RSPB: Make Your Nature Count

Make Your Nature Count

More than 62,000 of you took part in Make Your Nature Count. Our new wildlife stock-take is the first time we've asked for information about wildlife other than birds visiting gardens in summer. So, what did you see?

Animals spring surprises

A quarter of British gardens are home to foxes and hedgehogs. The results also revealed that you’re far more likely to see foxes in urban than in rural gardens. 38% of you taking part in urban areas recorded regular fox sightings, compared to 23% in rural areas.

In comparison, more hedgehogs were spotted in rural gardens (28%), compared to urban gardens (15%).

One in ten of you also reported seeing badgers in your garden with 6% seeing them regularly.

Birds

The survey, which took place in June, has also revealed that your gardens have, on average, 10 different species of birds present at that time of year. The blackbird is the most frequent visitor recorded in 94% of all gardens, followed by the woodpigeon in 80%.

Because of the time of year, we also asked you to look out for some of our breeding birds and summer migrants. 42% of you recorded baby blackbirds and 22% had young robins. Young song thrushes were recorded in 5% of gardens. Song thrush numbers have declined by 50% since the 1970’s but in recent years have started to make a bit of a recovery.

Of the summer migrants, swifts were seen over one in five gardens, a good sign they are breeding nearby. 12% saw house martins and 7% had swallows. The decline of summer visitors is of great concern. Swift numbers have declined by almost a third since 1994. The cause of the decline is believed to be loss of nest sites through building improvement or demolition.