Beatles

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A Beetle on holiday in Valencia, Spain
Football this morning was like climbing a mountain wading through treacle. But despite being on a path leading to certain defeat, we managed to come back from 7-3 down to draw 9-9. Mammoth stuff.
The cultural trip that I have been on recently continued this afternoon when I visited Aspreys on New Bond Street to see the Beatles Memorabilia exhibition that they are currently hosting. I’ve never been to Aspreys before (they sell ultra posh clobber and handbags etc) and their building was pretty impressive.
Whilst looking through a photo album of overpriced (£2000) prints of The Beatles in their heyday, I noticed the overzealous security man seriously eye-balling my friend and I as we thumbed through the pages. He made me feel as if I was a member of the Brinks Mat band of robbers. When my friend and I drifted into the adjoining room to check out some Lennon drawings, I noticed the overzealous security man looking through the photo album, obviously checking to see if we had stolen any of the prints. Can you imagine that!!
The remainder of my day was spent preparing for my autumn walk that I’m leading at The Scrubs in the morning, plus I spared a few moments to consider what to put in my suitcase for my Istanbul trip.
Any suggestions?

Jam Tart

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The past few days have been quite a mix of things. Aside from the usual mix of writing, birding, plotting and planning there was also quite a lot of culture thrown in to boot.
I finally finished a piece on Brown Bears that will appear on Birdguides.com in the very near future. I hardly mentioned birds in it and it’s the first piece I’ve written as The Urban Birder that doesn’t focus on birds. I also completed my latest piece for Bird Watching Magazine which all about the urban birding in west London.
The culture bits included a visit to the Mall Gallery last night to check out the ‘jam tart’ on display at the RSPB hosted Society of Wildlife Artists art exhibition. There was some cracking work on show including pieces created by my mate and President of the SWLA, Harriet Mead. Check out her work. Tonight I went to a screening at BAFTA in Piccadilly to see a BBC4 film called Enid, starring Helena Bonham Carter. It was a biopic about the life and times of Enid Blyton. Afterwards, Helena was on hand for a quick Q&A. She is has a quirky sense of humour.
Anyway, time to prepare for my trip on Monday accompanied by wildlife photographer Dean Eades. I’ve just learnt that the guide that’s supposed to be taking us around wants us to pay him a daily rate of $150 plus pay for a car and petrol. This would have been fine if I was going on a birding holiday but I’m there in a journalistic capacity, so this latest bit of late news was a bit of an annoying addition to my preparation.
Ah well, let’s see what happens.

RSPB Rainham Country Fayre

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Sunday was spent at Rainham Marshes of course after a trip to The Scrubs where I scored our second ever Shoveler – 1 high flying bird clearly recognisable by it spatula bill.

Russell & Yvette Spencer with TUB
I was representing the newly renamed London Bird Club (part of the London Natural History Society). But I spent most of my time chatting with photographer Russell Spencer and his lovely wife Evette.
Whilst engrossed in conversation I managed to not hear a tannoy message voiced by warden, Howard Vaughan that a possible Eleonora’s Falcon was drifting slowly over. Nor did I hear his earlier call highlighting the nearby presence of a juvenile Montagu’s Harrier and an earlier Goshawk!

The Essex Boys, TUB and Warden, Howard Vaughan

The London Bird Club crew: Ian Woodward, Angela Linnell & TUB
This morning I witnessed an amazing passage of House Martins. Over 900 birds passed over during the course of 2 hours. It was a truly phenomenal sight with the sky often filled with the birds.

A Black Kite next?

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Black Kite (Neil Kumar)
Great game of footie this morning. We came back from a certain crushing defeat – 4-1 down after 15 minutes – to win 7-4 in an almost flamboyant manner. My concentration was only diverted by a bunch of noisy Magpies that were mobbing an unseen assailant that I couldn’t see from my goal line!
After breakfast I forewent my usual siesta and drove to The Scrubs instead. It was a hazy, warm sunny afternoon ripe for raptor activity and after yesterday’s Goshawk I was feeling lucky. There’s been a lot of movement across London today and fellow Scrubber Roy Nuttall had noted over 350 House Martins moving over the grassland. It was an amazingly high count for us as we are used to seeing no more than 10 birds per year across two migration periods!
When I arrived at The Scrubs, I sat myself down in the grassland and waited. I soon picked up the 5 Whinchats that have been roaming the grassland for the past few days. After about an hour of nothing flying over I decided to leave. I looked up an there on the thermals were 3 Common Buzzards. Our 3rd record and our first multiple sighting. As I celebrated, I noticed a further 2 birds even higher up! Apparently, 19 birds passed over Richmond Park to the south and at least 11 passed over Regents Park to the east today.

