter and then they migrate back um in the spring in the spring usually around sort of april may time um but yeah to see them in the winters is amazingly unusual um you know this was ripe in scotland so i mean we only kind of speculate as to what's happened here you know some birds you know an interesting example is is a bird called hupu later on if after the livestream if you want to uh google you uh of hupu it's it's an incredibly amazing looking bird um but you know they're found in the southern mediterranean and they migrate south from there in the winter and head back there in summer but we get them in the autumn occasionally turning up so clearly you know some birds migration instincts kind of go the wrong way around you know they head almost the wrong direction or the opposite direction um the other thing i think could have happened here with this turtle dove is you know migration takes a lot of energy it's it's a long way down to africa and it takes a lot of energy and they need to be in good condition so i think sometimes with migrant birds if they're not in that tip-top condition they actually you know stay put where there's a good solid food source and a safe place to stay so that garden clearly up in scotland um yeah who is it the center in heather so heather's garden you know is is clearly a great place for birds in general and that turtle dove you know use it as a refuge so you know weldon heather and we've got one more of them we samuel what have we got we have indeed so we had a few other things showing up we had things like the white throat we had a buzzard on a bird table we don't see that very often um one really random bird that showed up in devon recently is a bird called a northern mockingbird um this i mean some of us may only heard of that through at school reading to kill a mockingbird um not really heard of it in the uk and that's because it's actually from america isn't it it's it's a long way from home um is there a connection here between it being found sort of on devon on the coastline um around there yeah i mean this bird is is totally lost i think in america they're kind of partially migrant you know in the northern bit of their range where it gets particularly cold they will kind of move south so they do migrate a little bit but certainly not on the scale of you know heading across the atlantic ocean so i suspect that this bird has uh hitched a ride on a on a ship i bet you that's what's happened and obviously that ship may have been passing along the devon coast and it saw land and thought right i need to get off to uh to dry land here and get some food um but yeah an amazing spot you know well done to you know whoever spotted this uh down in devon because you know it's it is a bit of a gray you know one of those little brown jobs you know a grey bird is a little bit plain um but you know just the fact that it's hitched a ride all the way from north america and you know again found that refuge in gardens and it goes to show how important gardens are for birds so yeah well done so that yeah great bird top a top spot for sure absolutely yeah really really good one that one try and keep an eye it's amazing that as you say there that people see those sorts of birds and as we you know more and more people get involved in it that's how we start to see more of these random species because suddenly people are seeing birds now oh i don't recognize that one and they look into it and they find out more rather than just seeing any old bird fly past so it's it's great to see us getting more and more involved in that um one thing i think we're going to cut to now as well is jamie weiver from the rspb and some of you may recognize him from notes on nature tv if you've seen that on our youtube channel if not definitely go and check that out um but jamie caught up with martin harper who's the director of global conservation here at the rspb um to talk a little bit more about how important the big garden bird watch is for conservation um from a scientific point of view so here's jamie and martin martin in the results we've noticed that a lot of the birds like blue tits robins great tits wrens are doing fairly well and these are birds we'd expect to see in woodland aren't they is there a link with woodland and gardens well there must be something that people are doing right in their gardens so if you think about these species you might see them fluttering and the canopy of the woodland or you might see them you know in the hedgerow or indeed fitting in and out of your feeders so we think about what a birds need they need safe places to nest they need enough food to rear their chicks uh in the springtime and of course they need enough food to survive the winter so if people are providing you know nice bushy hedgies if they've got trees in their gardens they've got feeders up those birds are going to do well because essentially they'll go where they've got the features which they can call home and i think obviously this year in big garden bird watch they're doing really well so you know hats off to all your gardeners so gardens can make a real big difference to these birds so we've talked a little bit about the birds that are doing well some aren't doing so well and we've seen this over decades of begun birdwatch data how can big garden birdwatch and people who take part in it actually make a difference in the world of birds conservation well i think what we get from big golden burb and because it's been going on for so long is we just get an early warning signal about what's happening in to our birds in the towns and the cities in the countryside and we use that then to really