Visitors to a Shrewsbury shopping centre can enlist in the battle to save some of the area’s endangered bird species

Visitors to a Shrewsbury shopping centre can enlist in the battle to save some of the area’s endangered bird species like the curlew and the black grouse and its threatened habitat like the country’s ash trees.

In a unique move, the RSPB – Royal Society for the Protection of Birds – has opened a pop-up shop in the town’s Darwin shopping centre for the busy run-up to Christmas.

And expert staff will be on hand to update conservation-minded members of the public on their on-going campaign to protect some of our best-loved bird species and they have been specially briefed to deal with enquiries about ash dieback which threatens the ash tree which makes up 30 per cent of UK woodlands.

Mike Walker, senior site manager for the RSPB at Lake Vyrnwy in Powys who is in charge of the shop project, said: “There are a great many species of bird that could be classed as being in trouble at the moment in Shropshire and Mid Wales.

“At Lake Vyrnwy where we are based our priority species that we are most concerned about are Curlew.

“They have under gone a very dramatic decline in the last 10 years. We are also working to reverse the decline in black grouse.”

The RSPB shop is the only one of its kind within a UK shopping complex.

It not only gives green-minded shoppers the chance to find out about the society’s work protecting threatened birds and wildlife, but it also gives them the chance to choose from a range of high quality RSPB products, which make perfect Christmas gifts.

Last year, for a nominal rent, Darwin Centre managers allowed the RSPB to turn a vacant unit on the lower floor into a showcase shop in the period before Christmas.

It proved so successful that they have struck a similar deal for this year.

The shop has returned to the same unit as last year on November 10 and is open for business from Monday to Saturday until a few days before Christmas.

Manned by two RSPB staff members who are usually based at the society’s reserves at Lake Vyrnwy and in the Midlands, there will also be occasional back-up support from a team of dedicated RSPB volunteers.

Mike Walker explained: “Nowhere else in the UK has the RSPB had reserve staff working in a shopping complex, so this is a scheme which is unique to the Darwin Centre.

“We tried it for the first time in the run-up to last Christmas when the management of the centre let us have exactly the same unit, which is Kiosk 10 on the lowest level.

“This is a very good spot for us because it is close to the bottom of the escalator and therefore has quite a lot of people going past all the time.

“Last year, when we were also there for six weeks, the shop did so well that we decided it would be a good idea to do the same thing again this year.

“We will be open during normal shopping hours on six days a week and will be selling our own retail products such as binoculars, cards and calendars.

“All of these make excellent Christmas presents for friends and family, as does the one year’s RSPB gift membership which is also available.

“We will also be doing some membership recruitment, which we also did very successfully last year and signed up quite a few new people to the RSPB.”

Kevin Lockwood, Manager of the Darwin, Pride Hikll and Riverside Shopping Centres, said: “We’re glad to have the RSPB back again and proud to be the only shopping centre in the UK to host a RSPB shop.

“It’s clear from their success last year that local people have a real appreciation of the importance of the environment and local wildlife and we’re delighted the RSPB have done so well here.”

Mike added: “Our staff in the shop are all experts and are able to explain to people the various aspects of the RSPB’s work.

“One thing I expect they will be answering questions on this year is the problem of Ash dieback, the disease which has caused widespread damage to ash trees across Europe and is a hot topic at the moment.

“As a major UK landowner and conservation organisation the RSPB has been doing a lot of work on this.

“Staff in the shop have been fully briefed on Ash dieback, as they are on all such topics, so they will be perfectly happy to answer questions from the public.

“In the short time the shop has been open this year it has already been doing very well, singing up new members and selling our merchandise.

“We are very grateful to the Darwin Centre management for letting us have such a prime location again and we hope to make the most of the opportunity.”