A Conveyancer’s New Year Wishes

9 January 2021

January usually sees conveyancers taking stock – with spring in prospect, new instructions start to trickle in after the hectic pre-Christmas period. But – like the world generally – this year is different.

I know I am returning to an already busy caseload which will stay that way until at least March. The south west property market was one of the most active in England & Wales throughout 2020, stimulated by the stamp duty holiday and by people rethinking lifestyles and living arrangements due to Covid and lockdowns. Agents, surveyors, local authorities, conveyancers, lenders and removal companies remain under huge pressure to get transactions completed in challenging and extraordinary circumstances.

With this in mind, here is my New Year’s conveyancer’s wish list:

An early indication from the Chancellor – ideally, before his 3 March budget – as to whether he will stick to the current ‘drop dead’ end date for the stamp duty holiday of 31 March 2021 or will extend or phase it out. We need clarity and certainty, as soon as possible.
A crystal ball to predict with certainty when transactions will conclude. They have many moving parts and everyone must do their bit: conveyancers for both parties; surveyors; lenders, local authorities and even clients themselves.
A magic wand. With one wave, lenders will answer phones instantly, local and other search results will pop into my inbox and the other party’s conveyancer will respond promptly without being chased.

Without the above, here are some ways that clients can help themselves:

Be prepared. If you are selling, find paperwork from when you bought even before you market your property. Ask your conveyancer ahead of accepting an offer to prepare the contract pack. If you are buying, fill in engagement paperwork, provide ID, proof of address and money on account swiftly. Our regulators require this before we can start acting: valuable time is often lost while clients delay. Ensure you apply for mortgage funds at the first opportunity.
Be patient. Conveyancers generally deal with over 50 or 60 matters concurrently, often more. Constant telephone interruptions for updates cause delays for all our clients so email is best. Your conveyancer will progress your matter and keep you informed of key milestones.
Be realistic. Pre- 2020, the predicted timescale for a property transaction was around 8 – 12 weeks, more with long chains. Home working for many lenders’ staff and local authority staff continues, with surveyors and agents operating under greater restrictions. Clients themselves are at risk of having to isolate or being furloughed. Timescales are accordingly less predictable and harder to achieve.

If everyone plays their part and communication is good, we can achieve the best outcome for you at the earliest opportunity. Moving has always been a stressful business but never more so than now!

Jenny Cottrell

Solicitor

Locking Down and Looking Up

Editorial team

8 January 2021

Not only does the Campaign to Protect Rural England concern itself about countryside and the communities who live there but is also involved in helping to preserve the quality of the night sky over Dorset and other parts of our country

With the current lockdown, people are largely confined to their own home and will no doubt be spending rather too much time gazing at their TV, computer or smartphone. An alternative, if the skies happen to be clear one evening, is to wrap up warm, step outside into the garden and have a good look at what can be seen in the sky. Now that the Christmas lights are safely stowed away for another year, you should have a good opportunity to observe a dark night sky, weather permitting. A pair of binoculars or small telescope and guidebook will help you identify anything of a celestial nature.

Every night there is usually a planet visible, recognisable in being bright and not twinkling like a star. Since planets wander across the sky, they sometimes appear close together as happened with the Grand Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that took place in mid-December. Good views were to be had from Stourton Caundle and other parts of the Blackmore Vale on Sunday 20^th shortly before the planets reached their closest on the 21^st. Earlier, the crescent moon also shared the spectacle in a triple conjunction as shown in the image below taken by Michael Mattiazzo, an astronomer friend.

Other times when the moon is absent, a myriad of stars can be seen and what you might easily mistake for a cloud is in fact the faint glow of the Milky Way, our galaxy of stars seen edge-on stretching across the sky. Do wear sensible clothes and boots to stay warm, find a convenient easy chair. Remain outside for at least 10-15 minutes so your eyes become properly ‘dark adapted’. I can guarantee that you will also witness the occasional ‘star’ moving silently across the blackness: one of many ‘man-made’ satellites launched into space and orbiting the earth. You might also catch a view of a shooting star or meteor.

So let’s all be mindful of the natural spectacle visible from our doorstep every clear night. And if you have to have a security light, make sure it’s of the motion-sensitive variety that switches the light on only when necessary. To preserve our view of the heavens will require future housing developments to have ‘full-cut-off’ street lighting so no light is directed into the sky. A curfew time may also be adopted after which streetlights are automatically switched off to save energy and to avoid light pollution thereby protecting the natural environment.

