January 2023 Update: #LocalBigYear on BUBO Listing is now #LocalPatch: this is more logical as we support #LocalBigLife for your patch life lists, as well as year lists for any year.

You may have seen the publicity about #LocalBigYear, an initiative from Birdwatch and BirdGuides, sponsored by The Birder’s Store and Celestron, to encourage birders to concentrate birding efforts locally in 2022.

The idea of #LocalBigYear is to regularly watch a patch in your local area, e.g. your own garden, an OS square or perhaps a 10-km radius from your front door. Watching a convenient local patch gives a reat insight into how things change through the seasons, when migrants arrive and depart, when birds sing and breed, and help understand the area's avifauna. It's also a wonderful way to just relax and enjoy observing birds and nature, and hopefully ease the stresses we have all had over the past two years.

#LocalBigYear is informal, with no strict rules. You are encouraged though to share your local birding adventures throughout the year by tagging #LocalBigYear on social media, and there are prizes available for taking part! Read more about #LocalBigYear from Birdguides.

#LocalBigYear on BUBO Listing

For an added dimension, you can record your #LocalBigYear lists on BUBO Listing, wherever you are located, and compare with others taking part. To create a #LocalBigYear list, create a 2022 year list for your chosen location (you could use your county, or add a specific new site within it if it doesn't exist already), ensure it is a year list for 2022 and select the new list type of "#LocalBigYear" from the dropdown. It's helpful to use the list comments to describe your area.

You can view all the British #LocalBigYear lists for the current year simply by visiting https://bubo.org/LocalBigYear. (Click Show List Parameters and change location to view only lists from specific British counties, or other countries, or change year to view previous years.) Don't forget to share on Facebook, Twitter and other social media with the hashtag #LocalBigYear and tag us @BUBOListing!