Attention all Londoners! Did you take part in Big Schools' Birdwatch this year? Do you fancy doing something similar to help our dwindling house sparrows?
A bit of background
In the summer of 2002 we launched the ‘Where have all the sparrows gone’ survey, which asked Londoners to tell us if they had house sparrows in their gardens or local green spaces and over 10,000 people responded! The results however, did paint a sad picture, with a stark absence of sparrows in the centre of our capital.
We are now repeating this survey, ten years on, to see if and how things have changed, and we’d welcome your input!
How you can take part
It’s very simple and quick to do! Even if you don’t have sparrows in your local green space or school it’s just as important to tell us that, as we need to know where they are missing to complete our map! Ideally we want people to spend an hour, sometime between 18 June and 12 July, looking for house sparrows. You can use our simple online recording form to tell us what you see here, alternatively you can download the form here to print off and take outside with you.
The count can be done as a group whilst sitting in the playground and/or they could even take a form home to complete with their family in their garden or local green space.
We also have a sparrow-based teacher and student pack available to help design a whole lesson around sparrows - If you are involved in the RSPB Wildlife Action Awards scheme this could also count as the ‘take part in a survey’ step.
If you would like more information about doing the survey in school, please email CSC@rspb.org.uk