Spring Alive is an international project to encourage children’s interest in nature and the conservation of migratory birds and to get them to take action for birds and other wildlife as well as to participate in events organized by BirdLife Partners.
By posting their first sightings of Barn Swallow, White Stork, Common Cuckoo, Common Swift, and European Bee-eater on the www.springalive.net website, children from Europe, Central Asia and Africa create a real-time map of the incredible journeys these birds take every year.
Spring Alive brings together children, their teachers and families to record their first sightings of five easily-recognised migratory birds: Barn Swallow, White Stork, Common Cuckoo, Common Swift, and European Bee-eater.
By posting their records on the Spring Alive website: www.springalive.net, they help create a real-time map of the gradual arrival of spring. Each year, spring begins with a few scattered early sightings in warm countries, which are displayed as patches of pale orange on the Spring Alive map.
Over the next few months, as more sightings flood in, the colour spreads and deepens, until all the countries where these birds breed are a rich, glowing red.
Spring Alive began in 2006 as a European project, which soon spread to Central Asia. In 2010, Spring Alive was extended to Africa, where from September onwards children look out for the return of the same five species from their breeding grounds in Europe and Asia.
Creating the map is one of the core activities. But Spring Alive involves lots more indoor and outdoor events, to engage children, schools and the wider community in the conservation of migratory birds, and to encourage them to support their national BirdLife Partners.
Spring Alive is organised by OTOP, the BirdLife Partner in Poland, on behalf of the BirdLife Partnership. Wildlife groups, teachers and others who would like to become more involved in Spring Alive should contact the International Manager, Karolina Kalinowska, at karolina.kalinowska@otop.org.pl.