I nearly forgot to tell you that I have another short documentary currently showing on www.birdguides.com about the Nightjars in Thetford Forest that I went to try and capture. The link is http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1743 let me know what you think.

Right place right time?

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Tufted Puffin, Kent, England – (M Wright)
What a week for UK birders. A Tufted Puffin in Kent?? Who would have thought? I’m no big deal twitcher, but when I heard the news my right hand automatically started to reach deep into pocket scrabbling for my car keys. It was a reflex action. However, regardless of whether it’s voted in as a wild bird or not – questions are being raised as to how wild this bird was – where’s it’s tail? Why is it still in summer plumage? – I say good on the guys who were fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time.
I had the good fortune of lucking in on an overflying Goshawk at The Scrubs this morning. Whilst I was sitting in the grassland watching a party of migrating House Martins pause and frolic overhead I became aware of an outsized Sparrowhawk drifting over to the east of me from the north. The languid wingbeats, white patches at the base of its tail added to a jizz that reminded me of a chunky Hen Harrier, I knew that I was watching a site tick. It’s funny, I’ve seen many Goshawks in my time but when you see one out of context over your patch close to central London, your rationale soon goes out the window.
Today is the anniversary of my dad’s death. It’s been 5 years now. I am closer to him now than what I ever was when he was alive, but I saw that Goshawk as a sign from him that all is well.

Where am I?

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I was dreading football this morning. Half my teammates were either away, working or serving bans for previous non-appearances. How wrong I was! We won 10 – 6 and I didn’t play bad either!. That was a good start to the day.
Unfortunately, none of the Scrubs faithful made it today so who knows what could have passed through. Everywhere else in London seemed to have good falls of the commoner migrants.
Today, I was asked to take a trip to the Lake District to scout out dramatic locations for a forthcoming British feature film. So next week I will be having a crash course in OS map reading and the intricacies of location scouting.
Could come in handy one day when I start looking for Eskimo Curlew in the Canadian tundra.

Seeing an old friend

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Common Redstart (Dave Renham)
Things have been pretty busy over in The Urban Birder Towers. TV stuff and brand development were the main issues this week. I have a million things to write about and I’ve just had a couple more commissions to complete before the month’s end. One of which will be my latest piece for the RSPB’s membership magazine on the plight of the House Sparrow in London. It will be my first species related article for them. I’m looking forward to researching it.
My trips to Istanbul and Lisbon are looming and I’m well excited although the situation in Istanbul isn’t so clever at the moment, what with the excessive flooding that they have been experiencing. I hope that things are getting better because there were a few fatalities during the initial flooding.
This morning I did a three hour stint at The Scrubs. The winds have swung around to the east and things were definitely different. Over 25 Meadow Pipits, a similar number of Chiffchaffs and a gorgeous female Redstart standing out in the open on a bench. It was the first one to be seen well at Wormwood Scrubs for maybe 3 years.
Better go – football in the morning.

Lost Land of the Volcano

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Just watched part one of the new BBC series Lost Land Of The Volcano with Steve Backshall, George McGavin and Gordon Buchanan.

It was bloody awesome!
The thought of being in an uncharted area filled with species hitherto unknown to science. There was great footage of some crazy looking animals. I just loved the farting stripey marsupials. As a presenter, it’s the sort of programme I’d just love to be involved with.

Alderney

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An early morning visit to The Scrubs resulted in possibly the same two Whinchats that were kicking around in the grassland last Friday, around 7 Whitethroat and four high flying unidentified hirundines.

Today, I was invited to be a patron of the Alderney Wildlife Trust, over there in the Channel Islands. They said that they were fans of my work. I was chuffed.
I hope to take a trip to Alderney next year some time.

Disabled Birders

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Common Terns (S & N Barbato)

Had a nice morning at The Scrubs with a pair of Whinchat (probably the same ones as Friday) and a fly over Common Tern – our latest ever. I must say that I was jealous to hear that the guys at nearby Brent Reservoir kicked out a Grasshopper Warbler from their bushes yesterday. I was also slightly envious of Alexandra Palace’s Alpine Swift that was hanging around today.

