First day back on The Tower

Eyes to the skies (Russell F Spencer)

I had a bit of a restless night sleep last night. I was in bed by 1.30am (my usual time) and the alarm went off seemingly 10 minutes later at 4.30am. By 6am I was pulling up in the Tower 42 car park and ascending the many floors with 10 other excited birders of all abilities.

Once on the roof we were treated to a beautiful sunny morning with a light westerly and a single flyby Swallow heading west. We had a fairly quiet morning with the highlights being our first recorded Sandwich Terns (7 seen very briefly), a couple of Peregrines on the Tate Modern, a drifting female-type Sparrowhawk, a distant Little Egret, a few Great Black-backs and a handful of Swifts. A nice start. I'm sure there will be plenty more to talk about over the ensuing weeks.

The other bit of news is that I had a very interesting meeting with the Canary Wharf Estates people. The upshot of it is that I have resurrected a survey that was originally carried out by Ken Murray and colleagues between 2000 - 2004. It's pretty exciting urban birding opportunity that will be open to all and I will announce more next week.

Meanwhile, maybe I will see some of you at Bird Fair over the weekend. I will be filming for Birdguides over the period but still come and say hello.

Until then.