reinforce some of the more scientific systematic surveys that we do with other organizations like the british trustful mythology and what that's telling us is that you know sadly we now have you know many millions fewer birds today than we did have 30 40 years ago and that's because of some really big changes that's going on particularly around land use the way we farm the way we manage our woodlands but also now new pressures around things like climate change and pollution so um the data that are provided by big girl and bird which basically is it reinforces validates some of these some of the more scientific surveys we use which is incredibly helpful and perhaps a lot of people taking part don't realize that they are they are citizen scientists and citizen science is really valuable now isn't it uh yes uh and it was quite cheap when you're a citizen scientist which is wonderful so i mean people are volunteering an hour of their time you know sometimes a very cold and january which is incredibly helpful uh and actually what i think is if you take part in the surveys i do every year it just makes you stop and look at what you've got on your garden if you're lucky or you know in the in the park if you haven't got a garden uh which i think is it's it helps you just lift your sights and think about what's you know what there is around you which i think is really valuable and there'll be some people who won't just you know stop at um looking at their bluetooth and their house barriers and they're gone they'll start getting a real passionate interest uh in the nature around them and we need that because we need to nurture the next generation of naturalists to help us with all the big environmental challenges that we face and because big gumbo which is so big we can really get the the news out there can't we it helps us to to get into the media to get into people's kind of the way they're thinking really their mindsets about nature and our connection with it so the value of big gumbo which is also in kind of that reach isn't it getting to all those people yeah and i think i've seen it evolved over the years but i think there was something extraordinary about this year it felt like there was a zeitgeist of interest in the natural world around us because we're all just locked in and we didn't have enough to do and we were bored or anxious and what contacts with them with the natural world was just helping relieve all of those tensions and just you know just you know just lifting our spirits and i think what we saw this year with big gun bird watches because we're all stuck in our homes is that we just spent more time looking so which i think gives me real confidence that there's a real interest in the natural world that people are interested in what's happening what's around them uh and that gives me hope and optimism there's going to be just a whole tsunami of people wanting to call for changes which will help wildlife not just in their gardens but also elsewhere across the whole of the united kingdom absolutely and just going back to the science for a minute thinking about the numbers of people that did take part we've said that there was a huge number it was it was well over a million double what we would normally have does that make a difference to the actual data that we've gathered the information on the numbers of birds yeah because the more people that take part that sort of reduces the noise in the data so you always get outliers and the smaller number of people who take part i mean the outliers can skew the results quite significantly uh and so by getting just the the weighted number like a million people are actually providing data what that does it reinforce the trends that we're getting so this year's league table is probably more likely to be exact than previous year's league tables because that's only more people have taken part uh so you know so hopefully we'll get two million next year three million a year after that and hopefully we've wetted everyone's appetite to do more for nature absolutely so you know i hope that you know we'll be obviously when we're launching the results it's more like spring obviously when we're doing the surveys usually the depth and darkest days of winter and i hope that loads of people got the bug not just about doing what they can in their garden but also go out look for wildlife when you can when restrictions allow because it will always help make you feel better excellent ah fantastic and great to get martin's input there like samuel said he's he's our director of global conservation he's like our chief scientist so you know if there's ever a person who knows you know the ins and outs of the science behind big garden bird watch it's martin and but some somebody else who knows loads about the signs of the big gun bird watch and that's chris packham and he's joining us right now i believe good morning luke good morning oh the sun's out where you are chris fantastic it's a lovely sunny morning down here birds are continuing to sing i don't know if you can pick them up i can hear blackbirds and and robins so yeah it's been a bit chilly to start but there's no doubt that spring is is springing in the south of england today it's a joy to get up and get out i can tell you absolutely and the other joyous thing that we're obviously celebrating this morning chris is a million people over a million people taking part in this year's big garden bird watch what do you think about that it's outstanding absolutely outstanding hats off to the rspb uh inaugurating this survey such a long time ago sticking with it generating lots of interesting data but for me you know a key