It's AGM season

Penduline Tit - for no reason! (photographer unknown)

This morning was a beautiful sunny day. My local patch instinct is waning as winter sets in. This is usual as I tend to calm down a bit, find it harder to get up and the like until mid-march when I force myself into it again. I spent large tracts of the early morning behind my laptop doing my homework set for me by my hard bargain driving web designer.

Tonight, I chaired the London Natural History Society's Ornithological Section's AGM (soon to be publicly christened the London Bird Club). I bumbled my way through it ignoring most of the protocol.

Rejected records

Blue-footed Booby chick - the only booby shot I have! (Michelle Thomas)

I learnt this evening from Kimball Garrett (Ornithology Collections Manager at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles) that a Brown Booby I found at Salton Sea had been rejected by the rarities committee.

On May 28th 2006 I was birding at Salton Sea in the Colorado Desert, US having spent the previous week hanging in LA, checking out some of my urban patches there. The Salton Sea was one of those places I'd always fancied going so I drove the 180 miles or so southeast out of LA to arrive at that amazing place at dawn.

The 'sea' is actually a giant lake occupying a massive basin in the Colorado Desert covering a surface area of 376 square miles and over 35 miles long. And it was bloody hot!

I was having a great morning watching a party of White-faced Ibis, both Clark's and Western Grebes, Gambel's Quail, Western Kingbirds plus Yellow-headed Blackbirds. I was also ticking such beauties as several Yellow-footed Gulls, Burrowing Owl, Lesser Nighthawk (my favourite), Verdin, Cactus Wren and Black-tailed Gnatcatcher. My head was positively spinning.

As the morning progressed so did the heat and by 10am it had tipped 100 degrees farenheit. I was walking back to my car that was parked near to the water's edge. It was from there that fairly close in I noticed a strange bird that I soon realised was a 1st winter Brown Booby. It was sitting on the water about 100 yards from me preening. It's big blueish bill, chocolate brown plumage relieved by whitish underparts and underwing coverts to me were fairly diagnostic.

Had I had known just how rare this bird was locally I would have made far more comprehensive notes. Apparently, they are extremely rare at the Salton Sea with the last report being in 1996. My brief notes that I submitted were subsequently rejected. I know how people must feel when they see a bird that is obviously what it is only to have it rejected.

Well, it's on my list even if it's not on their county list. It's just a shame that my encounter with that booby will not be recorded for all to see for prosperity. But I guess we all have a bird or two that never made the grade with the birding establishment.

Rocking on

Mistle Thrush (Russell F Spencer)

Another good day in the office today in amongst all the grey windy weather. The main highlight was a phone call from the Portuguese Tourist Board's London office. The good news was that they are up for organising a reader break next spring in Bird Watching Magazine with me leading it. The advertorial will be in the February issue (out in late January 2010).

I also saw my web designer, who is based in my agent's office in Shepherds Bush, west London. She's doing an amazing job on the redesign of my website but I owe her so much homework - some of it she demanded over two months ago. I'd better pull my finger out and perhaps I will be able to relaunch it in January.

Interestingly, after my piece appeared in last Sunday's Observer my web traffic jumped up by over 60%.

Dilys Breese Medal

TUB in Holland Park (Russell F Spencer)

Yesterday morning's visit the The Scrubs resulted in a Snipe and a couple flocks of overflying Redwings and Fieldfares. I'm convinced that at least one of our recent Ring Ouzels is still at large. I've just got to find it.

Later that afternoon, I was in Simon Cowell's ex-girlfriend's back garden in Holland Park, west London having a shot taken of me by my photographer Russell Spencer for my forthcoming BBC Wildlife Magazine article. We had clear blue skies that had previously been chucking it down. What luck!

Rain stop play this morning and all plans of visiting The Scrubs. Instead, I sat down to scan the Sunday papers and was surprised to find the birding piece that I have been waiting a while for in the Review section of The Observer. There was a nice picture of me on my patch and the editorial claimed that I actually lived in Wormwood Scrubs!

Tonight I donned a suit and strolled into the House of Lords to attend the British Trust for Ornithology's Dilys Breese Awards where upstanding members of the ornithological universe were acknowledged and given a medal. Stephen Moss and the lovely Fiona Barclay from Birdguides (who was looking rather lovely too!) were two of the six medal winners. Amongst the guests were a few of the BTO crowd, the Dilge, Sheena Harvey editor of Bird Watching Magazine and Tony Soper who approached me to asked if I remembered him!

The geezer's a legend and he's asking me if I remember him!! Something's not right there!

Stupendous Friday!

Team Tower 42 (Russell F Spencer)

What a great day Friday was!

The big news of the day was that Tower 42, the second tallest building in London and whose rooftop we marveled from whilst knocking out a short film on visible migration that I shot with Birdguides a couple Fridays ago, have agreed to meet with me to discuss my idea of setting up a Tower 42 Bird Observation Group. I believe that this idea is the first of its kind anywhere - please correct me if I'm wrong - and I am unbelievably excited about it. Next spring a whole new chapter in London's urban birding could be opened. Imagine an urban raptor watchpoint in the centre of London!

The next bit of news was that I had a meeting with the lovely ladies that look after the Turkish Tourist Board. They enjoyed the piece that I wrote on my recent visit to Istanbul (available in the December 09 issue of Bird Watching Magazine out now) and wanted to talk about me going out to eastern Turkey next spring to shoot a film about the birding opportunities out there. This is another exciting prospect and I will now have to put together a budget and hope that they agree it.

I wrote the first installment of my 'How To Be A Birder' series for BBC Wildlife Magazine and it went down very well. In fact, they asked some more words. I just hope it reads well. The final interesting thing to happen on Friday was a phone call from the RSPB press office asking me to lend my voice in the horrific Malta bird massacre. I obliged of course.

Saturday wasn't quite so exciting. Football was fruitful as my team won for a change. We'll ignore the fact that we had an extra man for the last 20 minutes. Also United beat Everton 3 nil.

So I suppose it was two good days in the office!

82%

I like this Blue Rock Thrush shot (Stephen Daly)

The big news today was delivered to me after I had finally finished my Bradford piece and pressed the send button to Sheena Harvey, editor at Bird Watching Magazine. She revealed that a recent online reader survey had revealed that a staggering 82% of respondents thought that my urban birding column was 'very good/good'. I was gobsmacked! I didn't realise that my articles were that popular.

An adult Mediterranean Gull was discovered at The Scrubs this morning in a howling gale. We normally get at least one visitation a year from this glorious gull and I was gutted not to have been there. I was having a bit of a lay in instead as I waited for the man from the garage to pick up my car for a service.

Besides, I have BBC Wildlife Magazine articles to finish!

Boredom

Tonight I attended a very dull Friends of The Scrubs Committee Meeting. Thankfully, I was spared the 30 minute debate on litter picking but being tired didn't stop me from wishing I was somewhere else.

Came home to tickle my Bradford piece for Bird Watching Magazine and start my BBC Wildlife piece which needs to be completed by Thursday.

No pressure then!