Well I hope that this week you'll all be talking about Big Garden Birdwatch. It is this weekend, afterall!
But what do you think these two chaps are talking about? Do leave me a comment below. I look forward to reading your wonderful and witty suggestions.....
And don't forget you can see this photo and loads of other fantastic wildlife and nature images in our image library.
Fancy a dip? For most of us, it's still a bit too cold to consider swimming or diving outdoors. But this bird is a sub-aqua specialist...
It's a dipper, a bird that looks a bit like a thrush but is actually in a family of its own. And believe it or not, it feeds by diving into rivers and streams and grabbing small fish and aquatic bugs! The dipper has special eyelids which act as swimming goggles. And when it's found its food, it simply bobs to the surface like a cork and jumps out.
Though it may seem early, at this time of year, male dippers are beginning to sing. So if you're walking along a stream in the hillier areas of the UK, listen out for them above the roar of the water.
You can see this photo by Ben Hall and loads of other fantastic wildlife and nature images in our image library.
It feels like it's been cold, grey and gloomy outside for months now. When will it end? To me, hibernation seems like an increasingly attractive option...
But as I gaze out of the office window into the murk, there's a little voice of optimism coming from the hazel tree by the gate.
For a couple of weeks now, there's been a male great tit singing. Now that the days are getting longer, the amount of birdsong is set to rise and rise. Birds know the breeding season is approaching, even though for many of them it's their first ever.
So, my suggestion for this weekend is to go outside (or open a window) and listen to birdsong.
You could say 'but everyone knows that the best time for birdsong is spring!' and you'd be right, partly. The thing is that at the moment, there aren't many leaves on the trees, so you stand a better chance of seeing who's singing.
And the fact there aren't as many birds singing makes things a lot easier if you're trying to learn birdsong. Come April or May, there's a cacophony of different tweets, trills, warbles and squeaks, and all the summer migrants will have arrived to add their voices. It sounds impressive, but picking out one singer from the rest is really difficult.
In the past fortnight, I've heard great tits, coal tits, blackbirds, nuthatches, mistle thrushes, dunnocks and robins singing. And though it's not singing, strictly speaking, I've also heard a great spotted woodpecker 'drumming'. Depending on whereabouts you are, you could hear dippers or crossbills, which also start singing early in the year.
So step outside, into the grey, and listen. But if you can't tell what's singing, it doesn't really matter - as long as you enjoy it!
This weekend I went along to a bird ringing demonstration and got the chance to ring my very first bird – a goldcrest.
So in honour of this little bird, who so obligingly sat still for me, I thought I’d share this photo, by Chris Knights, with you.
Goldcrests are Britain’s smallest bird, and the little female I ringed weighed just 5.1 grams – that’s equivalent to about 5 paper clips!
It’s simply astonishing to think that something so tiny could manage to migrate here across the North Sea from Scandinavia and Russia, as continental goldcrests do each winter. In fact, in the past, ornithologists found this so hard to believe that it was thought that goldcrests hitched a ride on the back of woodcocks – and so they became known as ‘woodcock pilots’!
Nowadays, thanks to ringing studies, we know that these amazing little birds can, and do, make this epic journey unaided. A truly impressive feat!
If you’d like to see one of these birds for yourself, you could try your luck at one of our reserves.
Whether you need a good ‘Ahh…’ moment to get you through the first day of the working week, or prefer a spectacular landscape photo to whisk you off into daydreams of long country walks, you can find a great selection at RSPB Images.
Christmas holidays may be nearly over, but here is something to cheer you up and look forward to: winter sunsets. This beautiful Fenland scene by Nigel Blake makes me want to don my walking boots and get out there! You can find this picture and many other fantastic nature images on our nature library, RSPB Images.