The birds are counting on you

A HUGE bird project is about to get under way and it’s one in which readers of the Outdoors page can participate.

Commencing in November and continuing until 2011, the bird populations of Britain and Ireland will be censused and their distributions mapped.

The first such bird survey was carried out between 1968 and 1972. Almost 15,000 volunteers took part, making it the largest co-operative field project undertaken anywhere in the world up to that time.