Dr Richard Miles

Dark Skies Adviser Dorset CPRE

OnBuy.com, described as the world’s fastest-growing marketplace, has become a Premier Business Partner with Dorset Chamber.

Editorial team

7 January 2021

OnBuy.com, described as the world’s fastest-growing marketplace, has become a Premier Business Partner with Dorset Chamber.

OnBuy says the decision marks its commitment to the county ahead of a worldwide scale-up.

As well as cementing its roots in the region, the move also demonstrates support for the regional business community, alongside its commitment to local recruitment.

OnBuy has also announced it is to invest £10m in Dorset.

The business has held talks with BCP Council about finding a new HQ as it continues to add to its 60+ staff.

The expanding eCommerce company, founded in 2016, has seen dramatic growth in the past year.

Sales grew 870 percent from November 2019 to November 2020 and have shot from a rate of £24m to over £170m in one year.

The marketplace’s sales are forecast to hit £2bn before the end of 2023.

OnBuy says it’s on a mission to revolutionise the eCommerce sector by providing a fair, transparent and ethical marketplace, benefiting both buyers and sellers.

Cas Paton, CEO and winner of Just Entrepreneurs’ Founder of the Year Award 2020, said: “OnBuy has gone from strength to strength in the last four years and after a record-breaking 2020, we’re going to grow even faster in 2021.

“We’ve set our sights on achieving unicorn status and we’re going to achieve that from our HQ right here in Dorset.

“Reaching unicorn status is about establishing the credibility of our vision worldwide, and I’m looking forward to taking our ethical eCommerce ecosystem to the world stage.

“We’ll be doubling our Dorset-based team within the next two years.

“The county has huge potential.

“I want to put Dorset on the world stage for tech.

“Forget Silicon Valley, it’s all about Silicon Beach now and OnBuy will be Dorset’s first unicorn tech company.

“I’m glad to be working with Dorset Chamber to help realise these ambitions for the area and am looking forward to connecting with more Dorset businesses through the network.”

Dorset Chamber chief executive Ian Girling

OnBuy is embarking on a worldwide scale-up into over 140 countries by the end of 2023, starting with 42 initial sites early this year.

To support its growth, OnBuy is continually recruiting within the region for a variety of roles.

Ian Girling, Chief Executive, Dorset Chamber, said: “We are delighted to welcome OnBuy on board as a Premier Business Partner and active recruiter within our community.

“OnBuy is one of the most exciting, fastest-growing businesses in the county and we’re pleased to be able to support the company in realising its ambitions.

“Businesses like OnBuy help to keep Dorset on the map for business and entrepreneurialism so that we can continue to attract great talent and encourage more ambitious founders, like Cas, to start their businesses in the county.

“We are looking forward to working with OnBuy as they continue on their upward trajectory.”

Along with OnBuy’s unprecedented growth, its seller base has increased by ten per cent every month over the last three consecutive months, with more than 600 new sellers joining in November alone.

OnBuy has also recently been named eCommerce Company of the Year in the 2020 UK Tech Business Awards.

By: Andrew Diprose Dorset Biz News

Sturminster & Hinton Angling Association New Year Match Report.

Laura

6 January 2021

With the river at last calming down several hardy souls braved the cold weather and held a match on the Steart length of the river, down from the Bull car park, on Sunday.

Lots of small roach and perch were caught and Ian Paulley, pegged half way along the first field, had a good winning weight of small fish weighing in at 8lbs 6ozs. Ian alternated between pole and running-line rigs to tempt lots of fish on red maggot and pinkie baits; a very good weight on the day.

Ian Paulley with his winning weight of small fish weighing in at 8lbs 6oz

In second place Mick Haskell, pegged on the downstream end peg, used bread punch and red maggot hookbaits to weigh in 5lbs 7ozs. Mick used a stick float running line rig throughout and started the match with a few small chub in the first half-hour. After this good start the action tailed off and he spent the rest of the (5-hour) match catching tiny roach using single maggot on a size 20 hook.

Kev Bennett made up the frame with a third-placed bag of small roach and perch caught on maggot or small worm hookbait. Thats’s it for now folks. Hopefully the weather (and THE virus) will not be too unkind before the river season ends on March14th.

Scramble ace ‘Badger’ Goss dies aged 80 | Bryan Badger Goss Obituary

Editorial team

6 January 2021

Tributes have been pouring onto social media following the death on January 6 of Blackmore Vale motocross legend Bryan ‘Badger’ Goss. He was 80.

