The Devonshire sun rose behind a blanket thick cloud that had previously been filled with rain. The morning also found me not searching bushes down at Dawlish Warren but flitting between my bed and my nearby computer. I just couldn’t motivate myself enough to settle down and complete my by now overdue RSPB Birds magazine […]
The Urban Birder at Dawlish Warren, Devon It chucked it down with rain last night, so much so that I thought that today – the day I was traveling to Exeter – was going to be a complete washout. As it happened, by around 8.30am it was looking decidedly sunny. So, instead of hitting the […]
Today was a fairly good day in The Urban Birder Towers. I had my trips to Budapest and Krakow confirmed. I’m going to spend 4 days in both cities, plus I’m off to Exeter tomorrow for a couple days. Hopefully, come June I should have a nice stockpile of articles for Bird Watching Magazine. And […]
Short-eared Owl – Andy Cook This morning at 7am I held a vigil at the ‘Pipit Heath’ area on The Scrubs in the hope that I’d see a Skylark. I had an hour so the clock was ticking. After an initial stillness I began to notice a few Meadow Pipits flying around. At least they […]
I feel very protective towards the Meadow Pipits and the Skylark pair at The Scrubs that are trying to breed – as you know. I have developed such a strong urge to conserve these birds that I would usually think nothing of confronting any dog walker who had the misfortune to have strayed into the […]
From a footballing point of view, this Saturday was a far better day than the previous four Saturdays because we actually won! In fact, I even scored a goal! It was a penalty that I took. Slotted it into the right hand corner! After breakfast, I nipped down to the Wormwood Scrubs Fun Day organised […]
Lancaster Gate skies, west London – Kim Dixon The last couple of days have been quite interesting and were made doubly nice by the wonderful spring weather. In a nutshell, I have two possible presenting gigs outside of The One Show coming up very soon for two different shows. I will let you know all […]
An Hudsonian Whimbrel’s nape I’m getting a bit more used to this Twitter business. I’m sharing some of my innermost trivial thoughts with my mass of 83 followers. I don’t even understand what a follower is. Do they get alerted as to when you decide to impart some gem of knowledge? What I do know […]
A male Northern Wheatear at The Scrubs A trip to The Scrubs this morning resulted in finding one of my most anticipated summer migrants – a gorgeous male Northern Wheatear – which was the first for the year. These birds never fail to excite me and they have been showing up at my patch for […]
The Urban Birder in the country with Larry the lamb Saturday started with a crushing defeat on the football pitch. We wont talk scores – let’s just say that I had to scoop the ball from out of the back of the net rather too many times than I would have liked. I skipped breakfast […]
Here’s one I took earlier – last year to be precise I forgot to say yesterday that after I traipsed around The Scrubs in the morning to no avail, I came across a moribund fox standing in the middle of the street. I approached it to within 5 feet before it wearily looked up at […]
I’m not an angry person, although like most people I do get my pugnacious moments. But this morning I bore witness to one of the most naked and raw displays of angst and near demonic possession I have ever seen. And it emanated from a nine year old kid. I had arrived at a primary […]
I had an amazing email from the late Eric Simm’s daughter today. She thanked me for acknowledging her father’s work and offered to send me his desk copy of Birds of Town and Suburb. I was totally bowled over! How amazing! I will treasure it for the rest of my life! This morning I visited […]
A speedy Black Redstart! I made my near daily pilgrimage to The Scrubs in the bitter northwesterly wind. It was a find sunny morning though, if cold. Soon, myself and fellow Scrubber Roy Nuttall were enjoying a snatch of song from a highly mobile Blackcap and of course, our newly resident Skylark. I also glimpsed […]
It was a slightly blustery, grey and generally chilly morning at The Scrubs, throughout my visit. To be frank, I wasn’t really in the mood. Despite that, I clocked our first Blackcap – a male gripping to a Blackthorn twig for dear life as the wind whipped up. It burst into a mini song before […]
I arose at a very early hour and found myself at The Scrubs at 6am in the company of accomplished bird artist, Jan Wilczur. He called me last night to ask if I could escort him around my ‘garden’ so that he could look at the habitat management with a view to going back to […]
Okay, there has been better Skylark pictures taken! This morning I was driven by an immovable force to rise out of my bed at 5.45am, despite feeling totally knackered, to check on the pair of Skylarks currently residing at The Scrubs. These birds are more special to me than any vagrant (at this point) and […]
Why do things take so long to materialise? Take the above featured giant snail. When I first say this particular creature, it was curled up in a shoe box in someone’s house in Norwich on a freezing day during December 2008. It took at least two weeks for it to emerge from its shell – […]
Today’s filming went very well. I started the day by meeting the main guy involved in the Red Kite re-introduction in Gateshead. We also visited the Metro shopping centre, hopped on the ‘Kite’ bus and chatted with a bunch of school kids. It was a great day with some more to come tomorrow. It was […]
I’m am writing this as I sit in a hotel bar – the only place where I can get internet reception and it’s because I’m near the bar – and I’m thinking that I should really get to bed as I have to be fit and not tired for tomorrow’s shoot. The disappointing thing is […]