Transvestites

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Quite a constructive day today.

Spent the morning writing and thinking; ‘jeez, it’s the 13th of January and I still haven’t written my December 08 Scrubs report for my website’. There comes a point when you suddenly realise how difficult it is to write what you hope is interesting and original prose for magazines and such like. You can spend ages deliberating and doing  everything but what you are supposed to be doing.
Take today for instance: I managed to play football with a tennis ball with my best mate in the backyard, went out and bought a newspaper, met a girl in Space NK who contacted me for advice on being a presenter, went out and bought some hot chocolate (my phone was far away!) and ended up chatting with the woman about a transvestite she had met earlier!
Oh, I did do a brief telephone interview with The Guardian. They called me as they are putting together a series asking various experts about their favourite city place where they go to practice being experts. If you know what I mean. Naturally, I said Wormwood Scrubs and the interviewer seemed genuinely impressed when I started to mention the wealth of rarities that have shown up there. The series starts at the end of the month.   

Blue and Grey Finches?

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I like blue skies

It was a wet and dismal for most of the day. To be honest, I felt tired of writing so I actively avoided it today and set my sights on the other projects that I’m involved with. 

For instance, I’m chairing the London Biodiversity Forum on Thursday which I’m sure will be pretty interesting. I’m meeting with Gardman (purveyors of bird feeders and bird food) this coming Wednesday as they are interested in sponsoring me. I’m really up for it because feeding birds is a very important issue for me. Interestingly, last Friday I gave a few quotes for the Shepherds Bush Gazette on feeding birds. They managed to gloriously misquote me by saying that I had noticed that all the ‘Blue and Grey Finches’ had left The Scrubs to take refuge in local gardens.
Next Friday, I am supposed to be meeting up with The Dilge (Mike Dilger) to work on our showstopping talk in Clacton, Essex at the end of the month. We are talking to around 900 people, so it’s a big one. Am I repeating myself again?
Oh, my Blackberry was rescued from the jaws of death by a geezer in one of those dodgy shops on Oxford Street. After being written off by T-Mobile, he repaired it for £20 and made me a happy man in the process.
I can face the world again….

Joy…….and pain!

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Hedge Accentor (Dunnock) Andy Cook
I arose bright and fairly early this morning and journeyed to the hallowed turf that is Wormwood Scrubs. After a two hour walk I had very little to show for my trouble. A male Stonechat (no doubt one of our wintering pair) was the highlight. No Meadow Pipits, no Snipe of any description flushed from the grassland and barely any small passerines in the trees bar a couple Robins and a sole Dunnock along the embankment.
Often overlooked, Dunnocks are great birds. I love their shuffling gait that they employ whilst they search for food on the ground. As a kid I likened them to red-breastless Robin Mouse Birds. Well you know how imaginative a kid’s mind can be!
Back at HQ I managed to complete my new piece on birding in Norwich for Bird Watching Magazine, swiftly moving on to my next 50 projects (which included finishing my piece for the Conwy RSPB Reserve – if anyone from Conwy is reading!). I watched Manchester United trounce Chelsea at Old Trafford on TV which put me in an immeasurably good mood. Whilst celebrating over a home made soya hot chocolate, I managed to drop my Crackberry into my hot beverage!
The rescue mission was swift. I wiped it with a wet cloth and then frantically wiped it dry with paper towels. At first all seemed well and the patient seemed to be on course to making a full recovery. But then, when I started to try to send a text it all started to go very wrong. The simple text read: gfjfkl  ldnkf df;f;. 
Panic started to set in as I contemplated life without a Blackberry. It was strange, because I thought that elation would be my main emotion as I had been emancipated for the ties of modern technology. Instead, I was cold turkeying after barely 10 minutes without my phone.
As I write this I staring mournfully at my dying phone, dreading trying to sync my numbers before it finally expires. I must go now. I need to be alone………..

Cold comfort

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The past few days were cold but when I trotted onto the astra-turf pitch this morning I knew what it must have felt like to play football on the peak of Mount Everest!
I know that some of you reading this now will be used to far colder temperatures and would view -4 centigrade as a positive heatwave, but you try standing half naked in a goalmouth for over two hours. After a while, I lost the use of my little finger on my left hand and was willing the game to end so that I could defrost and tuck into a hearty breakfast!
Back at base and thankfully in the warm, I sat behind the computer to get some inspiration, which came – eventually.

Sick pigeons

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Ahh! Is there some sick over there?

It was bloody freezing today!