Bryan was born at Yetminster on September 11, 1940 – during the Battle of Britain, hence his middle name, Winston, after wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

It was also at Yetminster that he acquired his ‘Badger’ nickname. His lifelong love affair with motorbikes began early, and before he got his own, he used to ‘badger’ fellow villagers for a go on theirs.

The habit led to one of his friends calling him ‘Badger’ and the name stuck.

His first bike was a 197cc Ambassador, which cost the teenager £40. Badger entered his first motorcycle scramble soon after his 16th birthday.

Perhaps inspired by grasstrack star Lew Coffin, another Yetminster resident, he also tried his hand at that discipline but crashed heavily at Exeter and broke his leg so badly that he was out of racing for a year.

‘I vowed to stick to scrambling from then on,’ he later recalled.

In 1959 Badger Goss became a works rider for Cotton and promptly beat some of the region’s best competitors to register five race wins during a memorable afternoon at Ham Hill, near Yeovil.

After Cotton failed to capitalise on his success, in the early 1960s he let Greeves, a leading works team from Essex, know that he would like to race for them.

To his surprise, they offered him a £25 retainer – a moment that Badger later described as a ‘dream come true’.

‘It was everyone’s ambition to race for Greeves at that time,’ he said.

The move kick-started the heyday of Badger Goss’s illustrious career. The 1960s were also the era of scramble meetings at Bulbarrow, which helped Badger to become a sporting hero in his own backyard. A generation of Blackmore Vale folk can still remember the sight of Badger and his rivals, such as brothers Don and Derek Rickman, flying over the jumps on the spectacular hillside course.

In the mid-1960s, Badger switched his allegiance again, this time to Husqvarna, a Swedish company, who would provide him with some of his greatest triumphs.

These included victories in the 1966 Trophée des Nations at Brands Hatch, the BBC TV Grandstand Trophy and the British 500cc championship, which he won in 1970, just before his 30th birthday.

As well as an eye for speed, Badger also had a head for business, and in 1964 launched his own shop at Yeovil, Brian Goss Motorcycles.

After winning the British title with Husqvana, he raised eyebrows the following year by switching again to the German manufacturer Maico. The move not only brought him more success but won him Maico’s UK import franchise.

‘Their bikes were not only fast but fantastically reliable,’ said Badger. ‘For three years on the trot we sold over 1,000 a year, which for a small concern like ours was like winning the pools.’

The Goss business continues to this day as a leading stockist of motocross helmets, kit and other accessories, run by the founder’s son and daughter, Jeff and Debbie, and Jeff’s wife, Sophie.

Badger met his wife, Jenny, on a blind date arranged by a friend – and he proposed on the Tilbury ferry while taking the cattle truck that he drove for a living back to Thundersley! The first night of their honeymoon was spent in the slightly more romantic setting of a Paris hotel.

The second night was supposed to be spent in a hotel in Lyon, where Bryan was riding in an international event. But they couldn’t find the hotel, and ended up sharing an old van with Badger’s bikes and his mate Don Hitchcock, who slept in the bunk below.

Badger went on to win the 250cc race in Lyon with Don Rickman winning the 500 event.

Jenny Goss died in 2012.

Motocross writer Ian Berry describes Badger as not only a ‘tenacious competitor on the track’ but a ‘great character’ off it. The rider once told Berry: ‘All I ever really wanted was to be everybody’s mate.’

He achieved that with interest.

By Roger Guttridge

Dorset Community Foundation

Editorial team

4 January 2021

Tenth anniversary Surviving Winter campaign aims to keep elderly warm.

THOUSANDS of people will have received their government Winter Fuel Payment of up to £200 before Christmas and the Dorset Community Foundation is asking those who feel they don’t need it to help save lives.

The charity is marking the tenth anniversary of its Surviving Winter Appeal by asking more people than ever to help prevent the deaths of hundreds of elderly people through cold-related illness. Surviving Winter, which has raised more than £250,000 and helped hundreds of people since its launch, wants people in Dorset to donate their Winter Fuel Payment so it can be ‘recycled’ to some of the estimated 19,000 people in the county who cannot afford to keep their homes warm during the coldest months.

