Liverpool locals have been busy examining their trees, bushes and lawns this weekend as part of the annual Big Garden Birdwatch.
The national event, organised by The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), aims to monitor the numbers of various species by using the records of voluntary homeowners, who have taken part in the Bird Watch across the weekend.
As part of the weekend, the RSPB held an education birdwatching event at Sefton Park’s Palm House. One of its Voluntary Group Leaders, Chris Tynan, told JMU Journalism: “Believe it or not, in the wintertime and because we’re on a coast, you can see up to 70 different species of bird in Liverpool.
“Liverpool is part of four internationally important estuaries, so in the north of us, we have the Ribble, and then we have the Alt, the Mersey and the Dee, which are hugely important for nature and wildlife
“Big Garden Birdwatch has been going for 38 years and it started as asking people just to watch out in their garden for one hour, and record what species of bird you see. This helped us record to see how many birds are in our gardens.
“Nowadays, over half a million people take part; it is the world’s largest garden survey of birds and last year, over 8.2 million birds recorded.”
Mr Tynan also outlined the importance of monitoring bird numbers to help maintain a balanced eco-system and he told JMU Journalism: “One of the things this does is shows how the number of different species of bird has risen or declined.
“When we started 38 years ago, Song Thrush was a common garden bird; now in Merseyside it’s about the 18th most common. The Goldfinch, which is a farmland bird, has gone from being at zero across our gardens to the sixth most popular.”
Youtube: JMU Journalism