Normal service is resumed

Surely this is a 'fuscus' Lesser Black-back?

Phew, it's been a hectic few days what with Mickey J popping his moccasins, me working my nuts off to finish my debut article for BBC Wildlife magazine plus preparing for and travelling to Helsinki - from where I write this blog. Oh, and I had the worst football game in history on Saturday. We lost something like 10-1!

I arrived in Finland yesterday afternoon and immediately holed myself up in my hotel room until 3am when I finally finished my article on my favourite sites in London. I then had to meet with my guide Hannu Tammelin from Birdlife International Finland who whisked me off to our first urban destination, Hotel Torni just down the road from where I was staying. The idea was not get breakfast, but to stake out a breeding pair of Eagle Owl that can sometimes be seen leaving their rooftop nest site. 

We had no luck, so for the next 10 hours we scooted from site to site picking up mosquito bites, hearing several singing Blyth's Reed Warblers, a couple River Warblers and Marsh Warblers. We also saw a family party of up to 4 Citrine Wagtails at their breeding area, plenty of Common Rosefinch, singing Icterine Warbler, Caspian Terns, Ruff still in near enough summer plumage, Wood Sandpipers and a distant unidentified eagle sp, that was being mobbed by a gull.

Speaking of which, the Larid of choice around here is definitely Common Gull. There are in the parks and patiently waiting by al fresco tables for tossed morsels. They haven't quite learnt the evil thieving ways of their larger cousins yet. The Lesser Black-backs here are darker backed with longer wing projection when at rest. They also hold their bodies in a downward slant - almost as if their wings are too heavy for them. Got to be a Baltic Gull, surely?

When I got back to my hotel, hot and knackered, I received an email from BBC Wildlife Magazine saying that they thought my article was great! Yay!

TUB in Helsinki

There was a lot of response to the Swift entry (my last entry). Let's get out and count those Swifts and help to get them and the House Martins back on their feet (so to speak!).

I'm off for another night time vigil. Firstly, I'm going to stake out that Eagle Owl, then I'm going to cycle around the western outskirts of the city in the wee daylight hours (sunrise is at around 2.45am) to see what I can find. 

Here's to being crepuscular!

Swifts

Eurasian Swift (J. Sanz)

I'm really into Swifts and I'm quite alarmed about their demise in numbers over the years - down by 47% according to figures released by the RSPB. Over the years, I have actually noticed a slump in numbers. Far less birds are to be found swooping low over the grassland at Wormwood Scrubs than in previous years. I remember tons more Swifts flying around on hot summer days when I was a teenager at school.

And the reason for the decline? A lack of nest sites. We are building structures without the crevices that these birds so love. I just hope that the architects who design new buildings wake up to the opportunity that they have to help hole nesters survive and prosper.

They have enough dangers to face on their long migrations. Let's get out there and make some holes!

Swift decline

Picture by Kim Dixon

I haven't been in tip-top condition since the weekend, as I have been suffering from one of my 'headache-less' migranes that has rendered me quite hard of hearing. Most sounds I hear grate inside my head. Not pleasant I can assure you.

This morning I arose early and made my way to my patch. It was a beautiful morning and quite hot. Just before 8am I gave a telephone interview for BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester about the demise of the Swift. There was something cool about sitting on a park bench in the sunshine watching and talking about Swifts.

The rest of my day was spent either in a torpor or typing on the computer. I received the itinerary for my Finland trip next week. The first three days will be spent in Helsinki urban birding and then the rest of the week until Sunday will be further north, hopefully spying on Wolverines and Brown Bear.

I can hardly wait.

Beddington surprise

I've been off the radar recently industriously working away here at The Urban Birder Factory. I was working on the usual things including TV programme treatments, checking out The Scrubs and general plotting and planning. Throw in a bit of football and a tad of socialising and that's the sum total of what I've been up to.

On Sunday, I continued to visit some of the locations that I plan to write about in my forthcoming BBC Wildlife piece. In the morning, after a brief visit to The Scrubs to film the first of a new series of video blogs that I plan to put on the net, I headed over to relatively nearby Yeading Brook Meadows, some 3 miles up the A40. This area of scrub and woodland is part of a collection of nature reserves along the Hillingdon Trail. This whole area is totally underwatched but quite interesting with breeding Little Owl to its credit.

