Blue-footed Booby chick – the only booby shot I have! (Michelle Thomas) I learnt this evening from Kimball Garrett (Ornithology Collections Manager at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles) that a Brown Booby I found at Salton Sea had been rejected by the rarities committee. On May 28th 2006 I was birding at Salton […]
Mistle Thrush (Russell F Spencer) Another good day in the office today in amongst all the grey windy weather. The main highlight was a phone call from the Portuguese Tourist Board’s London office. The good news was that they are up for organising a reader break next spring in Bird Watching Magazine with me leading […]
TUB in Holland Park (Russell F Spencer) Yesterday morning’s visit the The Scrubs resulted in a Snipe and a couple flocks of overflying Redwings and Fieldfares. I’m convinced that at least one of our recent Ring Ouzels is still at large. I’ve just got to find it. Later that afternoon, I was in Simon Cowell’s […]
Team Tower 42 (Russell F Spencer) What a great day Friday was! The big news of the day was that Tower 42, the second tallest building in London and whose rooftop we marveled from whilst knocking out a short film on visible migration that I shot with Birdguides a couple Fridays ago, have agreed to […]
I like this Blue Rock Thrush shot (Stephen Daly) The big news today was delivered to me after I had finally finished my Bradford piece and pressed the send button to Sheena Harvey, editor at Bird Watching Magazine. She revealed that a recent online reader survey had revealed that a staggering 82% of respondents thought […]
Tonight I attended a very dull Friends of The Scrubs Committee Meeting. Thankfully, I was spared the 30 minute debate on litter picking but being tired didn’t stop me from wishing I was somewhere else. Came home to tickle my Bradford piece for Bird Watching Magazine and start my BBC Wildlife piece which needs to […]
TUB with Shaun Radcliffe (Russell F Spencer) TUB taking note by the River Aire (Russell F Spencer) Russell Spencer (photographer) and I rolled into Bradford on Saturday night, knackered after an unnecessarily long and traffic filled journey up the M1. After an obligatory curry (has to be done in the curry capital) we decided to […]
I’m in a Bradford hotel awaiting the dawn with the venerable photographer Russell Spencer to explore the city for its urban birding jewels. It looks like we may be in for a struggle because a look at the city map didn’t seem to reveal many green areas that signify an birdy oasis. Even the guide […]
Red Kites over The Scrubs? Surely that’s next? (Russell F Spencer) Talk of purple patches ending were both premature and unfounded. This morning whilst I was in a meeting, fellow Scrubber Anders Price sent me a text to say that he had just found a Woodlark sitting on a path near Chats Paddock. After my […]
And by dream I mean the amazing run of good birds at The Scrubs, because this morning’s visit resulted in the more usual suspects for this time of year. The Ring Ouzel was nowhere to be seen and no surprise bird jumped out of the woodwork. This afternoon my agent’s office called me to offer […]
The Wormwood Scrubs purple patch continues. Yesterday, I re-found our refueling female Ring Ouzel gorging herself on the still plentiful berries within Chats Paddock plus had 5 Brent Geese fly over from the north. These geese were a site tick, although not totally unexpected because as a species, they are regular though scarce London visitors. […]
TUB and the Skyscraping birders on Tower 42 (Russell Spencer) View from the Tower (Russell Spencer) Pre-dawn (Russell Spencer) The heavenly part of yesterday was the rooftop vigil on Tower 42 that finally happened. It was an amazing experience and we were totally looked after by security men Bradley and Stuart. As dawn dawned, it […]
I am knackered. All these early mornings and late nights are finally taking their toll. For example, my recent trip to Portugal was no holiday; up at the crack of dawn every day, driving for miles, birding all day, going to bed late after doing some work – I needed a holiday to get over […]
Woodpigeon (Jill Pakenham) This morning I arose to beautiful blue skies and the overwhelming urge to visit The Scrubs. So, 20 minutes later I was marveling at the flights of Woodpigeon heading purposefully southwest across the skies. I estimated at least 1,200 passed over perhaps journeying towards Iberia or maybe just southwest Britain. They twinkled […]
I spent this morning partially dreaming of Ouzels and working on my proposed series in BBC Wildlife Magazine which will be a step by step guide to being a birder. It should kickoff in the spring of 2010 as I may have told you before. Whilst I was dreaming up creative thoughts, a Red-legged Partridge […]
Ring Ouzel (Stephen Daly) I can’t believe it! Yet another Ring Ouzel! I quietly stalked into Chats Paddock at The Scrubs this morning, ostensibly looking for the Cetti’s Warbler that was briefly heard last week and instead had a cracking view of a female Ring Ouzel! My favourite bird! She sat in a tree about […]
The weathermen were right. It poured down this morning ending fairly suddenly at around 1pm. I had rare lay in until 10am. I think I needed it. Later in the afternoon, I saw a screening of ‘Nowhere Boy’ at BAFTA in Piccadilly. It was a film about John Lennon aged 17 when he lived with […]
I’m still smarting after having to cancel my highrise filming planned for the morning. Well, it’s nearly midnight and there’s not a drop of rain anywhere in sight. Has Sky News weather lied to me?
Ring Ouzel (Stephen Daly) I’ve having quite a purple patch at The Scrubs recently. It was incredible when the Richard’s Pipit flew over my head the other day and then yesterday I found 2 Ring Ouzels in Chats Paddock making it 6 years on the trot that these beautiful birds have used my patch as […]
Richard’s Pipit (Sacha Barbato) What a morning! After spending one and a quarter hours watching visible migration on the edge of the grassland at The Scrubs, Roy Nuttall and I had clocked up over 700 Redwings heading west, c130 Fieldfare including one on the deck, c500 Starlings, c300 Woodpigeons, 41 Jackdaws, 2 Mistle Thrushes, around […]