Georgie the Magpie

Hello my name is Georgie the magpie. My nest is in Nan Fran’s oak tree, near the compost heap. Being able to fly is amazing, when Dan catches me pinching the fruit I can just fly away! Sometimes people call me a little rascal, but I can’t see what is wrong with pecking the rubbish and eating Dan’s strawberries.

Where have all of the birds gone?

Georgie the Magpie says it has been a strange old spring this year and I must say that I am a little worried... Some of my old bird friends from a long time ago have not returned from migration yet this year.

This is because the weather has been very funny and the seasons seem to have changed. Because of this most of them have stayed at home in hotter places like Africa and Asia.

I asked my good friend Miss Jennifer Pickles to help me out with the Maths and she told me  that this year there has been:

• 59% less Cuckoos
• 83% less Tree Pipits
• 22% less Common Sandpipers
• 60% less Willow Warblers
• 21% less Garden Warblers
• 82% less Turtle Doves
• 76% less Marsh Warblers
• 84% less Spotted Flycatchers
• 70% less Yellow Wagtails
• 15% less Lesser White throats

There are ways that you can help

• Try building a bird feeder or house
• Put food out for birds
• Recycle all of your paper and card - birds need lots of woodlands, forests and trees to make homes and start a community. By recycling all of your paper and card it helps sustain forests.
• Plant more Trees - Birds love big trees, they are a safe place to live and start a family.
• Ask your parents to buy drawing paper, toilet paper and cards that have come from sustainable forests or recycled paper.
• Sustainable Forests are forests that have a continuous growth cycle of trees so as the trees are cut down there are more trees growing to replace them. Florence has some very interesting facts on Sustainable Forests