Citizen Science is a term that is increasingly featuring on X (formerly known as Twitter). The latest of which is the #BigGardenBirdwatch.

The Big Garden Birdwatch is the largest annual survey carried out across UK and is organised by the RSPB. The link above to the main page provides an overview of the results from this survey and as of my last view of the page 7,030,000 birds had been recorded. The top bird the House Sparrow spotted over 900,000 times. The House Sparrow is classified in the UK as Red under the Birds of Conservation Concern 5: the Red List for Birds (2021). The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) produced in 2021 it’s fifth survey of the status of bird populations which showed the decline of species and their likelihood for extinction. Being listed as Red indicates the House Sparrow is very much a species of concern. Personally in my count I saw 7 in my garden. Much lower than I can remember from 30 years ago. In total I saw on that chilly Sunday morning a total 8 species with 35 individual birds spotted. These were submitted to the survey so a little part of West Suffolk has contributed to the greater conservation of the UK.

The Big Garden Birdwatch is not the first Citizen Science I have participated in this year. At the turn of the year I took part in the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland’s New Year Plant Hunt. This survey was concerned with finding out the effect of climate change on the time of plants flowering. The general observation being that plants appear to be flowering earlier each year as temperatures rise? Is this true? We may find out when the results are published later in the year.

Reports by some of the X (formerly known as Twitter) accounts I follow are noting that Bumble Bee Queens are emerging in the unseasonably warm weather only to find the expected flowering plants are not there.  So maybe not all plants are experiencing accelerated flowering times. Worrying as to the wider effect this will have on pollination of our food crops.

An aside why do we/ main stream organisations such as the BBC still add the formerly? Is it that we still do not believe Mr Musk will not change his mind and revert back to the more culturally embedded name.