Tuesday 26 April 2011

Feel the heat, summer's heat

Summer in the city
Hasn't the weather been fantastic?

I've been spending an inordinate amount of time doing the final tickles on my forthcoming book - The Urban Birder. Today after months of toil it is safely with the publishers being lined up to be printed. It will be out during August and I must admit, I am nervous.

Down at The Scrubs, the migrants have been streaming through with the highlights being a Turtle Dove very briefly on Monday morning and over the weekend another singing Nightingale in Chats Paddock was discovered. This particular male had a different singing voice to the one found the other week. This one's song was briefer, quieter and dare I say, less musical. Also back in reasonable numbers were Common and Lesser Whitethroats plus a fair number of Blackcaps. Dissappointly, only one singing Willow Warbler has stuck around compared to three singing males this time last year.

If you are around the west London next Sunday morning at around 5am then come and join me for a Dawn Chorus walk at The Scrubs to celebrate International Dawn Chorus Day.

Better go now. I'm one of the judges on the Observers Ethical Awards 2011 tomorrow morning at the newspaper's HQ. I'll be rubbing shoulders with the likes of Kate Humble, Deborah Meaden, Brian Cox and Sue Perkins. I've got to fill out around a million judging forms before getting my beauty sleep.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Book has been pre-ordered via amazon, good luck with it.

The Urban Birder said...

Thank you so much!

You are officially the first person to buy a copy of my book!

When I see you I'll have to sign it!

Unknown said...

lol, yeah I wil bring it next time you're at Grantown on Spey!

White billed Diver on my local patch at moment and your Purple Sands at Lossiemouth have dropped to about 15.