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!