Later, I spent a lovely day with Bo & Maggie Beolans (fatbirder.com) at Grove Ferry, Kent where we chatted and watched Ruff, Wood Sandpiper and Hobby amongst others. We also heard Cetti’s Warbler calling. The meeting was set up because I am a patron of Bo’s Disabled Birders Association and we needed to talk about promotional ideas.
Got home knackered at 8pm

Hit the roof

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I’ve certainly got the autumn migration buzz. This is Saturday and Saturday means football which in turn means no trip to The Scrubs. Well not this morning. I sneaked a quick hour birding before hitting the football pitch. I missed 2 Northern Wheatears seen moments before I arrived but I did connect with a juvenile Hobby coursing through, several warblers and 3 Jackdaw that flew in from the north. Although it was sunny, the wretched north westerly was getting on my nerves.
Football was an exhausting affair this morning as only 9 players showed up, so I had to play outfield and basically run a lot more than I ever do! Breakfast made me even more tired and a trip to the RSPB Peregrine Watchpoint at the Tate Modern straight after didn’t help. I seriously should have had my siesta.
I’m trying to organise a skywatching event next Sunday from the top of a tall building in central London. I had already contacted Centrepoint at the end of Oxford Street. They told me where to get off citing health and safety issues as the reason. I just think it would be great to stand on the roof of a skyscraper from dawn until dusk with some of London’s finest birders, just watching for what passes over.
I’ll keep you posted.

History!

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It’s finally happened!

After a wait that seemed to last a millennia, the London Natural History Society’s Ornithological Society (for whom I the Chairman) is to be renamed The London Bird Club (part of the London Natural History Society). The logo may not necessarily end up looking exactly like the one featured above but it will be quite close.
I am so happy and look forward to loads of you guys joining the LNHS in the future.
Recently, I learned that I will be going on some interesting urban birding press trips in the New Year for my Bird Watching Magazine column. I will be heading to Bradford to find out about the ornithological occurrances there. In February I’ll be heading to Extremadura, Spain to visit Caceres and Marida – home to some rare breeding birds including internationally important populations of Lesser Kestrel. Also, as some point next year I will be hitting Bogota in Colombia. I am totally excited about this trip and I suspect my head will be spinning when I am confronted by the profusion of lifers that await me.
But first, it’s The Scrubs tomorrow…

Where I need to be

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Where I need to be – Wormwood Scrubs

Two days into September and I haven’t even been within 100 yards of The Scrubs. Shame on me!

I have a good excuse. I have tons of work on.
It’s 1am…….need I say anymore.

Distracted by tits….

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Mediterranean Gull – Dean Eades

Yes, on Saturday morning I was most certainly distracted by tits whilst standing around in goal during my football session. I was distracted by loads of tits – mostly of the Long-tailed variety (c25) with a spattering of Blues amongst them and at least one Chiffchaff. All of these birds were in a single Horse Chestnut calling away. I could help but to be drawn to them and it cost me a goal.

This weekend was the weekend that I hate the most in the year – the Notting Hill Carnival Weekend. I live right in the middle of it so I usually vacate the area for the calmer climes of Pagham Harbour, Sussex to stay with my best mate at his mother’s caravan in Selsey. So Sunday morning saw me firstly seawatching under grey skies off Selsey Bill. I managed a few Gannets and Sandwich Terns. Next stop was the famous wader hotspot, Sidlesham Ferry. Aside from a ton of Teal, I found a solitary Common Sandpiper. Next, I stopped off at Church Norton and Pagham Harbour itself where I registered and couple Chiffchaffs and a Willow Warbler in the former site and large numbers of Dunlin and Ringed Plover with Little Egret, Grey Plover, Curlew, Redshanks and solitary Whimbrel and Mediterranean Gull.
The following morning I repeated the whole process this time scoring a Spotted Flycatcher at Church Norton and a Curlew Sandpiper on the mudflats at Pagham Harbour. All the local birders were bemoaning the lack of decent migrants of any kind. They also lamented the lack of Curlew Sandpipers. Apparently, the Lemming population crashed in their Arctic breeding grounds so the Arctic Foxes turned their attention onto Curlew Sandpiper chicks – hence no returning birds.
By the time I had finished my morning’s birding the sun had come out and it was pretty warm. I got home to the litter strewn streets on Notting Hill by 11pm and had to clean up the puddle of urine so kindly left behind by a carnival reveller.
Oh how I love the carnival!

Piglet Flu

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Savannah Sparrow – Ballona Wetlands, Los Angeles
Yesterday, I thought that I was coming down with a dose of piglet flu (not the full blown swine thing). It turned out to be a heavy cold or at best Man Flu. Anyway, I’m alright now. I just swigged some olive leaf extract (which tastes like shite, I’ll have you know!) and soon began to feel its healing effects. I can’t afford to be sick right now.
Unfortunately, I had to postpone my forthcoming trip to Lisbon, Portugal – planned for early September – due to up and coming filming commitments. Luckily, the Portuguese Tourist Board were understanding and we have now rearranged it for the penultimate week in October. I was really happy with that because I was really looking forward to writing about the urban birding there.
I’m signing off now to watch Family Guy. Night night.