Later in the afternoon I met with Roger Browne and Peter Alfrey at Beddington (Sewage) Farm for a guided tour. 

Beddington Farm looking north east 

The Croydon skyline as seen from Beddington Farm

Beddington Birders: Roger Browne, Peter Alfrey & TUB

It had changed beyond all recognition to the place I used to bird for a few years during the '80's. The guys explained the complicated conservation issues that were at hand - issues that I will raise more comprehensively in my forthcoming article and on my website. 

But in short, there has been some amazing birds found here and the site boasts perhaps the largest Tree Sparrow colony in Britain. Although the owners of the land have good intentions on paper, it seems as though the conservation measures are not being implemented as proposed and instead, the site is being slowly eroded away by construction.

Standing on top of the watch point mound (known by the local birders as Mt Beddington) I could clearly see that this site - which is practically 4 times larger than the London Wetland Centre - was a sleeping colossus. With proper management it would be the best birding site in London by far, in my opinion.

I will keep you updated on this potentially amazing urban paradise.

I love this city!

Canary Wharf - an urban birding hotspot

I got a new bat tick last night. What we thought was a Noctule clicking was re-identified as a Leisler's Bat. Apparently the first record for my area. Isn't it amazing what can be found in cities. I must admit that if a Leisler's Bat flew up to me and slapped me in the face, I probably wouldn't recognise it - unless I had a bat detector!

Today was spent researching for my BBC Wildlife article on birding sites within London. Last weekend I visited Canary Wharf on the strength of an article I read on Birdguides recently. The author talked about the amazing variety of migrants that turned up in the few trees that lined the tiny gardens at the foot of Canada Wharf Tower (the one with the triangle on top). Unfortunately, I can't write about it to encourage people to come down for security reasons.

I received a digital SLR from Nikon yesterday, so I also browsed the instruction manual and finally worked out how to turn it on. Tomorrow I will try and take a picture!

Things that go bump...and click

The dark Kensal Green Cemetery catacombs caught in a camera flash

A fairly grey day today, only relieved by the sight of a Peregrine soaring over the A40 near White City that I saw whilst driving to the car wash. Funnily enough, I saw a Peregrine yesterday drifting west over Portobello Road. They are obviously breeding nearby.

Tonight I made my ITV debut on Countrywise (you may remember me talking about shooting it last month). My piece was about the wildlife in Kensal Green Cemetery and how London is a haven for birds. They introduced me as a local hero - which was a bit embarrassing!

Later on, myself, local birder Rob Ayers and ecologist and bat woman extraordinaire Alison Fure aka Indiana Joan went for a nocturnal walk around Kensal Green Cemetery looking for bats, replete with our bat detectors. I had managed to get the company who run the cemetery to entrust me with a set of keys for the site. I had no problem strolling around the cemetery even despite Alison's stories of paranormal experiences in other London cemeteries. What did spook me slightly was the underground wanderings we had in the musty, cold catacombs. Now that was eerie. We only found one bat dropping in the whole hour plus that we spent down there.

Out in the darkened cemetery we had two species of pipistrelle plus a Noctule as we picked our way across the graves. I'm sure if I'd be wanting to hit the catacombs ever again!

Nice things

This Fur Seal was nowhere near an underground station!

As the Chair of the judges for the Mind The Bird Photographic Competition, I spent a lot of this evening scouring through some amazing images of birds taken near London Underground Stations. Basically, the competition has been organised by the RSPB in partnership with Transport for London and I have to get my votes for each category in by Friday. The official awards day will be July 15th at TfL's HQ.

I also got a lovely invite to the Isle of Mull from Debby Thorne, the RSPB White-tailed Eagle Information Officer, to traipse up to her part of the world to observe the wildlife, perhaps give a talk and certainly to have a chat. I will be up in Glasgow and Edinburgh in mid July and it's a shame that I kinda organised it already because it would have been good to travel onwards to Mull. I'm sure that something will be worked out.

Earlier today I had a meeting with my lovely agent Jo for a quick catch up. Afterwards, I hooked up with the equally lovely Alicia, my web designer. I'm relaunching my site soon and she showed me some fabulous designs that were so sexy, that I'm sure when you guys eventually see it you'll be orgasmic!