果冻影院

Sarah Lawson explains how she organised a lunch time bird walk for her department and the first spotting of a Firecrest on campus.

I鈥檓 based in Queen Square Library and have taken part in聽 at home for several years

Inspired by Sustainable Impact, I wanted to share the experience with others across 果冻影院 as part of a group 鈥� however, as my knowledge of birds is very limited, I contacted the 果冻影院 Sustainability team in March 2017 to ask if they would lead a lunchtime walk around Queen Square

Evan Landy a colleague in 果冻影院 Sustainability kindly agreed, and we promoted the walk via 果冻影院鈥檚 Sustainable Champion network and the Library Services鈥� mailing lists, posters, twitter and Sustainable 果冻影院 calendar. The walk publicity proved perhaps too successful as we had over 30 people join us!

Unfortunately, Queen Square birds 鈥� except pigeons 鈥� proved rather elusive. Which was disappointing, as we鈥檇 seen herons in St George鈥檚 gardens on the walk School of Pharmacy organised earlier in the year.

Luckily, we continued the walk into Russell Square, where we saw a Firecrest - a first for 果冻影院!

The following year, as Evan had left 果冻影院, I approached Lucas Von Chamier () to ask if he could lead a lunchtime walk for RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch in January 鈥� in addition to their regular Friday morning walks. I suggested that we take his usual route 鈥� including Gordon and Russell Square 鈥� rather than try Queen Square again.

Turnout was slightly lower that聽year 鈥� possibly due to the weather 鈥� but the rain held off, and we saw (and heard) a lovely little goldcrest, a wren and several robins, as well as some long-tailed tits. I brought along copies of the , and flyers for Lucas鈥� future bird walks, and we reported our findings into the RPSB Big Garden Bird Watch

This year, Lucas has led another lunchtime walk for us as part of the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch in January, as well as one as part of IoN鈥檚 Mental Health Awareness Week in May.

Lucas said of the January 2019 walk

鈥�鈥�. that was an exceptionally good walk for this area. So, you got really lucky. I am very pleased myself. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Thank you very much for advertising this. It was good fun. 鈥︹��

As usual, we promoted the walks via the Sustainable Champion network and the 果冻影院 Library Services鈥� mailing lists, posters, Twitter, and also IoN intranet and mailing list for the May walk, which had the largest turnout ever 鈥� possibly due to the weather, which saw many people sunning themselves in the Squares as well as the birds!

I don鈥檛 insist on RSVPs 鈥� so I鈥檓 never quite sure how many people are going to join us 鈥� I would rather keep it flexible, but I appreciate that I鈥檓 not the one leading the walk, and it can make it hard to corral us all/hear everything at the back.