Walking through the grass

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This morning we reverted back to our usual service regarding the weather – grey skies and rain. Well, drizzle to be exact. A stroll around The Scrubs in the rain was initially fairly drab although I did count over 25 Long-tailed Tits and an almost equal number of Blue Tits in Chats Paddock.
My moment of inspiration came shortly after a noticed a Common Tern flapping elegantly south. It was our latest ever record as this bird is rarely encountered after late July. I then decided to walk through the grassland, something that I usually refrain from doing until at least early September.
I’ve flushed a whole manner of things from the grassland in previous years from moggies, moths and occasional fox to Sedge Warbler, Song Thrush, Lapwing, Snipe and even a Short-eared Owl once. Add to that the expected Meadow Pipits, Skylarks, Stonechats, Whinchats and occasional Reed Buntings and the picture is more or less complete. Oh yes, and there were the two Richard’s Pipits. How could I forget them?
My first venture into the grassland this autumn immediately resulted in flushing two Tree Pipits. I was very happy. It fired me up for the rest of the day.

Typing

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Northern Wheatear – art!

Got a great coffee table book called called Jean Luc Mylayne (Twin Palm Publishers 2007) for my birthday from my best mate Colin Flapper. It’s filled with amazing images of urban birds artily shot – sometimes blurred, sometimes just a small feature of the main picture. Utterly amazing.
Today, was a fairly hectic day starting with a trip to my agent’s office to have a meeting with a production company about a couple of ideas that they have with me in mind. I then tripped down to the nearby Birdguides.com offices for their views on my nearly completed Belfast film that I shot last October. Their criticisms were very constructive and in short, I needed to add more birdy stuff.
Last night at the Columbian bird lecture I managed to potentially get a trip to Bogota next year to write about the urban birding. Tourist Boards seem to love what I’m trying to do. Next month I hit Lisbon and Istanbul. I can’t wait.
In the meantime, I’m writing a my next Bird Watching piece on west London (featuring The Scrubs and Beddington Farm), a sample chapter for my potentially forthcoming book and a piece on Finnish bears for Birdguides.
And all before I get to bed tonight…..

My face is red….

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Before I go on I must issue a major apology to the photographer Dean Eades for using some of his great images (with his permission) for my Bird Fair talk on Wormwood Scrubs. I omitted to publicly acknowledge the use of his images – so Dean, I apologise profusely.

I spent Friday and Saturday at the Bird Fair chatting to numerous people, giving a talk, going to meetings, participating in ‘Call My Ruff’ with fellow panelists in the shape of Nick Baker and RSPB man Bryan Bland (we won) and I even squeezed in a touch of birding with Hobby, Osprey and Tawny Owl on the list.
Oh, and it was my birthday on Saturday.
More to follow.

Sorry to go on……

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The controlled Nightjar

I’m holding it!!!

Look at that!

The BTO’s Dawn Balmer and TUB
At last I got the photographic evidence from the other night’s Nightjarring. I’m still buzzing from the experience!
I had a 2 hour meeting at the BBC this afternoon which went well then the remainder of the afternoon was spent on various errands. I’m planning urban birding trips to Bradford and Leicester in the New Year. Anyone out there prepared to lead me around?
Off to the British Bird Fair tomorrow morning. I’m in the ‘Call My Ruff’ team on Friday afternoon so I was rehearsing my lines for that and I was also putting together my talk on Saturday morning.
There’s nothing like the last minute!

Ohh, what a night!

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This morning I took a break from my morning pilgrimage to The Scrubs. Fellow Scrubber, Roy Nuttall, nipped down though and didn’t see much other than a Lesser Whitethroat along the warbler rich embankment.
No, I was chilling in bed, exalted from my previous night’s success. I was in the Thetford Forest along with Birdguides’ Fiona Barclay and Max Whitby and some of the British Trust for Ornithology’s finest to film the possible capture and ringing of that mystical bird – the European Nightjar.
After setting up the nets we whiled away the time watching a nearby Hobby family and spying on the invertebrates that happened to fly near us. At 2105 hrs a Nightjar suddenly piped up, churring away and then took flight. We soon had the call from the second net, a short drive away, that they had caught a male. We raced over to the sight of a fine male. I had the rare opportunity to hold the bird. It was amazing!

The waiting game

TUB breaking down the intricacies of Nightjar identification to his mum

Setting the scene
With filming done and dusted by 2200 hrs I had dropped my mum home and was myself tucked up in bed by 0030.