Had a good game of football this morning with my team beating the opposition 8-4. I made some good saves. The goals that they scored against me were mistakes on my behalf. Honest. Had a long overdue meeting with Malka, the camera operator that I film with on a regular basis. We made plans and […]
The doctor rang me this morning to say that the results of my blood test were all clear. I have normal sugar levels, normal kidney and liver functions and I am not diabetic. Cool. I have recently changed web designer for my site and she had to change the webmaster. I don’t really understand how […]
The two books that I weaned on My visit to the doctor resulted in him not thinking that I had a sugar problem. His hunch was that I was suffering from headache-less migranes. It was getting stranger by the minute. I’ve never heard of that condition. But then, he hadn’t heard of mine either! Today […]
I think I need to see a doctor. I think that I have an allergy to sugar – the very drug that I crave for everyday of my life. I woke up this morning hoping to hit The Scrubs, but I felt drained and unable to hear properly. When I was a fresh faced 16 […]
A juvenile Whinchat at The Scrubs (sorry I have no spring picture) Not quite the day I expected on several levels. Firstly, they promised a sunny warm weekend. Well that never happened. This morning was positively nippy at The Scrubs initially with impending rain clouds drifting in from the west. Thankfully, Mr Blue Sky made […]
The Scrub’s first ever Ring Ouzel in April 2004 Yesterday’s recce at Kensal Green Cemetery with the director and cameraman team from ITV’s ‘Countrywise’ went well. They were impressed with the site itself and thought that come the shoot day I wouldn’t need a script – they just want me to chat. This morning I […]
Kensal Green Cemetery, west London I have been asked to do a piece on urban wildlife for ITV1’s ‘Countrywise’ which I will be hopefully filming next week at Kensal Green Cemetery – a stone’s throw from funky Ladbroke Grove. I suggested this venue, which is less than 2 miles from my house, because it’s an […]
Mr & Mrs Barbato and no, she isn’t nude! I had a gorgeous day near Beccles, Suffolk at my good friend Sacha’s wedding. I first met him 21 years ago at Brent Reservoir whilst birding. We became great birding buddies thereafter. Sacha was with me on my first few visits to The Scrubs and was […]
….that people actually read this blog! Seriously! I often sit here pounding out the words on my Mac thinking ‘who the hell reads this stuff?’ Well, a few people obviously do, as I have been discovering recently. I’m sure that some of you have had people come up to you asking you about things that […]
Alas, I have to concede that the pair of Skylark that I so zealously guarded on the grassland at The Scrubs have finally deserted. To be fair, it was wishful thinking to suppose that they would stay and raise a brood, given the level of disturbance – both terrestrial (dogwalkers and humans) and airbourne (low […]
This morning was a bit of a cock-up probably due to language misunderstandings. I was meant to meet ‘Chem’ my guide at 5.30am to check out a cemetery – or so I thought. So I crawled out of bed and slid down to the bustop to catch the 150 at 5.30am only to find that […]
Penduline Tit – photo from the Polish Birders Forum.Photographer not known After 2 minutes sleep for the previous night, I got up at 4.30am and began my perilous journey to the Fish Ponds (40km outside Krakow). Eventually got to the site at 7.30am after a few hiccups. I spent a mega 10 hours birding and […]
Black-necked Grebes – Dean Eades I was up again at the crack of dawn and after a lame hotel breakfast I walked through the city heading south to the river. Once at the River Vistula I took a left turn and headed east. The river was fairly concreted at the edges for the first mile […]
Przemyslav – my guide No sooner had my head hit the pillow the annoying unmusical rattle of the alarm on my Crackberry caused me to rise again, bleary eyed at 5.15am. The light outside was fantastic. Dawn was well and truly on its way. Przemyslav was waiting for me in the hotel lobby. Now I’ve […]
I often wondered about the logic behind passengers cheering and applauding as a plane touches down to land. I could understand it if, God forbid, the craft had engine failure and the pilot had to guide the plane down safely against all adversity. That’s fair enough. Tonight, I had a fairly routine flight between Stanstead […]
I’m now getting slightly desperate in my search for Ring Ouzel and Nightingale at The Scrubs. I’ve recorded both species on passage every year for the past five. My problem is that historically the ultimate time to locate these species on their brief stopover at my patch is during the week commencing the 20th April. […]
Dawn over the Isle of Grain, North Kent This morning was gorgeous! I awoke to a phone call from fellow Scrubber Roy at 6.20am informing me that a probable Osprey had just flown over the Scrubs. Of course, Saturday mornings are football mornings for me, so I had to suppress my instinct to jump up […]
I’ve been feeling a bit pressurized of late. Much too much to do and all of it needing major amounts of my time. I hate having things hanging over me and although I can deal with deadlines, the worst kind of pressure comes from the things that creep up on you. Before you know it, […]
I’ve been under the cosh with the various things that I’m up to. Tonight, I gave a talk at Camley Street Nature Reserve in London’s Kings Cross for the London Natural History Society. My talk was entitled ‘A Year In Wormwood Scrubs’ and was a look at the birdlife of my patch over the period […]
European Starling – Andy Cook I hope that those of you who celebrate Easter had a chocolate filled good time! I spent the last few days writing the articles that I should have written over a week ago. The great thing is that the piece that I wrote for the RSPB on Top Lodge, Fineshade […]