SCHOOLCHILDREN TAKE PART IN WORLD’S BIGGEST WILDLIFE SURVEY

Porridge oats, plain cooked rice and fruit might not be a child’s first choice for their school lunch but some wild visitors to schools will love it.

Schoolchildren across the country will be preparing this menu and many other nutritious treats for wildlife this winter. They’ll also be setting up bird feeders, making binoculars and turning classrooms into bird hides.

Why? They’re getting ready to take part in the world’s biggest bird survey, the RSPB Big Schools’ Birdwatch.

Running from 18 January – 1 February, the survey encourages children and their teachers to look for and count the birds that share their school environment.

Laura Osborne, RSPB Big Schools’ Birdwatch project manager, said: “The Big Schools’ Birdwatch provides an opportunity for thousands of children to join in and discover more about the birds visiting their schools. The activity is suitable for children of all ages and it also appeals to teachers because it’s fun, easy and simple to set up.

“Feeding birds is an easy way to start teaching children about wildlife. Providing food and water brings them closer for us to marvel at their exciting behaviour and wonderful colours. Teachers have also commented that they have been amazed at how fascinated children are by the simple activity of observing the differences in the ways birds hop, peck, waddle and swoop around birdfeeders.”

Almost 90,000 children and teachers from over 2,000 schools took part in the survey last year revealing some exciting changes in the most common birds found in schools.

For the first time, the blackbird flew into top spot, with an average of 5.03 seen per school. The starling, which had claimed the number one spot since Big Schools’ Birdwatch began, and the carrion crow completed the top three, with an average of 4.60 and 3.64 per school respectively.

A host of curriculum-linked learning can flow from the survey. Some schools make the activity the centrepiece of a whole week devoted to learning about wild birds while other schools hold birdwatch breakfasts and after school wildlife clubs.

All you need to do to take part is watch and count the birds in your school grounds for one hour, then send one set of results back to the RSPB telling us what you saw. We then put together all the results and create an overview of which birds are making the most of school grounds across the UK. This also contributes to valuable conservation data.

Laura added: “Whether you have seen several exotic species or just a few of the commonest birds, it doesn’t matter – all sightings are useful to us! Our online results form can be used as a fun data-handling class activity allowing you to build your choice of graphs and charts using your results.”

No birdwatching expertise is necessary for teachers, helpers or children and the RSPB has produced a free schools pack containing everything a teacher will need. The emphasis is on having fun and joining in. The pack includes guidance notes, a full colour bird identification poster, counting chart and survey form.

For further information about Big Schools’ Birdwatch, visit the RSPB website www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch or ring 0300 456 8340 (calls charged at standard rate) for a free teachers’ pack. The hotline number will be operational from 1 November 2009 until 28 January 2010

The table shows the average number of the top 10 species of birds recorded per school across the UK in 2009.

Schools’ can provide excellent habitats for a range of different birds. Starlings, for example, like to stay together in groups. They enjoy foraging for food on hard surfaces, such as playgrounds, but also probing in lawns and damp grass for worms and grubs.  

The Big Schools’ Birdwatch is part of the world’s biggest bird watching event; the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. It takes place over the weekend of 30/31 January 2010. Further information can be found on the RSPB website www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch. 

Top tips for a brilliant Birdwatch

We’ve pulled together some ideas to help teachers make the most of the birdwatch:

• start feeding the birds before the birdwatch. The birds will then see your school as a source of food and make regular visits. This will help to ensure there are plenty of feathered visitors to spot during your birdwatch.

• watching in the morning will get better results than later in the day. Children may be more alert, and birds can be more obvious at feeding stations.

• put out different sorts of food in different feeders and see which birds prefer what. How are their beaks, body shapes, feet and ways of feeding different and adapted to the different foods they like to eat?
• think about having a special ‘Bird breakfast day’ or ‘Bird breaktime’ where the children can eat fresh and dried fruits, seeds and perhaps cheese like the birds do, while they are watching!

• make bird cakes with seeds and lard, and feeders from recycled bottles. 

• make a ‘hide’ using large sheets of paper stuck to the inside of the windows, with eye slits to peep from. Decorate and make it into a comfortable and colourful birdwatching area.

• do the birdwatch twice, morning and afternoon, compare the results and make comparison graphs.
• binoculars, a telescope, bird identification books and pictures are all useful.

• is there a visitor who can come and talk to the children to fire their enthusiasm for birds (parent, grandparent or member of an RSPB local group). Visit www.rspb.org.uk for links to RSPB local groups who may be able to help in your area.

• finally, don’t forget to send in your results, or results are important to the RSPB and you might even win a prize!
  

Visit www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch for instructions on how to make bird cake and recycled feeders.

What is the Big Schools’ Birdwatch?

The Big Schools’ Birdwatch 2010 will take place in the two weeks 18 January – 1 February. During this time, the RSPB will be asking children and their teachers to look out for and count the birds that share their school environment.

Big Schools’ Birdwatch aims to encourage children to identify and take an interest in the birds visiting their school grounds.

In 2009, more than 2,000 schools, involving almost 90,000 school children and teachers, stuck black paper with eye-slits on classroom windows, put up bird posters, borrowed binoculars, made bird feeders out of old plastic bottles, and told us about which birds they spotted in their school grounds.

It’s a simple bird survey that takes just one hour and can be carried out in school or by visiting a local outdoor space. The Big Schools’ Birdwatch is also a great way to start an interest in birds and wildlife and for children to observe and engage with the world around them. We want to extend that opportunity to as many children as possible.

The activity works across a wide age and ability range, with plenty of flexibility built in to run it as simply as you like, or as the centrepiece of cross-curricular studies, project work or as part of work to improve your school grounds.

Taking part in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch could not be easier. The RSPB supplies a teacher’s pack with plenty of ideas and information about the Birdwatch.

All schools need to do to take part is watch and count the birds in their school grounds for one hour, then send the RSPB one set of results detailing what they saw. It doesn’t matter how many or how few birds – all sightings are useful! They don’t need to be an expert birdwatcher – the main thing is to have fun watching!

Sending in their survey results is a vital part of the activity. Once the survey results are in, we collect them all together and do some adding up. This helps us to see how birds are doing across the UK, but it also means that we can feed back the results to schools that took part.

The RSPB website has a specially designed online results form. It can be used as a fun data-handling class activity, via an interactive whiteboard. Teachers and children can build their choice of graphs and charts using their results data.

Visit the RSPB website www.rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch or ring 0300 456 8340 (calls charged at standard rate) for a free teachers’ pack. The hotline number will be operational from 1 November 2009 until 28 January 2010.

The Big Schools' Birdwatch is part of the world's biggest annual birdwatching event; the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. The Big Garden Birdwatch takes place over one weekend in January and involves people spending an hour counting the birds they can see in their garden. For further information visit, www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch

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