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Do Your Bit For Britain's Birds At The River
& Rowing Museum
Gather your flock and fly
on over to the River & Rowing Museum,
an independent charity (rrm.co.uk), to take
part in the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch
- the world's largest wildlife survey. Now
in it's 31st year, half a million people
are participating annually and this year's
event will give everyone the opportunity
to take a look at the fantastic bird life
around the Museum grounds and on the River
Thames and take part in lots of fun, wildlife-related
activities.
Event Details
RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch - Every Bird
Counts
Date: Saturday 30 & Sunday 31 January
Time: 10am - 4pm (drop in anytime)
Place: River & Rowing Museum Grounds,
Mill Meadows, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire
RG9 1BF
Bird watching expert James Keeble will be
on hand to talk about the types of birds people
could expect to see at the Museum's unique
riverside setting giving participants the
opportunity to discover birds they wouldn't
normally see in their gardens - such as Herons,
Cormorants, Moorhens and many others.
There will also be lots of wildlife-related
activities for children to enjoy. Children
can make fat feeders out of vegetable lard
and mixed seeds which they can then take home
with them & hang in their garden for the
birds to feed on. They can also get creative
and create fun dragonflies out of pipe cleaners
and beads as well as make bird blow darts
- the children colour in the shape of a bird,
stick it to a couple of straws and when they
blow down one of the straws, the bird flies
off!
A record-breaking 551,881 participants helped
celebrate the Big Garden Birdwatch
30th birthday in 2009, spotting over 8.5 million
birds across nearly 280,000 gardens.
The Big Garden Birdwatch has enabled
the RSPB to embark upon studies to identify
the cause of certain species decline as well
as steps we can take to help them recover.
Most prominently, the house sparrow which
despite topping the chart, has shown a rapid
decrease since 1979 dropping from an average
of 10 birds per garden to just 3.6.
It's not all doom and gloom though. Results
have shown the tit family as having tremendous
staying power with blue, great, coal and long-tailed
tits all having staked their claim in the
Big Garden Birdwatch top 15 with regular
appearances, year on year. And in 2009 the
long-tailed tit made it into the top 10 for
the first time in 30 years!
To do your bit for our garden birds, drop
in to the River & Rowing Museum or take
part at home and simply spend one hour over
the weekend 30/31 January 2010 counting the
birds and recording the highest number of
every bird species seen at any one time. RSPB
members will be able to enjoy a 50% reduction
rate on entrance fees to the museum over the
weekend.
Christina Parker, Head of Learning, River
& Rowing Museum said: "We
are delighted to be taking part in the Big
Garden Birdwatch and doing our part to help
Britain's wildlife. The River & Rowing
Museum grounds are a fantastic natural habitat
for wildlife and we get some very interesting
birds arriving throughout the year. The event
will be a great way to encourage children
to take an active interest in their local
environment."
Sarah Kelly, Big Garden Birdwatch co-ordinator,
said: "Big Garden Birdwatch provides
a fun activity for all the family in the depths
of winter. Participation just keeps increasing,
I believe in part, because it's so easy to
join in! By giving up just one hour of your
day, you can make a real difference to our
knowledge of garden birds. We're able to distinguish
the ones that are doing well from those that
need our help."
END
Press
information
For further information
River & Rowing Museum
Eliz Hevacioglu
020 7221 7883
eliz.helvacioglu@kallaway.co.uk
Catherine Yoxall
01491 415642
catherine.yoxall@rrm.co.uk
RSPB
Louise Pedersen, Media and Communications
Officer (West Midlands)
0121 616 6857
louise.pedersen@rspb.org.uk
Photographs and broadcast-quality footage:
Further images are available in digital
format from RSPB Images by contacting
Lee Douane
0114 258 0001
lee@rspb-images.com
Broadcast-quality Beta footage is available
on request from the RSPB press office.
Additional notes:
1. Percentage changes of ten BGBW species
from 1979 to 2009, in average number of
birds per garden.
| Species |
Average per garden
in 1979
|
Average per
garden in 2009
|
% change
|
|
| House sparrow |
10
|
3.7
|
-64
|
| Starling |
15
|
3.2
|
-77
|
| Blackbird |
4.0
|
2.8
|
-30
|
| Blue tit |
2.4
|
2.5
|
-4.2
|
| Chaffinch |
3.0
|
2.0
|
-33
|
| Wood pigeon |
0.2
|
1.9
|
850
|
| Collared
dove |
0.3
|
1.4
|
367
|
| Great tit |
0.9
|
1.4
|
56
|
| Robin |
2.0
|
1.4
|
-30
|
| Long-tailed
tit |
N/A
|
0.3
|
N/A
|
The River & Rowing
Museum (www.rrm.co.uk
)
The River & Rowing Museum is one of
the UK's leading regional and sporting Museums,
attracting over 100,000 visitors a year.
The Museum also has a purpose built education
centre visited by over 20,000 children and
adults a year. The Museum provides superb
value for money. Tickets are £7 for
adults and £5 for children and provide
free access for one year for the price of
just one ticket. The Museum celebrates four
themes explored through a wide variety of
exhibitions and events across four galleries
and special exhibitions:
- The past, present and future of the
River Thames
- The historic riverside community of
Henley on Thames
- The international sport of rowing
- The Wind in the Willows
Since opening in August 1998 the Museum
has received numerous awards including the
National Heritage/NPI Museum of the Year
award, the Sandford Award For Heritage Education
and the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality
Badge.
Location, opening and ticket information
The River & Rowing Museum (www.rrm.co.uk),
Mill Meadows, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire,
RG9 1BF. Tel. 01491 415600.
- The Museum, terrace café and
shop are open every day from 10am - 5.30pm
in summer and 10am - 5pm in the winter
- Tickets give FREE admission for a whole
year!
- Admission is just £7 for adults,
£5 for children aged four and over,
FREE for children aged three and under
and £5 for senior citizens and concessions
- Free parking for visitors
The River & Rowing Museum is part of
the Thames Valley Museums Group (TVMG) Family
Friendly initiative - a scheme that brings
together 29 Museums across Berkshire, Oxfordshire
and Buckinghamshire, to promote their popular
appeal to the whole family.
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