Member Article

Barratt Homes & RSPB are Birdwatch Ready

New homeowners in Preston are being encouraged to invite birds into their garden this month by local housebuilder, Barratt Homes, ahead of the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.

The national wildlife survey event is taking place from 28th to 30th January and encourages people to join the millions who take part in counting the birds across the country.

In preparation, five star housebuilder Barratt Manchester, has teamed up with the RSPB to give its top tips on how homeowners can give nature a home and ensure they have plenty of feathered friends close by to document. It is also offering RSPB bird feeders and fat balls to residents at its Cottam Meadow and Tarleton Lock developments in Preston.

Barratt Homes was proud to announce its partnership with the RSPB in 2016. The new alliance will see the housebuilder working with the RSPB to raise employee awareness of wildlife-friendly best practice across its sites on a national level.

With 60% of plants and animals in decline, and as the country’s urban wildlife struggles, the partnership between Barratt and the conservation charity will help to give nature a home in new build developments.

Commenting on the current initiative, Michaela Lancaster, Sales Director at Barratt Homes Manchester, said: “The Big Garden Birdwatch is such an exciting event and we wanted to encourage our own community of homeowners to get involved and invite birds into their garden.

“As a leading housebuilder, we want to work closely with our residents to ensure our British wildlife is preserved at our developments.“

Adrian Thomas, Communications Officer at the RSPB, said: “The Big Garden Birdwatch gives us a great snapshot of how our garden birds are faring and we need to know this information for new-build houses as well as older properties.

“With just a bit of effort, we know new homes for people can be great homes for the nation’s favourite birds too.”

Top Tips include:

1. Provide plenty of food

With the frosty weather in full force and the ground often frozen, it can be hard for birds to find their own food. To ensure the birds pay a visit to your new garden, be sure to lay out plenty of food to entice them, including seeds and suet which can be put in a bird feeder or on a roofed bird table.

Make sure to top-up your bird feed regularly so the birds will keep coming back, but other than that this is a perfect and hassle-free way to enjoy watching birds from the comfort of your own home.

2. Create a sparrow street

Introduce a nest box into your garden and give somewhere for House sparrows to raise their chicks.

Sadly, the UK population of House sparrows has halved in recent years, so the RSPB is encouraging people to build sparrow boxes and put them up in their gardens, providing shelter and a home for the birds. These can be done using materials such as wood, rubber, nails and screws, or for those who don’t have the time to make one, the bird boxes are available to buy from the RSPB website.

Sparrows like to have their friends nearby so why not encourage a colony of them in your garden by building a sparrow street and putting a row of them together?

3. Plant a tree in your garden

Trees play a vital part in offering birds a home so why not invite them into your garden by planting your very own tree? Big or small, they offer song perches, nesting sites, safe retreats, and highways in the sky, so there’s no reason why this wouldn’t help bring some wildlife into your own garden. This is a perfect way to get involved in bringing wildlife to your home and works for gardens of every size. Birds may not flock to your garden immediately, but if you sit back and watch how your tree blossoms, they’ll be nesting in there before you know it.

For a simple step-by-step guide to each of these activities, visit the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch page here: https://ww2.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch

For more information on Barratt Homes developments in Preston, please call the sales team on: 0844 811 7799 or visit www.barratthomes.co.uk

For more information about any of these top tips or to become a member, please visit the RSPB website http://www.rspb.org.uk/

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Amelia Peters .