Starling is top bird seen in Cumbria's schoolgrounds (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Starling is top bird seen in Cumbria's schoolgrounds

4:13pm Thursday 18th March 2010 in

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A UK-wide survey of wildlife in schools has revealed that the starling is the most common visitor to school grounds in Cumbria.

Teachers and pupils in the county taking part in the RSPB’s Big Schools’ Birdwatch reported seeing an average of 7.68 at each school.

In second place in Cumbria was the house sparrow with 5.17 birds per school, followed by the blackbird with an average of 4.61.

Emma Reed, the RSPB’s education officer for northern England, said: “The Big Schools’ Birdwatch is a great way to introduce children in Cumbria to the wildlife visiting their school environment. Wild birds never fail to enthuse and inspire and the response to this year’s survey has been fantastic with many schools now running it as a whole school project.”

Over 75,000 school children and teachers took part in the wildlife survey nationally, involving 2,375 classes from nearly 2,000 schools.

A total of 83,792 birds were counted between 18 January to 1 February.