Dear Andy
This is the second of my monthly letters to you and serves also as a means for me to wish you and your family a very Happy Christmas!
In just over a month’s time, on the weekend of 25 and 26 January is the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.
On that weekend, over 500,000 people will each spend an hour counting the birds in their garden and sending the information to the RSPB (as has been done for over 30 years). I’ll be doing it on the Sunday and I’d like to invite you round to my house to spend an hour with me, looking for birds, talking about the environment and I’ll give you a cup of tea (or coffee) and a biscuit too!
It strikes me that this is a very simple way that hundreds of MPs could show their support for the environment and actually learn (in some cases) about the environment from their constituents.
I hope you’ll be able to take me up on my offer, or do BGBW with another of your constituents or perhaps do it at your own home. Do let me know what you think.
best wishes and Happy Christmas!
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What a superb idea – would it be worth writing to the three party leaders and the members of the Env Audit Committee to do the same? Or (taking a leaf from Giles Bradshaw’s book) asking Andy Sawford to forward your letter to each of them?
Merry Christmas to you and yours Mark, looking fwd to many more great blogs in 2014.
It might be a bit much to expect many MPs to go round to a constituent’s home to do the bird watch – but it would be great if they (and lots of other public figures like your friends in the NFU etc) did it and posted the results on their web pages or blogs? There is a Natural England office near me – I might invite some of them round instead.
Mmm, yes. Liking the idea of the NFU’s members taking part in the BGBW, though somewhat doubtful about how much species diversity they’ll record from their windows. Still, they should be able to afford some quality optics that may help in their search for a Corn Bunting or two.
(There must be one or two left out there, right? Right?)
Well there is the big farmland bird count being run in Feb by the GWCT
Think several NFU members do BGBW just do not make a fuss about it,probably lots of those doing wildlife friendly things are also likely to be NFU members.They are after all likely to see more from their window if they feed birds in their garden than the average BGBW.