Sit quietly in your garden, at the park, or even at the seaside... what can you see? What can you hear? The birds can see you, I wonder if you can see them…
Winter is a wonderful time of year to get to know our feathered friends, and it’s also an opportunity to give them a helping hand. This month in Forest School we’ve been talking about the birds: what they look like, what they sound like, where they live and why they find winter so challenging. The children have also taken part in the Ruby Robin Award, an initiative run by the charity Songbird Survival, which teaches children about songbirds and encourages them to help them in the colder months. To gain their award the children have learnt more about UK songbirds such as robins, goldfinches and blue tits; they have made bird feeders using lard and bird feed; they have completed the RSPB Big Schools Birdwatch; and practiced their fine motor skills by colouring some of our native birds in their correct colours and building nests in the woods for our resident nest tester Rob Rob. It is magical to see such young children thinking about how to care for native wildlife so please do ask them about what they've been getting up to. You could also download the free Merlin app to help you investigate which birds are singing to you in your own garden.
Here are some of our favourite books about birds:
Little Robin Red Vest, Jan Fearnley
Busy Day for Birds, Lucy Cousins
The Go Away Bird, Julia Donaldson
This is Owl, Libby Walden
The Flight of the Snow Goose, Deborah King
Owl Babies, Martin Waddell
Peep Inside a Bird’s Nest, Anna Millbourne/Usbourne