Tower of Power!

White Stork - a possible sight from T42? (Russell F Spencer)

The big day finally came. The Tower 42 Bird Study Group was officially launched on Friday within the luxurious T42 board room on the 42nd floor of this towering building. We were over 350 feet up looking through the window at the spectacular cityscape that is London. The roof is over 600 feet up and the views from there are astounding. London truly looks like a village - a huge village encircled by a green verge.

The launch event was attended by around 70 people ranging from London birders to several of the conservation bodies to members of the media - namely the BBC. The management at T42 gave a quick speech on the history of the Tower and how they met me. Let me say now that the management at T42 have been absolutely amazing. They have shown unprecedented foresight and faith.

I then came on to talk about how the T42BSG came to being. I handed over to the first of the Bird Study Group's partners Tim Webb from the RSPB London Office, who spoke about the London Peregrine Group and the work that we were going to do on Swifts. Then the British Trust for Ornithology's Nick Moran spoke about Birdtrack, followed by Mathew Frith of the London Wildlife Trust who spoke about their work with communities in London.

Earlier in the day, 7am to be exact, I gave two live interviews for Radio London from the roof. Later in the afternoon I did some filming with BBC London Tonight who did two separate pieces for their lunchtime and evening news slots. It's was amazing to get this much attention for this project. Furthermore, BBC London also want to follow up progress on the Tower in their Springwatch coverage.

The scene is set. Let the observations begin.