Gardens and birdwatching: recreation, environmental management and human-nature interaction in an everyday location

Private, domestic gardens are important both as sites for leisure and as sites of conservation interest. Birdwatching is an important leisure activity, yet there appear to be no previous studies that combine these two themes of importance to the understanding of managed garden spaces. Semi-structured interviews were held with birdwatchers as part of a larger study of the interactions between local places and birdwatching. Respondents revealed a wide and disparate spectrum of responses to their gardens and to how they made use of their gardens in their normal birdwatching activities. The study raises questions about the extent to which gardens are viewed as sites for interactions with nature and raises challenges about the use of gardens as areas of conservation action.