LOCAL pet shop, Petstown, is encouraging people to join in with the ‘Big Garden Birdwatch 2019’ run by the RSPB.
To coincide with the annual event, Petstown on Bath Road, will be donating 10% of all sales of wild bird food made between Monday 21st January to Monday 28th January to the RSPB. During this time, with every purchase of wild bird food, customers will be given a raffle ticket for a prize draw to win a wild bird feeding station.
RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch takes place at the end of January each year, this year happening on Saturday 26th-Monday 28th January.
The RSPB said, “For 40 years, we’ve been asking you to count the birds in your garden – and you’ve been brilliant at it.
“With over half a million people now regularly taking part, coupled with almost 40 years’ worth of data, Big Garden Birdwatch allows us to monitor trends and helps us understand how birds are doing.
“As the format of the survey has stayed the same, the scientific data can be compared year-on-year, making your results very valuable to our scientists.
“With results from so many gardens, we are able to create a ‘snapshot’ of bird numbers across the UK.
“While some changes in bird numbers can seem scary – we’ve lost more than half our house sparrows and some three-quarters of our starlings – it isn’t all doom and gloom. Since Birdwatch began, blue tit numbers have risen by 20 per cent and the woodpigeon population has increased by a whopping 800 per cent.
“Your results help us spot problems, but more importantly, they are also the first step in putting things right. This is why it’s so important that we count garden birds.”
To get involved with the activity, sign-up online at www.rspb.org.uk to request a free pack.