The most recent figures from the Office of National Statistics revealed 730 people in the county die each year of cold-related illness, a 40 per cent increase on the previous figure. The majority of people who suffer premature winter-related death are over 65, and 75 per cent of these deaths are due to the impact the cold has on respiratory and circulatory conditions.

The majority of people who suffer premature winter-related death are over 65, and 75 per cent of these deaths are due to the impact the cold has on respiratory and circulatory conditions

Dorset Community Foundation chief executive Grant Robson said: “We begin 2021 still feeling the effects of the pandemic and knowing it will take many months to get back to normality. But for older people it has been particularly hard. Many of them are still worried about going outdoors, and those that feel able to find that it is hard to see family or friends, where they can spend some time in a warm home, because of the Covid restrictions.

“Then there are the community centres, lunch clubs and drop-ins that provide wamth, hot food and company, they are all closed as well because of coronavirus. All of this will keep older people indoors for longer, force their heating bills higher and make them more anxious about paying them.”

A report by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy last year found there are 19,000 households in Dorset – almost one in ten – living in fuel poverty, which means they cannot afford to heat their home properly in winter.

Living in cold homes can also worsen mental health issues, as can the anxiety caused by mounting fuel bills. Older people are more likely to worry about being unable to pay a bill and subsequently skip meals or eat cheaper and less nutritious meals to save money.

Mr Robson said: “It’s a vicious circle because reducing your calorie intake is disastrous for older people. Malnutrition and weight loss just means they feel the cold more so they need the hearing on more often and their bills get higher.”

Colin Coop, of Dorchester, received a £200 grant from the appeal last year. The pensioner, who suffers from bronchitis, said he could only afford to run an electric fan heater for two hours a day and have his hot water on for two weeks of the month before he received the grant.

He said: “I couldn’t keep my clothing clean because I didn’t have the hot water to wash them.”

Grants of £200 are given to recipients via the Citizens Advice Bureau to people over 60 in fuel poverty or to those 50 and over who meet the winter fuel poverty criteria, which includes significant health conditions, are on the highest level of benefits or have little current chance of improving their life circumstances.

Citizens Advice advisors can also support clients by signposting other benefits, such as Attendance Allowance or Personal Independence Payments that may help them, as well sharing guidance on making the most of their heating, improving insulation and eating better. The charity works with agencies such as social services, Age UK and other charities to identify people at risk who are living in fuel poverty.

Mr Robson said: “We are really pleased to be working with Citizens Advice because they are able to provide real and practical help when they find people at risk.

“It is shocking to think that there will be people this winter facing the choice between heating and eating because they just can’t afford both. Because poor nourishment only makes existing conditions like respiratory illness worse and, with the NHS under more pressure than ever before, this is not a time that people want to be going into hospital.

“Over the last decade we have been amazed and humbled by the generosity of the people of this county but at a time when Covid-19 has made life more difficult and uncertain for everyone, the need for this appeal is greater than ever. By donating their Winter Fuel payment, people could literally save someone’s life.”

Donate at www.dorsetcommunityfoundation.org/appeals/surviving-winter or by sending cheques, made payable to Dorset Community Foundation, to The Spire, High Street, Poole, BH15 1DF.

Meet Your Local | The Baker Arms, Child Okeford

Editorial team

3 January 2021

The Baker Arms is owned and run by husband and wife team James & Desi Hutchings who bought it in 2017.

How did you end up at The Baker Arms?

We have always worked in hospitality, notably at The Museum Inn in Farnham, The Cow in Poole, Westbeach in
Bournemouth, Odette’s in Primrose Hill, The Pig & Butcher in Islington, and Smokehouse in Highbury & Islington to name a few!

It was at Smokehouse that we both worked & met, and then eventually moved back to Dorset. We had always thought of having our own place after 20+ years of working for other people. We randomly found the pub
online (and on the market!), it ticked lots of boxes, so we went for it and we’ve now been here 3 years.

What’s your favourite local place to visit on an afternoon off?

We don’t afford ourselves much time off in normal circumstances, however we enjoy eating at The Fontmell when we can, or clambering up Hambledon hill with our dog Smokey. Tell us about your 2020… Lockdown 1 last spring was tough but it did enable us to make small improvements around the pub, with much of our attention focused on
our beer garden, before what proved to be a busy summer – thankfully. The second lockdown & then Tier 2 proved much more challenging to come out of and we only re- opened in mid-December with a much reduced offering and
limited hours. And now here we are again – closed except for a Takeaway Roast on a Sunday. What’s been your biggest challenge since taking over – apart from COVID, obviously! Our biggest challenge actually resulted from a Motorcycle accident that James was involved in, in May 2019. James’s left arm was shattered and he had to be air lifted to Southmead Hospital. Following 2 surgeries, the recovery is still ongoing. So, James learned to cook one handed! Its tough, but you learn to adapt and just get on with it. It has definitely added to Desi’s work load though.

