Big birdwatch may be BBC eye opener

THE BBC is much in the news just now, but whatever its faults, it has a record of producing some of the best natural history programmes in the world.

However, when it comes to wildlife in towns and cities it definitely has a blind spot.

Whether it is Countryfile, or what have become known as ‘the Watches’, any item filmed in an urban area is prefaced with an expression of surprise that there should be anything of interest there.

The fact is that most towns and cities are richer in wildlife than a lot of intensively farmed countryside.

Decades of research by the Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country have demonstrated this beyond doubt, but the BBC never receives the message.

In my last column I mentioned that some species, such as well-fed garden birds, have higher populations than would naturally be the case.

Now we all have the opportunity to drive the message home. The RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch is scheduled for this weekend, January 28-30.

This is probably the biggest citizen science project in the country. All you have to do is spend one hour counting the birds which visit and land in your garden or local park.

If you don’t have a garden you can do the same for birds visiting a window box or feeder.

Then make an online report. Just search for ‘RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch’ for your free guide to taking part.

The RSPB says: “The brilliant thing about Birdwatch is that you never know what you might see. Previous rare sightings include American green heron and Siberian whitethroat.

Exciting as these may be, the real value of the survey is to monitor what is happening to what are – or used to be – our everyday birds. House sparrows and starlings, for example, are now on the red list of endangered species.

And what better way to spend an hour than watching the acrobatic antics of blue tits, or blackbirds, dunnocks and robins foraging in the flower bed?

You never know, if enough of us take part even the BBC might get the message.