Page 2 - Nigel Blake News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

© Supplied by Courier artist It’s a strange spring this year, partly as regards the low numbers of small songbirds visiting the garden. Last year we counted as many as 11 goldfinches coming daily to feed on nyger seeds.  This year we’ve seen one goldfinch, about six weeks ago. © Nigel Blake (rspb-images.com) A goldfinch feeing on sunflower hearts. I’ve been putting out seeds and peanuts and fat balls as I’ve done for years but the songbird numbers are way down on previous years. We had song thrushes earlier in the season, parading up and down the grass hunting for worms – but the...

Watching birds and listening to birdsong have helped people during the pandemic, polling suggests in the run-up to the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch. The wildlife charity is expecting high levels of participation in its annual survey of garden birds this weekend, which has been running for 42 years, and is encouraging people to take part to help “lift spirits” in the latest lockdown. A survey for the RSPB by YouGov ahead of the Big Garden Birdwatch reveals that nearly two thirds of those polled (63%) felt watching birds and hearing their song added to their enjoyment of life, especially i...

There, I’ve said it in print. It’s a legacy, I think, of a rural childhood, though it’s also fed by that (very male) desire to catalogue, collect and identify, added to which birds are just, well, amazing. And beautiful. And so varied. And of course they can fly, which is cool, and eat worms, which isn’t cool but is still sort of impressive. Many of the books I’ve owned the longest are about birds, which means they date back to at least the mid-1970s. My favourites are Bird Spotting, written by John Holland and illustrated by Rein Stuurman (my hardback 1973 edition cost a migh...

Nature can provide “soul food” for people in lockdown, even in winter, the head of the RSPB has said. Beccy Speight, chief executive of the wildlife charity, said people have found that reconnecting with nature is good for their physical and mental health in the face of the pandemic. As the UK starts 2021 with further lockdowns, she said the natural world is already looking towards spring. And she encouraged people to connect with nature on their doorstep by taking part in the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of the month. A greenfinch on a garden bird feeder (Nigel Blake/RSPB/PA)

People are being encouraged to take part in the annual Big Garden Birdwatch at the end of the month.