Animal Rescue with Marion Garnett
Dedicated animal expert MARION GARNETT, founder of the Ealing Animal Charities Fair, continues her column
NUMBERS are important. Even without realising it, we’re counting all the time – money, calories, how many days before our next day off – but some things are more difficult to count than others.
Since 1979, a system has evolved of measuring something that’s not easy to count – bird population. Importantly, the key days for carrying out the count, this year, are this weekend.
Organised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), they are inviting as many people as possible to take part.
All you have to do, is spend one hour, at some time between January 26 and 28, watching the birds in your garden or local park and send the RSPB the details according to their simple guide- lines. You only count the birds that land in your garden or on your feeder or local park and not those flying over.
To avoid counting birds twice, you give the RSPB the highest number you see of each bird species at any one time in the hour – not the total number you count over the hour. Even if you see nothing, you tell the RSPB.
They also want to know what other wildlife, (such as foxes, frogs, hedgehogs, stag beetles), you have seen in your garden or local park in the past year and roughly how often.
Using this information, the RSPB creates a “snapshot” of bird numbers across the UK and monitors the changing numbers in their population. If you would like to take part, details and submission form are at rspb.org.uk.
A dog’s capacity to count may be limited, but numbers or frequencies matter to an animal in a kennel. Aspects such as how many walks they get, how often they are fed and how long they have to wait for a home all affect their quality of life.
So far, after coming into Dog’s Trust’s care when her owner passed away, Tara’s been waiting 75 days for a home.
With Dogs Trust staff, I accompanied Tara, a gorgeous Staffordshire Bull Terrier, on a walk round their field – if we’re counting time, this was one hour of bliss, for me and, hopefully her. She was a total delight.
We were, however, careful about meeting other dogs, as Tara is unsure of them - but Dogs Trust will help new owners with this. Tara loves company and needs owners who are around all day. If this could be you, Tara is waiting at Dogs Trust, Harvil Road, Uxbridge UB9 6JW.