Garden birds under threat

More than 1,000 Berkshire residents took part in an RSPB Make Your Nature Count survey during the first week of June and logged the birds and other wildlife species they saw in their gardens.
The results show the number of gardens with baby thrush species - which includes blackbirds and robins - in them this spring was down by as much as 27 per cent compared to last year.
House martins were down by almost a quarter and swifts were down by around 10 per cent compared to last year. Swifts are already on the amber-list of conservation concern and there is concern that it has been a devastating breeding season in the UK this year.
Spokeswoman for the RSPB’s south easter region, Samantha Stokes, said: “The survey is a really useful as a snapshot of how UK wildlife fared this summer and a number of species may have had tough time in the cold and wet weather.”
She said the RSPB feared the drop may be a result of wet and cold weather in the early part of the breeding season which made it harder for adult birds to find enough food for their chicks.
With adult birds spending longer away from the nest searching for food, chicks would also have been more exposed to the cold.
To find out more about Make Your Nature Count visit www.rspb.org.uk/naturecount or to get tailored advice on how to make your garden a great habitat for wildlife visit the ‘Homes for Wildlife’ part of the RSPB website at www.rspb.org.uk/hfw