Charity Manx BirdLife is encouraging the island’s schoolchildren to take part in a huge birdwatching exercise.
For the past 15 years, tens of thousands of schoolchildren across the UK have stared out of their classroom window, with the blessing of their teacher, to take part in the RSPB Big Schools’ Birdwatch.
This year is the first time that Manx BirdLife has participated.
The survey, which takes place during the first half of spring term, is the biggest wildlife survey in schools.
It helps to track numbers of birds in school grounds, providing an insight into which species are doing well or not so well in addition to inspiring children about nature.
Schools can now register to take part in the Big Schools’ Birdwatch 2016 and plus download all necessary materials at rspb.org.uk/schoolswatch
James Harding-Morris, RSPB Big Schools’ Birdwatch co-ordinator said: ‘This is a fun and educational activity and is open to every school in the UK and British islands. It’s flexible enough to fit into a lesson or during lunchtime and links well to the curriculum or project work.’
The Big Schools’ Birdwatch takes one hour and teachers can pick any day during the first half of spring term to take part.
It works across a wide age and ability range and there’s plenty of flexibility to run it as simply as teachers would like either as the centrepiece of cross-curricular studies, project work, or a way to improve their school grounds.
Dora Querido, chief operating officer at Manx BirdLife, which works with the RSPB, said: ‘This is an excellent opportunity for children to learn about birds and how their school can help them while providing valuable information on how some of our familiar birds are doing on the island.
‘Manx Birdlife has been collating data on birds in the Isle of Man since 1998. All bird sightings data is important to our research.’
Many schools prepare for the event in advance by helping nature in the school grounds, with activities ranging from putting up feeders and nest boxes to making bird cake. Seeing and counting the birds coming to the feeders for the Big Schools Birdwatch is the perfect reward for their efforts. More than 70 different species have been recorded in school grounds, ranging from familiar garden birds to the unusual, such as little egrets.
Last year, the blackbird topped the list for the seventh year running, seen by 89 per cent of schools taking part, with an average of seven individuals seen per school.
Starlings held onto the number two spot, but for the first time ever house sparrows made the top three, spotted at over half of all schools; the average count was four.
‘We really hope schools on the island will jump at the chance to take part,’ said Dora.
‘Connecting young people with nature is really important to inspire our future generations to look after the environment.’