Big Garden Bird Watch: Museums as hubs for citizen science
For this year’s Big Garden Bird Watch, Climate Officer Lucy Neville took a trip to Greyfriars Kirkyard to take part in the survey. In this blog, Lucy details her findings and highlights how museums can encourage bird activity in their gardens by creating habitats for birds and other species to thrive.

In January each year the RSPB encourages us all to take part in the Big Garden Bird Watch. A citizen science project to monitor the health of the UK’s garden bird populations. For those of us without gardens we might think we can’t take part, but as with many things in life, museums provide us with the answer.
The Big Garden Bird Watch, like many citizen science biodiversity events, doesn’t actually require a garden – all it needs is a local green space, and where better than the grounds surrounding your local museum? Peregrine falcons are often recorded at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
This year, I’ve chosen to head into the heart of the City of Edinburgh and spend an hour recording bird life in Greyfriars Kirkyard. Famous for Scotland’s most loyal dog, Greyfriars Kirkyard is home to the first post-Reformation church in Scotland which opened in 1620. Rebuilt after a fire in 1845 the kirk still stands and has had a variety of renovations over the years. The kirkyard itself passed from the hands of the Franciscan monastery (whose friars wore grey robes) to Mary Queen of Scots who granted it to the town council as a burial ground in 1560 at the same time as it was bordered by the, then new, Flodden Wall. With so much history it’s no surprise that the kirk is home to a lovely wee museum, nestled underneath its organ. Complete with puppets of animals you might find in the grounds, in their kid’s zone.
I head out into the clear and frosty morning, my own dog eschewing Bobby’s loyalty and choosing to stay in his warm bed. I grab my notebook, binoculars and flask – its bird watching time!

To the side of the kirk, that houses the museum, I found myself a large lime tree sheltered from the breeze and with a perfectly curved trunk to rest my back. The Big Garden Bird Watch requires you to watch from one place for 60minutes so it’s important to get comfy. Tea poured I took out my granny’s AA Countryside Guide for walkers, turning it to the section on garden, hedgerow, and woodland birds. Considerably more modern bird ID books are available but there’s something special about using one that my family has used for almost 50 years, especially reading her rain-streaked notes on ID tips.
Not every bird watching adventure is going to be fruitful and when the first 10 minutes brought nothing but Pigeons, I assumed it would be one of those days, “boring” data is still incredibly useful in citizen science after all. But before long I heard the distinctive tuneful song of a Blackbird, and then a family of Blue Tits began flitting around. They were soon joined by Great Tits whose call of “teacher-teacher” alerted some Coal Tits that there must be food in the area. A Robin sounded the alert as a mini murder of Jackdaws swooped in followed by extremely boisterous Grey Squirrels. It was at that moment that a small piece of bark fell from above me and I looked up to see a Nuthatch creeping up the bark above my head. Before I knew it, the alarm on my phone was ringing and my hour was up. I could have stayed all day (with a tea refill) but the data is only useful if it has a time frame, so I took myself into the kirk, where their staff kindly showed me around the museum. Whilst Greyfriars Kirk Museum is usually closed in January, the Kirkyard is still full of life and the perfect place to enjoy a winter’s morning.

As well as bird watching, there are lots of citizen science projects we can all get involved in from our local museum’s patch. I for one am already planning a trip back here to track lichens and moss. Citizen science is when everyday folks get out and record what’s happening in the natural world to help out the scientists – after all, they can’t be everywhere at once. You can find current citizen science projects in Scotland on the Scotland’s Environment website. If you’re really lucky then your local museum might even be the place to take part in recording orca sightings, we’re all looking at you Shetland Museums and Archives!
Museums can create welcoming habitats for birds by placing nesters and feeders throughout their gardens. Planting wildflowers and reducing the use of pesticides will also increase your garden’s biodiversity and ensure there are natural food sources for the wildlife. Find out more about making your museum more wildlife friendly in our biodiversity advice guides.
For more information about increasing biodiversity at your museum or engaging with visitors on the topic, get in touch with our climate officer at climate@museumsgalleriesscotland.org.uk