Black-headed Gull (Jakub Puskas) It’s the eve before the launch of the Tower 42 Bird Study Group and my excitement is mounting. I will be doing a live radio interview from the roof at 7.20am and again at 8.30am for Radio London chatting about the birding prospects and novelty of the idea. Then at 11am […]
Woodcock (Michael Flowers – http://eybirdwatching.blogspot.com/) This morning saw me raising and dragging my carcass to The Scrubs – driven by the force that is known to many as spring migration. I had hoped to find more Wheatears or to discover our first singing Blackcaps. No avail. I was standing by the grassland looking out for […]
Northern Wheatear (Dean Eades) The harbingers of spring finally arrived last week when a single male Northern Wheatears were discovered in the grassland at The Scrubs over two days. Of course, it could have been the same male that stayed for two days, but what is undisputed is the fact that it was the earliest […]
The Tower looms. Well the Tower 42 Bird Study Group launch that is. Interest in this initiative is increasing daily. Now it looks like the Sunday Express may be running a piece on it and I’m being interviewed about it next week. Got a big day tomorrow as I have a succession of meetings predominately […]
A winter male Common Stonechat (Dean Eades) This morning’s visit to The Scrubs was a pleasant one. The sun eventually started to shine at around 7am and it was a little milder than of late. At least 3 male Meadow Pipits were in full song-flight display, which is always nice to see. All around the […]
Tree Swallows (K. Hirabayashi) Life’s been pretty busy recently, as per usual. Since coming back from Extremadura it has been deadline after deadline plus I have the launch of the Tower 42 Bird Study Group happening a week on Friday. Tonight, I made a rare appearance on BBC1’s The One Show with a piece on […]
Visible migration watching over Tower 42 (Russell F Spencer) I think that I need 15 PA’s and a team of experts working for me because as time moves on the projects and workload increases. Once upon a time it was just a magazine article every now and again plus the monthly Scrubs report, which I […]
TUB looking for Great Spotted Cuckoo in Extremadura (Russell F Spencer) As I mentioned yesterday, before a flu induced haze came over me, I had a great time in Extremadura in the company of photographer extraordinaire, Russell Spencer whilst being led by the extremely knowledgable (and very nice with it) Martin Kelsey of Birding Extremadura […]
It’s been a little while since I last wrote an entry on my blog. The main reason is due to quite a heavy schedule of late that has put paid to any time for blogging. And now, after returning from Spain I’ve been struck down by flu. Boo! I will leave you with some images […]
A heavily moulting 3rd winter (?) Yellow-legged Gull (photographed in Portugal) It seems like it has rained the whole year so far. It was a grey start today and the usual and expected rain kicked in later in the afternoon. I woke up early this morning intent on visiting The Scrubs. One look at the […]
Blue Rock Thrush (Stephen Daly) This time next week I will be in the Extremadura region of Spain hopefully watching Lesser Kestrels in Caceres, a small city that holds internationally important breeding numbers of this rather attractive falcon. I’ll be there next week to write the latest episode of my urban birding odyssey around the […]
After yesterday’s extreme laziness, I awoke early and ready for a jaunt down to The Scrubs only to be thwarted by heavy rainfall. No matter. The Urban Birder office doors swung open as there was work to be done. One if the main things that I needed to do was finish my latest BBC Wildlife […]
Where all great dreams begin I had a right royal day off today. For once I ignored the lure of the laptop and didn’t even think about the mounting workload that I am generating. My day started at 8am on my patch, The Scrubs, under ominously grey skies enthused and encouraged by my post Saturday […]
Did anyone see Natural World on BBC2 at couple weeks ago about the natural history to be found in Essex? What an amazing film! So beautifully shot and the wildlife footage incredible. What I liked the most about it – and it’s something that a few people had tipped me off about to made me […]
Black-headed Gull with blurred Herring Gull (Russell F Spencer) The sun came out today shining down lulling me into spring-like thoughts until I stepped outside. It was frickin’ cold! I still haven’t managed to go birding for weeks apart from Brighton last week. Speaking of which, Sheena Harvey (I want to say Easton) editor of […]
The big news today was the confirmation of the identity of yesterday’s mystery warbler found by my mate, Lawrence (Lol) Bodini, over at Walthamstow Marsh in urban east London. Lol was certain that the bird that he briefly saw and heard was a Dusky Warbler – a bird that he was unfamiliar with having not […]
Starlings (Russell F Spencer) Last week ended quite negatively for me with the crash landing of an idea that I had been trying to get of the ground for several months. Despite the fact that the going seemed to be good it all went pear-shaped in the last minute leaving me a little wounded. Having […]
Just give me the sunshine A busy day was had at The Urban Birder Towers as I tried to draw up the invitation list for the Tower 42 Bird Study Group launch, to be held at the end of March. I also learnt today from the Italian Tourist Board that my request to hit Rome […]
I was supposed to arise at 4.30am this morning to take my mum to Heathrow Airport in order for her to catch a plane to New York to attend a funeral. I was spared waking up at that ungodly hour because she had called me the night before to tell me that her flight was […]
Perhaps 5,000 Starlings in a swirling mass Sunset from Palace Pier Palace Pier (All pictures by Russell F Spencer) Had a superb day urban birding on the south coast in Brighton. It’s surprising how little birding information there is on the city when you delve on the internet. So after arriving in town I headed […]