Over the past few years I have been giving an increasing number of talks up and down the country as well as abroard. Most of the time it’s to RSPB Groups, Wildlife Trust members or bird clubs but recently I have been speaking at some interesting non-wildlife venues speaking to people who readily admit that nature is not the first thing on their minds.

Tonight was such an occasion when I spoke to members of Shoreditch House (www.shoreditchhouse.com) about urban birding. It was to a group of mostly 30-somethings lying on sunbeds on the roof of the building. Fortunately, it was a fairly balmy evening with blue skies and at least there were plenty of Feral Pigeons, Lesser Black-backs and Herring Gulls to puntuate proceedings.

My audience were very attentive, a pleasure to talk to and were keenly interupting me to point at some distant speck behind me. I thoroughly enjoyed myself especially when a pair of Greenfinchs and a calling Grey Wagtail variously bounced overhead. It was just nice to spread the word about urban nature to the target audience I most like speaking to.

I spent a wonderful Sunday in Dorset with members of the Hawk & Owl Trust led by the lovely Cherry Barlow. She had organised for me to lead a walk at Arne RSPB Reserve along with the very knowledgable Rob the Warden.

Prior to the walk we took a quick stroll onto the heath were he showed me my first ever Smooth Snake, Britain’s rarest snake. Indeed, I was fortunate enough to handle both a male and female. On the actual walk we were unsuccessful in finding another Smooth Snake but we did catch a Slow Worm – ashamedly my first ever live one. Well, I am a city boy after all!

I’ve been back from my wonderful trip to Serbia last Friday and I’m still stunned by the beauty of this country that has had more than its fair share of troubles recently. Nonetheless, the nature available to be seen by visiting birders is astounding. I had great views of Bee-eaters, Golden Orioles and Goshawks plus farmland birds that we are finding increasingly harder to connect with here in the UK. Corn Buntings, Skylarks and Yellowhammers proliferate whilst I heard Quail, my bogey bird, on several occasions – remember, my visit was in July; the height of summer and the time when most birds are least active.

As I intimated in my previous blog entries, it was the owls that really blew me away. The Long-eared Owl phenomenon was only discovered as recently as eight years ago. The main town where the best numbers of this endearing owl can be found is called Kikinda, around 150 km directly north of Belgrade in the Pannonian Plain. It felt as though there was at least one owl in every tree; in parks and even in the trees lining the streets. There is a tiny street with no more than 10 trees conveniently close to a bar that has since changed its logo to resemble a stylised owl. These small trees harbour an astonishing 700 plus birds during the winter. 700!! Elsewhere in the town at least 20 Short-eared Owls also winter, plus there are countless resident Little Owls and many Kestrels.

The amazing thing is that the Serbs don’t realise what they have in the owls choosing to live in such close proximity to humans. They now need to spread the message out to the world in general to encourage ecotourism into their towns and cities for people to see these incredible birds. I believe that if the birders and tourists come it will engender a great pride (as well as revenue) for the locals and hopefully they will do all they can to nuture and protect the owls.

Serbia isn’t expensive to get to and once you’re there it is certainly inexpensive, so get yourself out there and see these fantastic owls for yourself. I’m heading back out in the winter to see and film the Kikinda gatherings for myself.

If you do head out let me know how you get on.

Another hot day in Serbia with highlight being a soaring Long-legged Buzzard – a personal first – as well as truckloads of Long-eared Owls and Purple Herons.

Tomorrow’s my last day in this surprising country. Stay tuned.

I think that one of the biggest surprises in my urban birding career has been my experience in Serbia. In terms of wildlife it is a complete treasure trove. I have been taken by the sheer number of birds, the amount of habitat (paticularly farmland) that is great for birds and other wildlife plus the people are nice too.

The highlights thus far must be the fact that the town that I am staying in is home to over 200 pairs of Long-eared Owl – that can be heard calling every night every where!

My trip to The Scrubs this morning was well worth it. Aside from discovering a fledgling Reed Bunting proving that they bred in the grassland for the second year I enjoyed the sight of many juveniles of several species being fed by their respective parents.

The problem I had though was the fact that I was freezing. It is nearing the end of June yet it seems unnaturally cold. As I marched back to the sanctuary of the car and the ultimate prize of breakfast back at base, a fine Hobby dashed through chasing what seemd to be a Stock Dove. I could watch Hobbys for an eternity. They are truly stunning birds.

Later in the day, I ventured south of the River Thames to the land that they cal West Dulwich to deliver a short speech at the my mate Helen Babbs’ book launch. Her book’s entitled. ‘My Garden the City And Me’. I spoke for five minutes about Tower 42 resulting in at least five people wanting to get on the roof that instant!

Oh, and I mentioned that I had a book coming out too!

I was invited to speak at the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust’s ‘ a celebration of learning outside the classroom’ at the City Hall alongside Mayor Boris Johnson and the WWT’s CEO Martin Spray. I had a great evening and the WWT staff are certainly a great bunch of people who really looked after me.

Mixed with the in crowd tonight but spent most of my time chatting with Bill Oddie, who has promised to pop over to The Scrubs in the autumn.

On May 17th I was lucky enough to be walking the Liben Plains in southern Ethiopia doing habitat transects in the company of BirdLife International’s venerable Dr Nigel Collar (google him as he’s a Don) within the known range of the poorly known and severely threatened Liben Lark. We strolled through an area of slightly longer grassland which suddenly made me think about Quails. I was explaining to Nigel that despite having heard Quails singing for the past 25 years I had never actually seen one when I suddenly flushed a quail from underfoot. I got onto it as it sped away only to dump down a few yards away and realised that it wasn’t a Common Quail but a close relative, the Harlequin Quail.

Although I was excited to see a quail of any description, especially a new one, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn’t my holy grail bird, my bogey bird, the only regular species on the British list that I was yet to see. To add insult to injury, an hour later a real Common Quail began to sing from an area of grassland literally yards from where I was standing on the plain. I didn’t even attempt to kick it out because knowing my past track record for flushing these tiny gamebird my chances of seeing it would have been virtually nil.

It has always been a fantasy of mine to flush a Quail or Corncrake out from the grassland at my beloved Scrubs. Every autumn, I would religiously stride through the grass at Wormwood Scrubs ostensibly counting Meadow Pipits and secretly wishing for exotica. Imagine my horror a few hours after seeing a Harlequin Quail when I got a text from a fellow Scrubber informing me that he had just found a singing Quail on my patch! I throw my hands up in despair. Here I was some 5,000 miles away from home (or thereabouts) whilst a lifer was striding around on my patch in my absence!

I thought that the Scrubs Quail would be a one day bird but text updates kept arriving for a couple of days after it’s initial discovery. When I got home a week later I didn’t bother to hit The Scrubs thinking that it would be long gone. Last weekend I was on Alderney and I received a call from yet another Scrubber. He told me the news that I didn’t want to hear. There was a Quail singing in the grassland again! That bird must have been there the whole time!

As soon as I got back to London, some three days later, I staked out the grassland for three days on the trot and for three days I heard nada. Sometimes things are just not meant to be. My search for the holy grail continues.