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For bird lovers & nature lovers
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Find
out more about our feathered friends with these great sites. Why not
set yourself a challenge of identifying one new bird a week? Listen, watch, look, observe, smell....bring
your senses alive to nature - it can be a sweet, refreshing smell after
sitting in your office for a week, whatever the time of year.
Give it a go!
*** Take part in this year's RSPB Christmas Quiz 2009 - there's no prize, just the fun of testing your knowledge of birds!
Learn about Birds
Find out about garden birds at the RSPB’s Aren’t Birds Brilliant! And if you're new to bird feeding, Garden Bird have lots of helpful tips for you - find out how you can help garden birds in winter. They also have a bird lovers forum.
Try an experience day
There
are a number of days which will give you the chance to have closer look
into the world of birds, such as an Owl experience or a Falconry Days. Many
of these give you the opportunity to get up closer to birds such as
owls, eagles, hawks & buzzards, and in many cases, you may be able
to try to your hand at handling the birds yourself. Treat yourself,
give a bird lover you know a special experience or ask for someone to
treat you as a birthday or Christmas gift! You can find out more about
these Birds of Prey Experience Days through companies such as Buy a Gift, Red Letter Days & Activity Superstore.
Minimum age restrictions may well apply and you may also need to be
fit, as these days may well involve a degree of walking - check first.
Discover bird books & DVDS
If you're looking for a gift, there are a huge number of bird books & DVDs available, including from Garden Bird; they have a number of DVDs & CDs with bird songs on them. The RSPB also has a wonderful range of books,
including many to introduce children to nature and help children learn
about wildlife and the natural world around them - they are its
guardians of the future. There are also magazines such as Birdwatching, for which you can get a subscription through Unique Magazines for 6 or 12 months, whether you're in the UK or elsewhere.
Make your garden wildlife friendly
You can also get info on making your garden wildlife and bird friendly. Don’t forget that as well as birds, lots of animals may visit your garden: badgers, rabbits, butterflies, toads and frogs, earthworms, snails, mice, hedgehogs – it’s a real underworld out there! You can have the most magical evening watching your own safari at home in the garden, on your balcony, from your window or in sitting quietly in a country lane.
The RSPB has an excellent on-line shop in which you can get many
wildlife accessories from hedgehog houses to house martin nests, and
also treat someone special to a gift that will help with conservation
efforts such as creating meadows, planting hedgerows, preserving
rainforest & planting trees - all essential to the wellbeing of
animals & people - just check out their virtual gifts section. Click here for more info on the RSPB shop.
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Check out this new warbler bird species, discovered in Vietnam & Laos (Dec 2009)...More..
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Take part in Surveys
Get
the family out and about and take part in the RSPB’s surveys such as
the Big Garden Birdwatch, coming on 30 and 31 January 2010 - you don't need to
know that much about birds and there's a guide on the website to help
you. Last year, over 500,000 people took part - it only takes an hour,
and you can do the survey in your garden at home or local parks -
there's lots of places to survey the birdlife and help identify the
UK's changing order of most popular birds! Make it a family project and report back to the RSPB on what you’ve found. Your kids may want to work for a Wildlife Action Award, too!
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Go for nature walks
A
great way to de-stress and relax is to enjoy a stroll around your
nearest RSPB reserve (and it's the perfect antidote to a stressful week
at work) - let nature work her magic and soothe your stresses away!
You could consider joining the RSPB
- they do a lot of conservation
work, not just in the UK but around the world, and your membership will
help to support this work. For you, it will give you access to around
100 nature reserves - so it's got to be better value than the gym
membership or more fun than trudging up and down a swimming pool. They
offer a range of family memberships,
including individual adult, family & couple, and the memberships
often come with a free gift. Buy one as a gift for a nature lover or
bird lover!
The
RSPB has a wide range of stuff you can do as a family or an individual,
including days out, courses to attend, volunteering in conservation
areas, so make the most of this half term break and the weekends coming
into the winter.
Go on Birdwatching holidays
Finally, why not head off on a birdwatching holiday?
There are a wide range to choose from, covering countries such as
India, Hungary, Sri Lanka, Spain, New Zealand, Bulgaria, Ecuador, the
US and Venezuela. Go on - find out more here
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Farm & Country Cottage holidays
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