A ‘Thought for the Day’ for Black Cat Radio, February 2022
Did you take part in the Big Garden Birdwatch last weekend? I wasn’t able to, but I often have in earlier years. The idea is to count birds in your garden or a park so that we can get a picture of how birds are doing. Shockingly, we’ve lost 38 million birds from UK skies in the last 50 years, so it really is vital we do all we can to look after our birdlife.
I’m not at all an expert on birds but I do enjoy seeing them. I have bird feeders and a bird bath in the garden, and it’s really increased the numbers we get. It’s mostly sparrows and starlings, but also some blackbirds and the occasional robin or blue tit. It hasn’t taken much to get more birds into the garden, and they really brighten the place up. They also got me laughing when I saw a small starling squeeze itself with great difficulty in and out of a guard that was supposed to only allow entry to sparrows.
The natural world needs our help these days, with the problems of climate change and the loss of places for wildlife to live. This is important to many Christians because we believe that God made this world and loves it and has put human beings in charge of taking care of it. In fact, there’s a scheme to encourage churches to become more environmentally friendly, and lots of churches have taken it up. Churches are moving to environmentally friendly electricity, reducing water usage, putting up bird boxes and creating wild areas in churchyards.
All of us can help to look after the world we’ve been given and try to pass it on to future generations in a good condition. There’s a lot of natural beauty all around, and it would be really sad to lose it. Nature is also good for our mental health and that’s more important than ever these days.
I know it’s a bit late for new year’s resolutions, but there’s no law against February resolutions, so can I suggest seeing if we might all be able to make some change to help wildlife? Even just a saucer of water might make all the difference and help us fulfil our role as carers of the natural world.
Take care
Mel