Which is a good thing if you ask me. In these globally warmed days it’s almost heartening that it’s cold at the appropriate time of year. I know that in the long run my assumption is probably as scientifically incorrect as you can get, but there is something comforting about feeling cold in the winter. I hope that I will be feeling warm during the summer!
Today, I had to run a few errands in the westend. I nipped into my drycleaners near Selfridges and did my usual movie chat with dry cleanist Sean Gallagher. (Do you like the phrase ‘dry cleanist’?) He often rings up when I’m on Radio London posing as a caller interested in asking me a birding questions but then he blows his cover by seeing that he’s my dry cleaner!
Whilst in Soho, I met Scott Crane who is the creator and administrator of ‘The Urban Birder Appreciation Society’ on Facebook. He informed me that I’ve now got 70 plus members and that I needed to add new content. So be it.
Finally, before heading off home to continue toiling behind a computer screen, I came across a Feral Pigeon standing in a pool of fresh vomit on the pavement, pecking at the still warm diced carrots.
Nice.

Reflections

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Me a little while ago

I’ve been a near hermit for the last few days as I desperately try to catch up on the writing that I should have taken care of over Christmas. Like most people, it’s all about getting started and being intrinsically lazy makes it trebly hard. Having said that, I am confident that all will be done by next Monday.

Other than that, I made a few phone calls to contacts in production companies to set up meetings to get some ideas off the ground. One of which is to convince someone to back my plan to shoot a pilot for an urban birding TV series that I have been developing for nearly 3 years now. I really want to make that series.
This afternoon I also had a bit of a mid-week sports special – a lunchtime football match in Maida Vale, around 2 miles from my house. We ended up loosing but whilst languishing in goal I was certain that I heard a Siskin calling overhead.
I better head off now. Words to write…

Business as usual

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Black-headed Gull (Petria Whelan)

I barely ventured out the front door today as I knuckled down to doing some all important work. I made some great headway on my piece for the Conwy RSPB Reserve and started formulating my thoughts for my Bird Watching Magazine article on Norwich.

Depending on how I get on tonight, I may allow myself the luxury of visiting my local patch in the morning.

One down – ten to go!

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Brrrrrr! It was brass monkeys here in Notting Hill today. Okay, no snow but it was cold enough.

I got up at 7am, sat at the edge of my bed and tapped away on my mac keyboard. I was working on my talk that I giving alongside Mike Dilger in a few weeks time. When finished writing my notes I emailed them over to him and then started on the next project – a 1000 word piece on a journey around The Scrubs for the Conwy RSPB Reserve. They are putting together a collection on walks written by celebrities to sell at their gift shop. My deadline was Christmas!
Spoke with Birdguide’s Fiona Barclay later and she excitedly told me that she had a site tick on her patch, Acton Park. It was a Pheasant. It immediately had me thinking; what the hell is lurking over at The Scrubs?

Norfolk ‘n’ good

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Bohemian Waxwing (Sacha Barbato)
After football on Saturday morning (6-6 draw), I headed down to Norwich to stay with my good birding mate John Charman and his wife. The idea was that on Sunday I would explore some of Norwich’s better urban birding oases escorted by him.

I enjoyed a fabulous dinner (despite managing to get there an hour later than advertised) and a late night sitting up chatting.
In the morning we toured several locations picking up 15 Waxwings at Dussindale, a brief Firecrest along the railway path in the centre of the city, 3 Goosanders at the UEA Broad and a female Scaup consorting with 3 Tufteds at Wittlingham Broad.
A very good day in freezing conditions.
Got back home to London, completely knackered at 11pm. I will now have to arise at 6am, forego visiting The Scrubs to get writing. I’m so behind!

Ghost writers wanted!

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Stonechat (David Fettes)
A trip down to The Scrubs this morning resulted in the usual pair of Stonechat, Mistle Thrush and two Reed Buntings. The buntings may have been a pair too, but I didn’t get a close view of them as they dropped into the grass pretty quick.

The rest of my day was spent either writing or thinking about it. 
I’m so far behind it’s untrue.

Happy New Year folks!

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I hope that everyone had a safe New Year’s celebrations.

I was in a mate’s apartment in Lancaster Gate, west London to see the rather lame fireworks going off at The Millennium Wheel, clearly visible from the balcony. Also visible were several startled Carrion Crows and Magpies flapping around in the dark looking for a firework free spot to roost.
As it happens, I didn’t get to bed until around 5am after busting out some karaoke tunes!
The Bittern that I saw flying over The Scrubs a couple days ago evidently showed up that evening at The Wetland Centre roost. They had had 2 birds coming in every evening until my bird showed up and now they have 3. Nice one!
I’m going to try and get up early in the morning to start our 2009 Scrubs list and at the weekend I will be heading over to Norwich, Norfolk to research for a Bird Watching Magazine urban birding article. 

