My purple patch

The Wormwood Scrubs purple patch continues. Yesterday, I re-found our refueling female Ring Ouzel gorging herself on the still plentiful berries within Chats Paddock plus had 5 Brent Geese fly over from the north. These geese were a site tick, although not totally unexpected because as a species, they are regular though scarce London visitors.

I didn't get a chance to venture out this morning, but I will be sure to be on my Purple Patch in the morning!

Heaven...... and Hell!

TUB and the Skyscraping birders on Tower 42 (Russell Spencer)

View from the Tower (Russell Spencer)

Pre-dawn (Russell Spencer)

The heavenly part of yesterday was the rooftop vigil on Tower 42 that finally happened. It was an amazing experience and we were totally looked after by security men Bradley and Stuart. As dawn dawned, it soon became apparent that we wouldn't be seeing much in the way of the anticipated Woodpigeon passage due to the low misty cloud.

My team included Birdguide's Fiona Barclay and top viz miggers, Des McKenzie and Mark Pearson. During the 4 hours that we were on the roof they picked up c250 Woodpigeon, 1 very distant Little Egret, a Peregrine below us at The Barbican and a Grey Wagtail over our heads - over 600 feet above the city streets.

This venue has so much potential, I can imagine us returning in the spring to witness some interesting raptor passage. It's an incredible vantage point from which the view across the whole of London was totally impressive. Unforgettable!

The hell part of the day I experienced sitting in bumper to bumper traffic in pouring rain on the A12 heading to my talk in Chelmsford for the Essex Birdwatching Society. A 90 minute journey ended up taking over 3 hours. I arrived over an hour late knackered, sick and fed up. My mood lightened when I walked into the room to be confronted by a load of patient Essex birders who applauded me as I entered the room. They had been waiting over an hour for my arrival. I gave an abridged version of my talk that went down well.

Today, I still had a sore knee at football and whilst breakfasting with some of my fellow ballers I received a text from Scrubber Rob Ayers telling me that the Ring Ouzel is still in Chats Paddock. It was only one of two ouzels reported today in the country.

Tower of power

I am knackered.

All these early mornings and late nights are finally taking their toll. For example, my recent trip to Portugal was no holiday; up at the crack of dawn every day, driving for miles, birding all day, going to bed late after doing some work - I needed a holiday to get over it!

This morning I was at The Scrubs at 6.50am to search for the Ring Ouzels before seeing my physio about my injured knee. Before I left at 8.15am, I had briefly seen the Ouzel and had a Water Pipit fly over calling which was a site tick.

My physio said that I am an athletic man and that my knee problem is muscle related - which is good news. He made me do some strenuous exercises that resulted in my subsequent tiredness. So, I'm off to bed. I have a tower to climb in the morning!

Fly my way

Woodpigeon (Jill Pakenham)

This morning I arose to beautiful blue skies and the overwhelming urge to visit The Scrubs. So, 20 minutes later I was marveling at the flights of Woodpigeon heading purposefully southwest across the skies. I estimated at least 1,200 passed over perhaps journeying towards Iberia or maybe just southwest Britain. They twinkled in the morning sun. I also noticed a couple of smaller Stock Doves in their number.

I then quickly visited Chats Paddock with Scrubber, Rob Ayers. Once in the middle and having seen a Redpoll fly over calling and plentiful tits, I decided to retrace my steps and Rob carried on. Within minutes, Rob was calling me on the phone to say that he had rediscovered a pair of Ring Ouzels!

These birds must have been in the vicinity for the past week feeding on the still plentiful berries. This is totally unprecedented. No Ouzel has ever stayed with us for longer than a day and a half. Anyway, I fancy a rarer thrush now.

My excitement is mounting when it comes to filming on Tower 42 on Friday morning. I checked the weather forecast on Sky News tonight and it looks like it's going to be a glorious sunny morning with a light southwesterly. Hopefully, the Woodpigeon movement will still be in full swing and that we get some good footage.

Reds

I spent this morning partially dreaming of Ouzels and working on my proposed series in BBC Wildlife Magazine which will be a step by step guide to being a birder. It should kickoff in the spring of 2010 as I may have told you before.

Whilst I was dreaming up creative thoughts, a Red-legged Partridge was being flushed in Chats Paddock up at The Scrubs - our 2nd ever after the one I flushed earlier this year. What an amazing run of interesting birds we're getting.

After watching Manchester United draw with CSKA at home, I got to work on my forthcoming talk for the Essex Birdwatching Society this Friday night. Before you wonder, my talk is already devised I'm just adding some more images!

More Ouzels!

Ring Ouzel (Stephen Daly)

I can't believe it! Yet another Ring Ouzel!

I quietly stalked into Chats Paddock at The Scrubs this morning, ostensibly looking for the Cetti's Warbler that was briefly heard last week and instead had a cracking view of a female Ring Ouzel! My favourite bird!

She sat in a tree about 100 feet from me and we just stared at each other until fellow Scrubber, Roy Nuttall, entered the paddock. To be fair to him, he didn't realise that I had an Ouzel in my sights and shouted for me to look at a flock of around 100 Woodpigeons heading overhead. True to form, the Ouzel disappeared when I turned to look at it again after I hissed at Roy to be quiet.

We then spent the next 45 minutes searching the suitable areas in the vicinity to relocate the bird. By this point we were joined by another Scrubber Anders Price, a very nice American chap over here on secondment with his wife until next summer. I suggested that we go back to the scene of the crime because Chats Paddock is one of the quietest places at The Scrubs and furthermore, the shrubs were still laden with berries. After 5 minutes of stalking, out of nowhere, we saw our bird fly past us heading west towards the embankment area. Her gorget and pale wing panels were on view for the world to see.

It was a privilege to witness the sight of such a wild bird in the heart of urbanity.

Alas, they were right...

The weathermen were right. It poured down this morning ending fairly suddenly at around 1pm. I had rare lay in until 10am. I think I needed it.

Later in the afternoon, I saw a screening of 'Nowhere Boy' at BAFTA in Piccadilly. It was a film about John Lennon aged 17 when he lived with his Aunt Mimi in Liverpool. She was played by the delicious Kristin Scott Thomas who was also present at the Q&A afterwards, along with director Sam Taylor Wood. I was surprised to learn that Taylor Wood has just got engaged to the actor who played Lennon in her film - she's 44 and he's 19!! Good luck to her!

Oh, the film was ok - not that great, although Kristin and the actor who played Lennon's mum were exceptional.

In the diary this week is a talk I'm giving on Friday to the Essex Birdwatching Society, so if you're in the hood pop in.

Finally, I received these amazing images of a hatching Purple Heron chick photographed by Pedro Narra in Portugal. Amazing, aren't they?