Is your garden an ornithologist's paradise? Are you regularly awakened by the sound of birdsong drifting over from the bushes beyond your lawn?
Or are you concerned that visitors to your bird table over the festive period were less frequent than in previous years?
This weekend, a national event is taking place to monitor the fortunes of our feathered friends – and you could help out.
The RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch is set to take place this weekend (January 25th-26th). All you need to do is spend an hour in your garden counting the birds you spot and submit your findings when you've finished.
You can register online at the RSPB's site and receive a free guide. Once you've recorded your results, you can submit them live from a tablet device or send them by mail if you'd rather fill out a paper form.
A wealth of information on what birds to look out for is available on the RSPB's website, along with fun activities to help get children involved in the project.
Bird feeding kits are also available from the site – and information on how you can make your own.
Last year, 590,000 people took place in the survey and 8.2 million birds were counted.
The garden birdwatch has been carried out on an annual basis since 1979 and has helped to track the populations of our native species.
Recent results have shown a decline in the population of the starling since the early 1980s, along with falling numbers of house sparrow and greenfinch. Starling numbers have declined by 80 per cent since 1979 and it is now our most under-threat bird.
Other species have fared better, however – numbers of coal tit and woodpigeon have risen relatively rapidly.
The collared dove is also doing well, although growth in numbers has begun to tail off recently.
So if you have an hour of spare time this weekend, make sure you take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch – it's a chance to get outdoors and do something useful for our precious UK wildlife.