part of this citizen science is not just the data but it's getting people to connect with the wildlife in their community and you know that a million people chose to do that back in january is absolutely sensational um you know i i'm sure along with yourself and all of your colleagues sincerely hope that you know those newbies the ones that came this year that didn't uh to partake last year uh have stuck with it you know because they spent an hour looking out of their window into their garden onto their balcony wherever they did the bird watch and were sufficiently enthused that they are now part of our ornithological community and uh yeah it's absolutely fantastic what great news i love it when we get more people on board no totally i've got um you can't see from from the view behind the camera but i kind of have a nice view out over the town where i live and i i was just kind of picturing it this morning just while setting the camera up you know i was trying to imagine you know just in my view that i could see you know maybe a thousand houses or so and you know there would have been loads of people out there just in my view bird watching potentially for the first time it's it's absolutely incredible and of course chris the the more people who take take part you know a million people that really backs up the data and martin said in that video you know it gives a much more accurate picture of you know the garden birds and it's you know it's a real red flag isn't it it tells us a lot of information it is i mean i think again the couple of things more people the merrier keeping the you know the science simple um and and therefore easy to quantify um the vast number of people irons out any inconsistencies and what we've seen now is a a study which is generating you know a real awareness of what's happening not just in our gardens because you know our gardens are reflecting what's happening in the broader countryside um as well and giving the rspb scientists and others the opportunity to interpret this data is an enormous asset i mean i think that you know it's there's no doubt at all a million people who still can't conceivably can you really i mean it's up there now with like some of the greatest tv spectacles that we've got you know you know fa cup finals and royal weddings this is the royal wedding of citizen science it's fantastic um but you know what what we've seen is that of our top 20 species in the list that were spotted by people back in january uh 16 of them have some of them very significantly song flushed down by 78 percent although a little inc some fresh singing whilst i was saying that was brilliant um and uh but styling down by 83 so a lot more people are looking in their gardens but they're seeing a lot less birds and and that's troubling for us because we want them to look and see more birds so it's it's great that we can be informed but we now need to turn this into good practical proactive conservation for sure and it's been it's been great this morning actually we've mentioned some of the you know other species that you know our garden birds are ones that we see obviously but there are you know birds all around in our countryside that are nature reserves that are in you know ridiculous declines we've mentioned turtle dove this morning because somebody actually spotted one in their garden which is which is amazing uh during the begun bird watch just and they got a video as well so they actually got the evidence which is good um so we we may not believe that it wasn't the evidence but there was you know we we had um you know we've been talking about willow tittle later on which is now our our most severely declining bird in the uk and i don't know about you chris but a willow tick you know i i haven't seen one in years and some people wouldn't have even ever heard of a willow tea would they no um i have to say i i moved in last autumn and i was very very fortunate that i'd lived in a property not far from here only a mile away in in the middle of some wet woodland and we did have a pair of willow tits that visited our garden feeder every winter um and people would you know come from far and wide to see them because they are so difficult to see the benefit of seeing them at the feeder was that they were frequently alongside marsh tits and when you look at them in the field guide they appear to be very similar and in winter when they're not calling um they can be quite difficult to separate but along side by side it was fantastic i'm having moved just a mile and a half no willow tits i'm afraid i've been out listening at this time of year call is the way to pick them up and plenty of marsh tits i'm pleased to say but but no willow tits but again you know in in our lifetime you know we've witnessed and presided over these sorts of declines and we're beginning to to get a broad um and and equally specific understanding of why these declines are taking place you know investment by the rspb in in conservation practices has shown that we we have the capacity to pull them back we know what to do to you know preserve the species or to preserve its habitat so it can prosper so on and so forth we've just got to to roll these measures out more rapidly and and more broadly and we can't do that without public support and there's no better way to get public support than to get that public in contact with birds so again you know the big garden bird watch i think is playing a significant role in rspb strategy because it's basically recruiting more people into into our world of those of us who who like and have a serious concern for birds but we need our we need our members to be motivated by