Take up the armchair challenge

The last weekend of January saw many thousands of people up and down the country take part in the RSPB’s Big Garden BirdWatch. This annual event provides a very brief snapshot of garden bird populations and, more importantly, engages them with the concept of citizen science. Citizen Science is all about large-scale scientific studies made possible by the contributions of volunteers. For example, most of the biological recording carried out within the United Kingdom is citizen science, the records collected by unpaid volunteers used to underpin conservation policy. These volunteers are often referred to as amateurs (as opposed to professional fieldworkers or researchers). However, this title does them great disservice because many are experts in their chosen field. A more appropriate distinction would be to call them unpaid volunteers (as opposed to paid professionals).

The tremendous importance of this army of volunteers can readily be seen once you realise just how much time they give to support nationwide surveys and national projects. One organisation that clearly benefits from volunteers is the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), whose 30,000 or so supporters collect the information needed by Government to monitor the changing status of our breeding and wintering birds.

One particular BTO project, the BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch, deploys some 16,000 ‘armchair’ birdwatchers, who keep simple records of the birds using their gardens each week throughout the year. These records enable the BTO to examine the way in which different birds use gardens and how this use varies with season and over the longer term. Participants in the BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch not only give generously of their time, typically spending 1-2 hours each per week watching and noting down what they see, they also support the project financially, through an annual subscription of £12. This covers all of the running costs of the project, including time for analysts to study and report on the figures, the production of recording sheets and the quarterly colour magazine that feeds information back to participants. An impressive number of scientific papers have been published based on the records collected by the volunteers, a fitting testament to their efforts in supporting this project and providing the all-important records.

The BTO/CJ Garden BirdWatch survey builds on the enthusiasm generated by the RSPB’s high profile once-a-year event. Many of those bitten by the bug that is armchair birdwatching go on to get involved in the weekly recording offered by the BTO study. By doing so they learn more about their garden birds, discovering how the patterns that they see in their own gardens fit into the wider picture of what is happening on a seasonal basis across the country. Why not get comfortable in your armchair and get involved.