What are you most proud of?

The fact that people keep coming back again and again, and in some cases from quite a distance, encourages us that we are really providing a great environment & service for our customers.

What part of the pub is your absolute favourite?

The pub is Grade II listed, however our favourite has to be our cosy little holiday letting cottage. ‘Daisy cottage’ is just behind the pub and is really popular with leisure guests who come to roam the countryside or guests visiting families & friends who live locally. The pub is beautiful, and we will always maintain its traditional charm & character. You can’t beat sitting in front of our wood burner on a winter’s evening… with a pint of course. We are led to believe that there is an old tunnel that leads under the pub to our neighbouring church…

Which dish is your most popular?

Ironically (and substantial jokes aside), our homemade Scotch egg is pretty popular, and will always remain on the menu! We always keep our menu very different to other pubs, with big, bold flavours and often classics with a twist. Our menu is always kept small, because its always evolving, freshly prepared & homemade with an emphasis on comfort. Our homemade ice creams are pretty popular too.

What’s next – do you have big plans on the horizon?

We put up a temporary marquee over the summer which proved popular. We have since replaced it with a strong permanent marquee with long tables, benches & heaters. This gives us a bit more capacity year round whatever the weather.

And right now?

Normally as we hit January our attention turns to our yearly charity event ‘Pheasant Fest’. This event has now been going for over 10 years, and is our focus in February. The event raises much needed funds for the Dorset & Somerset air ambulance, who we support year round. We have yet to decide upon a date for 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions. However, we still intend/hope to run the event, possibly in June 2021. Otherwise, we’re simply focused
on being fully open, and driving the business forward without the Covid handbrake on?! The ability to plan beyond a few days in 2020 has been almost impossible with the Covid-19 restrictions.

Visit the Baker Arms website here

Richard Hoare Alchemy of Light

Editorial team

3 January 2021

Messums Tithe Barn Gallery and Arts Centre, Tisbury

Painting from nature is not copying the object; it is realizing one’s sensations. (Paul Cezanne)

The medieval Tithe Barn at Messums Gallery and Arts Centre in Tisbury is reputed to be the largest of its type in England. This impressive building is now open as an Arts Centre and cultural institution for the South West of England. Originally built as a storage barn for the Abbess of Shaftesbury and owned by Shaftesbury Abbey until the Dissolution, in recent years the barn, set in the beautiful landscape of Fonthill Estate, has been extensively restored to its former glory.

Incongruously, it was a dark, raid-sodden morning when I visited Richard Hoare’s exhibition entitled an ‘The Alchemy of Light’; but despite the dank weather outside, golden light emanated from his paintings. His main focus is the Fonthill landscape, with its central lake surrounded by a myriad of caves and bridged by a weir. The bewitching effects of light on these is beautifully captured by Richard at different times of day and year: the lime greens of Spring contrast with the rich browns and ochres of Autumn; tumultuous skies roll with huge, powerful grey clouds while tantalising glimpses of blue pierce through the trees. Other paintings in this exhibition include the hills and woody thickets of Berwick St John, Dinton Park, East Knoyle and Horse Hill – an Iron Age tumulus hill near Shaftesbury.

I started by asking Richard about the origins of the exhibition’s title ‘The Alchemy of Light’. He sees alchemy as the dance of matter and energy from one state into a higher form – a seemingly magical process of transformation. It is also an explanation for the mystery of how paint can be transformed in a light filled picture.

“The way I work is intuitive. All the work in the exhibition has been generated from a spark. When I see something I’m drawn to – usually it is trees, the lake, an island or mountain – an archetypal subject or perhaps just one tree in the landscape – I feel a tug at the heart and I respond to this through the ‘gesture’ of painting. My work is the response to that initial impact witnessed in and from nature.”

Richard went on to explain how he communes with nature to capture her essence by feeling a calmness in the presence of the beauty of the place. Rather than paint literally the appearance of the landscape, he tries to paint what he sees behind the surface, and that is something which cannot be described in words. “I’m painting the tree as it resonates with life in that moment, not what it just looks like. The painting comes from that moment of being as completely present as possible.”