the results of this uh of this study um to to do as much as they possibly can continue to support the organization and the brilliant work that it does but also if they have the capacity to you know have a direct positive impact to do it get your nest boxes up feed your birds you know throughout the course of the year make sure that you're planting parts of your garden which will encourage you know an increased abundance of invertebrates which they'll need to feed their young there were so many things that we can do as individuals we can't sit back and think that the rspb as great and as good and as brilliant that it that it is can do all of that work um you know that million people that took part in the big garden bird watch if they were all not just peering out their windows in january but doing you know great work in their in their gardens throughout the course of the year for wildlife it would make an enormous difference now absolutely and you you're certainly right there chris and i and i you know i want to take the opportunity as well here to you know not only thank everybody who took part in in the big garden bird watch but you know we've had a lot of people support us through you know joining the rspb during that time through donations and you know i've spent the last you know 12 years or so working on a lot of our nature reserves and i've seen that work happening you know firsthand i've i've been involved it's i've used my own hands to create you know habitats for you know species whilst i've worked on you know amazing places like on you know for the reptiles and other birds you know so it makes a massive massive difference and you know we can't thank people enough for their support we cannot do it without you um i'm hearing actually we've got a live cam to possibly cut to i don't know if there's anything still is there anything there i'm trying to see oh we have a live right this is this is reminding me chris of a particular moment actually do ring the big garden uh bird watch live that we did and you you and megan very kindly sat in your garden in the rain um in the freezing cold and you entertained us fantastically for an hour but there was a little moment and i think that was a siskin on that feeder do you agree chris oh i don't know was it a cisco or was it a green finch i mean i think that you know it's impossible to provide an excuse for such a a ghastly misidentification of one of our favorite there was and we can actually uh and i hate to do this to chris but we can relive that moment right now so for here we've been looking at all of these small birds there's a sisk in there look on the black hole down the rockingham system which is nice um the uh we've been looking at all of these small birds we haven't seen any predatory birds but we know obviously that uh is it is it a green finch oh no i must have identified a so oh i used to be the vice president of the rsp uh rspb but i've probably just been fired just been fired it's identifying a you know the pin and green finch that served me right for halloween soaking wet glass is a very very wet last doesn't it oh chris don't worry you are not sacked as our vice president we love you as our vice president so don't worry about that um but we however we do need to just test you a little bit we need to run a few things by you just to double check you know just to be honest okay screen now we've got uh so what's going to happen here chris are we going to cut to it yeah where is it there it is so it's a blurry picture oh yes it's it's getting how quick can you get it oh my god it's tiny it's the size of a postage stamp on my screen i need to pin it hold on just give me a second right here we are oh yeah well that looks like the dark crown of that bird and the end of the and the yellowy chest this is looking like it wow hold on a minute it could be a cisco yes there it is there we go yeah what a beautiful stunning little bird that is look at that oh so so good actually i hate to say it it's not going to please everyone but so much better than a green finch which is a green picture appearing here no look you can see that striking yellow wing bar coming through there dark around the eye oh i don't know i know no the green finch is looking pretty good their song's a little bit you know monotonous at times that's the only thing yes yes right one last one one last test chris all right here we go oh it's to chaffinch surely look at that yeah chris there's no doubt you're a pro no doubt there's two seconds you took to get that um yeah there we go we've got no concerns so yeah you're safe and uh crikey i'm getting i'm getting sunburned here almost this is very different from big car birdwatch i'm getting blinded by the sun um but chris something just we need to look forward to something a second because what well what would be amazing wouldn't it if the million people who took part in the begun bird watch got up incredibly early in a few weeks time on the second of may for international dawn chorus day and experience the dawn chorus that would be a dream come true for us we're going to try and harness that energy across so could you just for a second or two explain why it's worth getting up early in the morning for a dawn chorus i think that well many of us are up early and when we get that dawn course uh we tend to eventually i think take it for granted so for those that frequently encounter the dawn course focusing you know specifically upon it on one day we acquaint you with the absolute joy that it can stimulate so it's good to focus on that but for many people who aren't early risers and out into the parks and woods or gardens wherever