Great Bittern!

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Great Bittern (Simon Osbourne)
Imagine the scene: it’s a freezing, frosty morning. The sun has just risen and the sky is a beautiful shade of blue. I’m at The Scrubs hoping to discover 4 species of bird that I haven’t yet seen this year on my patch. 
It’s the 11th hour and I’m getting desperate.
Walking through the grassland I flush 4 Common Snipe. In itself this is a veritable swarm. I normally never see more than 3 together (though we have recorded 4 birds before a couple years ago). I desperately try to string them as Jack Snipes but their calls are all wrong and their bills are too long!
I sit on a bench by Chats Paddock and watch the south western sky in the vain hope of seeing a gaggle of wild geese or a wandering Hen Harrier. Instead, one hour’s watching is rewarded by a few Woodpigeons, Black-headed  & Common Gulls and ubiquitous Carrion Crows.
Despondent, I walk west adjacent to the embankment that marks the north western border of the site adding a female Reed Bunting and a pair of Mistle Thrushes to the list. Nice birds but nothing new. As I’m about to leave I look over my shoulder and something catches my eye. Distantly from the south east, I notice a large bird heading south west. In a split second I realise that it’s a heron – but something’s not quite right about it.
As I train my bins on it I see that despite being large, it ‘felt’ smaller than a Grey Heron. It had a far smaller, compact neck bulge, long legs sticking out from its rear and seemed dark. I could not truly discern any colour because of the distance and the fact that it was flying past the glare of the rising sun. Crucially its flight pattern was very different to Grey Heron. Instead of languid flaps and glides on bowed wings, this bird flapped continuously, appearing like a huge Short-eared Owl. I watched it as it disappeared into the south west skies.
I instantly new that I was watching a Bittern – but in broad daylight over west London? Had I been in Norfolk I would have called it immediately and thought nothing of it. But it’s a different kettle of fish when you see birds out of context.
Anyway, after some deliberation I decided to count it as The Scrubs’ first ever Bittern and our 97th species for the year. Yesterday’s prayer was answered. What will tomorrow, the last morning of 2008 bring?

I’m running out of days!

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My quest continues to achieve the magical 100 species mark. The past couple of mornings I have braved the sub-zero temperatures to wander Wormwood Scrubs like some lost soul. I have seen absolutely nothing of real interest with the regular Stonechats, gulls and a measly 4 Meadow Pipits being the sum total.
But undaunted I shall head of to my patch once again in the morning in the hope of a overflying Glaucous Gull, or party of Brent Goose – jeez, I’d be happy with a Brambling or anything……
Will someone hear my prayers?

A Great Black-back

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Great Black-backed Gull at The Scrubs

This morning I managed to see a Great Black-backed Gull languidly flap over The Scrubs. It’s a real scarcity here so it was nice to see. Otherwise it was the usual suspects that were to be seen. 

The remainder of Boxing Day was spent variously setting up my mum’s broadband and new laptop, eating and watching tat of TV.
I opened a Christmas present and was pleased to discover that someone had bought me a Kodak Z16. To the uninitiated, it’s a mobile phone sized video camera. You can upload your clips directly onto youtube. 
How cool is that?

Happy Christmas – One and All!

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Tessa Dunlop and The Urban Birder at BBC Radio London
First thing first. Merry Christmas all. I hope that it was a day of love and peace. A tall order for some I know.
I spent the early hours of the day at The Scrubs with stalwart birder, Roy Nuttall, in the vain hope of discovering something amazing. Aside from nearly 400 Black-headed Gulls there was little else. We met with a non-birder mate of his who quickly produced a little nap sack with a flask of mulled wine and some mince pies. So there we were sitting on a bench watching the world go by tucking into typical Christmas fayre!
Amongst the usual skin care products that I had for Christmas I also received a brilliant gift. An original artwork of a male Ring Ouzel by the bird artist Jan Wilzcur. 
Oh and on the eve before Christmas Eve I was invited down to Radio London to be on Tessa Dunlop’s evening talk show. Ostensibly I was booked to chat about urban birds between 11pm til midnight. I ended up being involved in deep conversations with callers on subjects as diverse as religion, homosexuality, race and a Northern Cardinals!
Such is the life of an Urban Birder!

