Quite a constructive day today. Spent the morning writing and thinking; ‘jeez, it’s the 13th of January and I still haven’t written my December 08 Scrubs report for my website’. There comes a point when you suddenly realise how difficult it is to write what you hope is interesting and original prose for magazines and […]
I like blue skies It was a wet and dismal for most of the day. To be honest, I felt tired of writing so I actively avoided it today and set my sights on the other projects that I’m involved with. For instance, I’m chairing the London Biodiversity Forum on Thursday which I’m sure will […]
Hedge Accentor (Dunnock) Andy Cook I arose bright and fairly early this morning and journeyed to the hallowed turf that is Wormwood Scrubs. After a two hour walk I had very little to show for my trouble. A male Stonechat (no doubt one of our wintering pair) was the highlight. No Meadow Pipits, no Snipe […]
The past few days were cold but when I trotted onto the astra-turf pitch this morning I knew what it must have felt like to play football on the peak of Mount Everest! I know that some of you reading this now will be used to far colder temperatures and would view -4 centigrade as […]
Ahh! Is there some sick over there? It was bloody freezing today! Which is a good thing if you ask me. In these globally warmed days it’s almost heartening that it’s cold at the appropriate time of year. I know that in the long run my assumption is probably as scientifically incorrect as you can […]
Me a little while ago I’ve been a near hermit for the last few days as I desperately try to catch up on the writing that I should have taken care of over Christmas. Like most people, it’s all about getting started and being intrinsically lazy makes it trebly hard. Having said that, I am confident […]
Black-headed Gull (Petria Whelan) I barely ventured out the front door today as I knuckled down to doing some all important work. I made some great headway on my piece for the Conwy RSPB Reserve and started formulating my thoughts for my Bird Watching Magazine article on Norwich. Depending on how I get on tonight, […]
Brrrrrr! It was brass monkeys here in Notting Hill today. Okay, no snow but it was cold enough. I got up at 7am, sat at the edge of my bed and tapped away on my mac keyboard. I was working on my talk that I giving alongside Mike Dilger in a few weeks time. When […]
Bohemian Waxwing (Sacha Barbato) After football on Saturday morning (6-6 draw), I headed down to Norwich to stay with my good birding mate John Charman and his wife. The idea was that on Sunday I would explore some of Norwich’s better urban birding oases escorted by him. I enjoyed a fabulous dinner (despite managing to […]
Stonechat (David Fettes) A trip down to The Scrubs this morning resulted in the usual pair of Stonechat, Mistle Thrush and two Reed Buntings. The buntings may have been a pair too, but I didn’t get a close view of them as they dropped into the grass pretty quick. The rest of my day was […]
I hope that everyone had a safe New Year’s celebrations. I was in a mate’s apartment in Lancaster Gate, west London to see the rather lame fireworks going off at The Millennium Wheel, clearly visible from the balcony. Also visible were several startled Carrion Crows and Magpies flapping around in the dark looking for a […]
Great Bittern (Simon Osbourne) Imagine the scene: it’s a freezing, frosty morning. The sun has just risen and the sky is a beautiful shade of blue. I’m at The Scrubs hoping to discover 4 species of bird that I haven’t yet seen this year on my patch. It’s the 11th hour and I’m getting desperate. Walking through […]
My quest continues to achieve the magical 100 species mark. The past couple of mornings I have braved the sub-zero temperatures to wander Wormwood Scrubs like some lost soul. I have seen absolutely nothing of real interest with the regular Stonechats, gulls and a measly 4 Meadow Pipits being the sum total. But undaunted I […]
Great Black-backed Gull at The Scrubs This morning I managed to see a Great Black-backed Gull languidly flap over The Scrubs. It’s a real scarcity here so it was nice to see. Otherwise it was the usual suspects that were to be seen. The remainder of Boxing Day was spent variously setting up my mum’s […]
Tessa Dunlop and The Urban Birder at BBC Radio London First thing first. Merry Christmas all. I hope that it was a day of love and peace. A tall order for some I know. I spent the early hours of the day at The Scrubs with stalwart birder, Roy Nuttall, in the vain hope of […]
For once I managed to get out of bed and head down to the hallowed turf. There were absolutely no passerines to look at. The bushes and trees were devoid apart from Magpies and Carrion Crows. A few hundred gulls and Starlings were whisping around the football pitches. At least 200 Starlings were mingling amongst […]
I’ve just realised that I haven’t so much as looked at a bird for several days. What kind of urban birder am I? This morning I played football as usual, but it was a particularly tortuous game. It was a 5-all draw and I managed to pull my back whilst making a spectacular save – […]
Geez, I’ve been totally slack when it comes to this blogging lark! I keep missing days and when I do get a chance it’s normally last thing at night and I’m knackered! Last night was The One Show Christmas Party. I wore a 70’s afro (it was a semi-fancy dress affair) and was supposedly djing. […]
The Dilge and The Urban Birder Jumped on a train from Paddington early this morning and arrived at Bristol Temple Meads for the first of the meetings that I had planned. Mike ‘The Dilge’ Dilger met me from the station when I arrived at 10am and we headed off for breakfast. We met because we […]
A tiny fraction of the Starlings on Brighton Pier I went on a monumentally traffic-filled, stuttering drive to Brighton on the south coast today as a guest of the RSPB to witness the 50,000 or so Starlings coming into roost on the pier. It was the dullest day ever in terms of light. At 3pm […]