they might be able to listen to birds um you know they are missing out on one of nature's most spectacular um you know uh uh events um you know when it's relatively quiet and you get that bird song punching through particularly if you're really keen and you get up when it's still dark and it and then it is quiet and then you get the first few songs coming through you might get a robin going to start with or a bit of blackbird and then wrens come in and you get this cascade of building song and the clarity of it when you haven't got all of the surrounding noise generated by us humans or indeed even uh you know other birds is is absolutely sensational and i think it's the purity of and the clarity of some of those songs and you know last year throughout lockdown i was very fortunate to have a song flash um they went breeding just on the edge of the garden and the male would sing every morning and i sleep with the window open and throughout that lockdown period i i was serenaded at dawn by a song thrush and on one particular day it was pouring with rain i was lying there listening you know to to the rain in the dark and as it got light the song thrush started and ah i can't tell you i just felt so so good it was so beautiful that song just so so beautiful it you know was the star of my lockdown that that song flash one little bird you know singing doing its you know it's its duty going through its simple spring behavior just so powerful so so powerful and so important at a time when we were all so stressed out and and and and worried and and and frightened so the power of birdsong is something that's worth you know focusing upon and yeah dude if you've been out and you've done your big garden bird watch then join us on the 2nd of may for dawn course day and you know you it's bound to live particularly for young people as well it's bound to leave a mark it's going to tattoo itself onto your memory as a time when you got up in the dark and the anticipation builds and then a bird raises its voice and raises your spirits yeah it's one of the most immersive things you can you can do and and last year because you know national donchorus day international done course day fell you know right in the middle of lockdown we couldn't really go anywhere and loads of people even some of my family who i thought would never get up early to listen to birdsong did and they were blown away by you know the intensity of the sound i mean you know you've mentioned chris you've got birds singing around you now and there's i can hear a chiff chaff here and there's a black bird somewhere to my left um but in the morning it's just the most intense sort of sound it's a you know it's a barrage it's fantastic but of course you know we've mentioned doing the big gun bird watch that you know we're seeing declines and we've lost you know in the last uh 40 years you know four was it 40 million birds in the last 50 years that we've lost in our countryside and our nature reserves and you know our skies around us so it is getting quieter so you know we need to get out there and listen to it get inspired by it you know and that will hopefully inspire everybody to take a bit more action so you know yeah you've summed up perfectly chris i think it's going to be from 5am on the second of may 5 a.m we'll be up with you uh which will be um yeah dory chris i don't think we'll be asking you to get up at 5am if you don't don't worry that's that's fine the only thing that might keep me in bed is torrential rain it might put some of the birds off and i might do it the following day but um the you know i think that you know again it's part of being a community and that's what i also like about the big garden bird watch there's a million people out there today you know listening to the results of their labors back in january feeling that they didn't just do something on their own they did something collectively that was meaningful they generated data for the rspb to use and better understand our garden birds and and that community building is also really important because our community needs to be strong you know we are living in a time when there are constant threats to our environment and and we need to be able to have a a powerful collective voice you know it's not just about individuals standing up to developments or poor practice set by government and so on and so forth we've now got a million people who took part in a bird survey and if that million people stand up for those birds then people have got to listen because we can shout just as loudly as all of those songbirds will be doing so on may the 2nd yeah and i can't sum it up better than that chris and i think that's where we kind of leave it for the morning actually on that note you know the start of a movement hopefully you know towards don corres day getting the nation now inspiring you know inspiring them listen to those birds and yeah i just want to thank you massively for joining us this morning to celebrate you know what's what's been a historic moment really you know a million people and you know we're going to leave actually on on a fantastic note we're going to run out run us out with a beautiful dawn chorus from our lake vernery reserve in mid wales so thanks again chris for joining us and we'll hopefully see everybody again on the 2nd of may bye everybody uh happy so [Music] you

Channel: RSPB Video

Views: 6,179

Rating: 4.9111109 out of 5

Keywords: COP26, Biodiversityloss, Glasgow, RSPB, Scottishpower, OneyeartoCOP, Sustainability, NatureBasedSolutions, Youth, ClimateChange

Id: cftxwDwUUEE

Length: 55min 28sec (3328 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021