I’m back on it!

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For once I managed to get out of bed and head down to the hallowed turf. There were absolutely no passerines to look at. The bushes and trees were devoid apart from Magpies and Carrion Crows. A few hundred gulls and Starlings were whisping around the football pitches. At least 200 Starlings were mingling amongst a similar number of Black-headed Gulls, c50 Common, c5 Lesser Black-backs and a couple Herring Gulls.

I returned back to the bat cave and plotted and planned for the remainder of the day only breaking to visit my mum in the evening.
The Christmas hibernation continues……

I must start birding….

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I’ve just realised that I haven’t so much as looked at a bird for several days. What kind of urban birder am I?

This morning I played football as usual, but it was a particularly tortuous game. It was a 5-all draw and I managed to pull my back whilst making a spectacular save – well, I thought it was! Oh, I did hear a nearby Pied Wagtail calling during the game.
I going to seriously try to get to The Scrubs in  the morning.

Give me some slack!

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Geez, I’ve been totally slack when it comes to this blogging lark!

I keep missing days and when I do get a chance it’s normally last thing at night and I’m knackered!
Last night was The One Show Christmas Party. I wore a 70’s afro (it was a semi-fancy dress affair) and was supposedly djing. However, after spinning my first tune (September – Earth Wind and Fire) the second deck collapsed on me, rendering me redundant. Another fella took over and played cd’s.
Tonight I was on The One Show singing a Christmas Carol with Mortimer and Reeves and several of the other presenters. It was a laugh.
Let’s chat more tomorrow.

Bristol

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The Dilge and The Urban Birder
Jumped on a train from Paddington early this morning and arrived at Bristol Temple Meads for the first of the meetings that I had planned. Mike ‘The Dilge’ Dilger met me from the station when I arrived at 10am and we headed off for breakfast.

We met because we are doing a talk together in late January in Essex to around 800 people on our birding lives. We had a right gossip about the business, The One Show and of course, our planned talk. We put the blueprint into place.
At midday, he dropped me at Tigress Productions where I had a meeting with TV supremo Kath Moore (her name probably means nought to you, but believe me, she’s a right mover and shaker!). I was there to tap dance and get her to think of me in 2009 when she considers what talent to push for whatever wildlife TV project that they are working on. Time will tell whether or not I made an impression.
Next, I walked up the road to BBC Bristol and chewed the fat with The One Show commissioner whilst waiting for my cab. Whilst I was with him, I learnt that the film that Birdguides have posted on their webzine presented by me about birding in Kensington Gardens has received rave revues so far. Excellent!
Got my train back to London at 2pm and was back in the Big Smoke by 4pm. Tonight I am of to the London Birders Christmas Drink over at Tower Hill. Don’t worry, I won’t be getting drunk!

Starling City

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A tiny fraction of the Starlings on Brighton Pier

I went on a monumentally traffic-filled, stuttering drive to Brighton on the south coast today as a guest of the RSPB to witness the 50,000 or so Starlings coming into roost on the pier. It was the dullest day ever in terms of light. At 3pm it seemed like the sun was giving up for the day about to go down early. I brought my mother with me to experience her first birding trip. I know. It’s totally embarrassing. I’ve been birding all my life and have never taken my mum out birding.

I think that part of the reason why she has never accompanied me is that she has never shown any inclination previously – and I have asked her before, believe me. I think that she has always just thought ‘just let him get on with it.’ I also think that she just didn’t get it when I was growing up. How could her son, raised in a black/Irish neighbourhood – miles away from the nearest stretch of countryside, be into birds? Don’t get me wrong, she totally encouraged me as much as she could. I think that now that I’m getting recognition for my lifelong passion, she taking a closer look. On the way down to Brighton this afternoon, I looked in the rearview mirror and caught her thumbing through the pages of Bird Watching Magazine and actually reading some birding articles (apart from my own piece)!
Anyway, back to those glorious Starlings.
I was on the pier with the RSPB’s Kate Whitton and her team meeting the public, chatting to the  volunteers and of course, checking out the masses of Starlings. Being a birder, I was also scrutinizing the gulls that were milling around the pier. I suppose I was hoping for a passing Mediterranean Gull, but I had to make do with Herring and Black-headed’s, though I was pretty certain that I had a first winter Common Gull.
It was quite interesting to watch the multitudes of Starlings swirling low over the sea. I tried to upload a picture I took but the upload thingy was taking eons.
Big week next week. I have several big meetings. I will keep you up to date.