“All good journeys contain some revelation about oneself, or the place one visits. A pilgrimage or journey from looking to seeing is a good allegory in my experience, for this life as a painter.” Richard’s two-year residency in Japan, his stay in Ireland and his walks along the pilgrim routes of England, France, Spain and Turkey have amplified his love of nature and his work is always moving forward and evolving to reflect this journey both inner and outer. “The constant behind everything is the Sun and the light it emits. The pursuit of this light has of course been the destination and inspiration for many painters”.

A book, The Way of the Watercourse by Alan Watts has been an inspiration too. Watts demonstrates how the ancient and timeless Chinese wisdom of Tao promotes the idea of following a life lived according to the natural world and goes against our goal-oriented ideas by allowing time to quiet our minds and observe the world rather than imposing ourselves on it.

Richard explained that his mentor at Canterbury College of Art, Dennis Creffield, was also hugely influential in his journey as an artist and those intense classes are experiences to which he still refers.

We carried on our conversation with a discussion about the inspiration Richard draws from nature.

“What is the heartbeat, where does the spark come from? My working life is guided on the law of three: time, energy and inspiration. Time is a fixed quantity. Then there is the energy we have…I’m energised through my work. The energy as a quantity is more elastic than time. I don’t believe that inspiration is just by chance. There is a way of creating and working where inspiration will be there and this third element is unlimited by any dimension. If I orchestrate the time and the energy elements correctly, inspiration always arrives. But at the same time this process must never be taken for granted. I am energised through my work and that has sustained me and made things possible. Over the years where things have been tough whenever I go back to my easel, nature rushes towards me with its generosity. This working relationship between the three parts is beyond understanding but it can be experienced. My work is born out of this experience and maintaining of the gaze on to the natural world. I have found that love, light and inspiration are interchangeable words for the same thing. The fulcrum of that is the experience of painting or the journey as a painter, as a pilgrim in the broadest sense.”

Richard constantly strives to reach the light through his painting. He moves with the work from the landscape and then back to his studio many times before the work is finished. He captures the mesmerising effects water at different times of day and season. “When you look at water on the surface you can look through all the layers to another reality that is as present as the subject reflected. This fascinates me. I love painting in winter because it is pregnant with all the colour of Summer. My experience of light is often its healing, curative quality.”

As for the future, Richard is planning to spend some days walking and drawing at Knepp Castle Estate, the pioneering rewilding project in West Sussex, where free-roaming grazing animals have created new habitats for wildlife and are documented in Isabella Tree’s fascinating book Wilding….. another Pilgrimage.

‘Alchemy of Light’ exhibition

EXHIBITION: Richard Hoare ‘Alchemy of Light’

Big Garden Birdwatch

Editorial team

2 January 2021

I saw my first snowdrops of the year today. Primroses and celandine are tentatively opening their buds too, though I suspect they’ll soon change their minds if the Beast from the East blows in again this month, as forecast. And who can blame them? It must be extremely confusing being a wild flower when you can no longer rely on the weather being the same this year as it was last year.

To help understand the effects climate change is having on the flowering times of native plants, the BSBI (Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland) run an annual ‘New Year Plant Hunt’. In its 10th year now, the ‘New Year Plant Hunt’ enlists the help of citizen scientist volunteers throughout Britain and Ireland, to note down, photograph, and record all the native wild plants they find blooming over a 4 day period at the beginning of January. But this is not the only project of its kind – other annual recording schemes take place throughout the year, including Butterfly Conservation’s ‘Butterfly Count’ and RSPB’s ‘Big Garden Birdwatch.

The Big Garden Birdwatch is one of the largest, and by far the most well known, of these annual surveys, and it takes place this year from 29th – 31st January. You don’t need to be an expert to join in; indeed when this survey was first set up back in 1979, it was intended only for children, but anyone and everyone can take part now. If you haven’t participated before, maybe this could be the year you sign up? Not only will you be helping the RSPB track declines and increases in bird numbers and species, but it is also a lot of fun… and a great way to give something back to to our beautiful garden visitors during lockdown.

Joining instructions, downloadable identification sheets, and tips on how you can attract more birds to your garden, can all be found in the link below, together with an option for these to be sent to you in the post, if you prefer:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/

Enjoy!

by Brigit Strawbridge
http://beestrawbridge.blogspot.com
Twitter: @B_Strawbridge

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