The RSPB isn’t just about birds.
That’s a message that we’ve been trying to tell in a lots of different ways recently - the latest is all tied in with out new garden survey event: Make Your Nature Count.
Don’t get us wrong, we love birds. They’re the reason we’re here. They are why we get up in the morning and they’re what keep us awake when we go to bed at night (quite literally when we’re out surveying the nocturnal corncrake).
But as anyone who loves wildlife knows, no species exists in isolation. Birds feed on plants, bugs or small mammals - and they all rely on habitats from farmland and woodland to rivers and seas. Birds are a big, beautiful and very important cog in a wider ecological machine that keeps our natural world fizzing and vibrant with life.
So, enough of the preachy stuff - what’s the reason for this big sloppy wildlife love-in?
Well many of you will be well aware of our Big Garden Birdwatch event which takes place every spring and sees the nation heading out into their gardens to tell us all about the starlings, song thrushes, greenfinches and long tailed tits who visit their bird tables and nest boxes.
Now with the launch of Big Garden Birdwatch’s sister event Make Your Nature Count this week we have been asking people to head out into their gardens with pen and paper handy once again - but for the first time we are asking people to tell us about all kinds of creatures from frogs and toads to foxes and hedgehogs.
The data has started to come through thick and fast and one of the most surprising results is the number of people who have been visited by badgers. Early statistics from the survey suggest that one in ten people has seen a badger in their garden. And they’re just the ones they’ve managed to see - imagine how many more brush past our flower beds and veggie patches while we’re asleep in our beds!
Since the bear and the wolf became extinct on our shores many years ago, the badger has enjoyed the lofty status of Britain’s largest wild carnivore. So the fact that so many of us comes into regular contact with them on our doorstep is truly remarkable.
The RSPB was set up in 1889 to protect birds whose feathers were being used to adorn ladies hats. But 120 years on and we’re big enough to admit that some of the UK’s most amazing wildlife doesn’t have any feathers at all.