On the occasion of the Big Garden Birdwatch, on January 27, 28 and 29, hundreds of thousands of British were invited to count the birds from their balcony or in their garden.
By Cécile Ducourtieux (London, correspondent)
From Friday 27 to Sunday 29 January, hundreds of thousands of British were invited to spend an hour at their balcony, in their garden or their municipal park, to identify the birds. This annual meeting, the “Big Garden Birdwatch”, was launched forty-four years ago by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), a real British institution, one of the most important protection NGOs Nature in Europe, and one of the oldest – it was founded in 1889. “It is the largest citizen collection of information on the birds in the world”, welcomes its general manager, Rebecca Speight. The initiative aims to draw up an updated photograph of feathered fauna in the United Kingdom, to increase awareness of the surrounding nature and to recruit new members for an NGO which already has 1.2 million.
“Everyone can participate, no need to be an expert, just a pair of binoculars, there is really inexpensive,” adds the ex-responsible for the National Trust, a British institution of British institution Preservation of sites and monuments. “In this season, we can observe in abundance of racer pigeons or charcoal chicks, these populations are doing very well even in urban areas, but also musician thrushes, even if they have decreased a lot, or black fawns, Mauvis or litornes grives, from Scandinavia. If the weather is really cold, encouraging birds to approach gardens, we can even see jasers, an absolutely magnificent sort of passerine “, lists M me SPEIGHT.
In 2022, 700,000 British participated in the Big Garden Birdwatch. In 2020, at the heart of the first confinement, at the start of the pandemic due to the COVVI-19, a million people had taken part, a record. Many British then discovered a passion for birds and nature, recognizing the importance of the link with nature for their mental health. Young ornithologists share their passion on social networks, like the naturalist Mya-Rose Craig, author of the Birdgirl blog , or encourage citizens from ethnic minorities to arm themselves with binoculars, such as black2nature or Flock Together associations. “The defenders of biodiversity were rather of white, middle class. It is crucial that all audiences join the movement, it is one of our priorities,” insists M me Speight.
“An advanced indicator of the state of nature”
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