Can I have some more hours in the day please?

European Serin (Russell F Spencer)

Another day in the office was had after a early morning jaunt to The Scrubs. The skies were heavily laden with rain when I stepped out onto the hallowed turf at 7am. It wasn't long before the rain came although thankfully it was at most a light drizzle. I found another Northern Wheatear, heard a singing Reed Bunting (in itself a very rare occurrence - will it try to breed?) and I also heard my first Willow Warbler on The Scrubs this spring. Summer is coming.

I spent the day arranging meetings and doing more work on the Tower 42 Bird Study Group. Later in the evening I brought some shopping around to my mum and after, when I arrived home, I got to work finishing my latest piece for BBC Wildlife Magazine which is about bird calls and songs.

Sometimes I wish that I didn't need to sleep.

Rubbing shoulders at The Palace

Lord knows how I managed to get into the Palace with no tie and no id - but I did!

Buckingham Palace is quite amazing on the inside with grand spaces, exquisite furnishings and incredible art on the walls including Rembrandt's, Rubens and the like all liberally dotted on the walls. Over 250 people must have been there in honour of Sir Peter Scott and everybody was there from David Attenborough down.

I had a great time hanging out and chatting with colleagues in the business. I even managed to have a handshake and a chat with the legend that is John Craven.

But that's enough name dropping for one evening. After we were tipped out of the Palace at 8.40pm I returned to The Urban Birder factory for the night shift. I have a BBC Wildlife piece to complete.

Thank you WWT for inviting me tonight.

First The Tower next The Palace!

This morning at The Scrubs I scored another Woodcock having unintentionally flushed it from the ground in Chats Paddock. The interesting thing was that I was chatting to fellow Scrubber, Roy Nuttall, about the Woodcock I saw just two days previously in the grassland when I suddenly flushed the bird. That kind of thing happens to me quite frequently so I'm often careful about what I wish for!

The first phase of the Tower 42 BSG is complete and now we look forward to the first watch period on Wednesday April 7th. My next major engagement is at Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen's hubby at the WWT Sir Peter Scott Centenary Celebrations tomorrow night. Sordid details to follow.

Finally, a worthy cause to get involved with. It's a quiz competition that you can enter to raise money for trans Saharan migrants and to honour the life of the remarkable Bob Scott, a fella whom I met on many occasions and who was one of the nicest people ever to don a pair of binoculars. March 26th saw a year's anniversary of his untimely death.

Get involved and get the chance of winning some amazing prizes.

www.birdguides.com/bobscott

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.

All set

Black-headed Gull (Jakub Puskas)

It's the eve before the launch of the Tower 42 Bird Study Group and my excitement is mounting. I will be doing a live radio interview from the roof at 7.20am and again at 8.30am for Radio London chatting about the birding prospects and novelty of the idea. Then at 11am BBC London News will be shooting me for the evening news - again on the roof looking for visible migration.

The afternoon will be capped with a hosted launch in a lovely suite to an assembled crowd of conservationists, press, friends and lovers. I can't wait. Better go to bed so that I can wake up early to write my speech!

Cocky!

Woodcock (Michael Flowers - http://eybirdwatching.blogspot.com/)

This morning saw me raising and dragging my carcass to The Scrubs - driven by the force that is known to many as spring migration. I had hoped to find more Wheatears or to discover our first singing Blackcaps. No avail.

I was standing by the grassland looking out for Meadow Pipits and any hidden Wheatears when from behind flew a Woodcock. It flew in a leisurely fashion across the grassland looking as though it wasn't flushed as there was nobody in the vicinity. It plonked itself down into some shorter grass literally feet away from a dogwalker, who although was looking in the Woodcock's direction, seemed oblivious to the bird's arrival.

This was only our second ever record, although I dare say that they are probably more frequent than records suggest. It certainly made my morning.

Back at base, I continued to plan for the Tower 42 Bird Study Group launch. BBC London want to film me on the roof of Tower 42 on Friday morning so that they can use the edited footage as a news item on TV that day. I had to correct the news editor who had labelled the piece 'twitching on the roof'. I reminded her that twitching is a very different discipline to standing on a roof waiting for migrants to fly over.

Perhaps they will get it one day!

Wheatear bonanza

Northern Wheatear (Dean Eades)

The harbingers of spring finally arrived last week when a single male Northern Wheatears were discovered in the grassland at The Scrubs over two days. Of course, it could have been the same male that stayed for two days, but what is undisputed is the fact that it was the earliest returning bird ever at my patch.

Yesterday, I found three birds - 2 immaculate males and a bright female/dull male. They performed beautifully sometimes down to 20 yards.

Had a great meeting with the management team at Tower 42 to go through the finalities before the launch of the Tower 42 Bird Study Group this Friday. They are amazing. Totally accommodating and absolutely up for making this venture a success. Got an email from BBC London saying that four of them will be coming to the launch and London Tonight may also bring a crew to cover it as a news item.

It's taking shape.