Stupendous Friday!

Team Tower 42 (Russell F Spencer)

What a great day Friday was!

The big news of the day was that Tower 42, the second tallest building in London and whose rooftop we marveled from whilst knocking out a short film on visible migration that I shot with Birdguides a couple Fridays ago, have agreed to meet with me to discuss my idea of setting up a Tower 42 Bird Observation Group. I believe that this idea is the first of its kind anywhere - please correct me if I'm wrong - and I am unbelievably excited about it. Next spring a whole new chapter in London's urban birding could be opened. Imagine an urban raptor watchpoint in the centre of London!

The next bit of news was that I had a meeting with the lovely ladies that look after the Turkish Tourist Board. They enjoyed the piece that I wrote on my recent visit to Istanbul (available in the December 09 issue of Bird Watching Magazine out now) and wanted to talk about me going out to eastern Turkey next spring to shoot a film about the birding opportunities out there. This is another exciting prospect and I will now have to put together a budget and hope that they agree it.

I wrote the first installment of my 'How To Be A Birder' series for BBC Wildlife Magazine and it went down very well. In fact, they asked some more words. I just hope it reads well. The final interesting thing to happen on Friday was a phone call from the RSPB press office asking me to lend my voice in the horrific Malta bird massacre. I obliged of course.

Saturday wasn't quite so exciting. Football was fruitful as my team won for a change. We'll ignore the fact that we had an extra man for the last 20 minutes. Also United beat Everton 3 nil.

So I suppose it was two good days in the office!

82%

I like this Blue Rock Thrush shot (Stephen Daly)

The big news today was delivered to me after I had finally finished my Bradford piece and pressed the send button to Sheena Harvey, editor at Bird Watching Magazine. She revealed that a recent online reader survey had revealed that a staggering 82% of respondents thought that my urban birding column was 'very good/good'. I was gobsmacked! I didn't realise that my articles were that popular.

An adult Mediterranean Gull was discovered at The Scrubs this morning in a howling gale. We normally get at least one visitation a year from this glorious gull and I was gutted not to have been there. I was having a bit of a lay in instead as I waited for the man from the garage to pick up my car for a service.

Besides, I have BBC Wildlife Magazine articles to finish!

Boredom

Tonight I attended a very dull Friends of The Scrubs Committee Meeting. Thankfully, I was spared the 30 minute debate on litter picking but being tired didn't stop me from wishing I was somewhere else.

Came home to tickle my Bradford piece for Bird Watching Magazine and start my BBC Wildlife piece which needs to be completed by Thursday.

No pressure then!

Bradford

TUB with Shaun Radcliffe (Russell F Spencer)

TUB taking note by the River Aire (Russell F Spencer)

Russell Spencer (photographer) and I rolled into Bradford on Saturday night, knackered after an unnecessarily long and traffic filled journey up the M1. After an obligatory curry (has to be done in the curry capital) we decided to bed down in preparation for our planned early morning.

We had only just started pushing out the zeds when the extremely loud fire alarm went off, jolting us out of our slumber. So at 1.30am we were both standing on the pavement with other variously dressed hotel guests. Anyway, despite the early start we had a great day and Shaun Radcliffe (who's the Chairman of the Bradford Ornithological Group) was a great host come guide.

Got home bloody late last night after a 4 hour drive. I have 24 hours to write my Bradford piece.

Chickens

I'm in a Bradford hotel awaiting the dawn with the venerable photographer Russell Spencer to explore the city for its urban birding jewels. It looks like we may be in for a struggle because a look at the city map didn't seem to reveal many green areas that signify an birdy oasis. Even the guide that we're meeting in the morning seemed a bit scathing of the birding opportunities in the city.

My mission is to prove that there's birding to be had in any city that I find myself in. Bradford is looking like it will be challenge.

Earlier today I played football in the squalling wind and rain. Despite looking the far stronger team leading 6-2 after 50 minutes, we still managed to loose 9-6 by full time.

The moral?

Don't count your chickens......

Purple Rain

Red Kites over The Scrubs? Surely that's next? (Russell F Spencer)

Talk of purple patches ending were both premature and unfounded. This morning whilst I was in a meeting, fellow Scrubber Anders Price sent me a text to say that he had just found a Woodlark sitting on a path near Chats Paddock. After my meeting I hot footed from Park Lane to The Scrubs in the vain hope of seeing this bird - the third record for Wormwood Scrubs.

Did I mention the rain?

As I clambered through the grassland in the pouring rain my dreams of seeing this apparently confiding little lark were washed away too. Needless to say, I never saw it, but at least I found the previous two birds. Some consolation I suppose.

Yesterday, I learnt that I have been commissioned by BBC Wildlife Magazine to write a monthly step-by-step guide to becoming a birder. I'm delighted and it's a departure from just writing about urban birding.

I hope that you all check it out.

The dream is over....

And by dream I mean the amazing run of good birds at The Scrubs, because this morning's visit resulted in the more usual suspects for this time of year. The Ring Ouzel was nowhere to be seen and no surprise bird jumped out of the woodwork.

This afternoon my agent's office called me to offer up a ticket to the red carpeted premier of Harry Brown, Micheal Caine's new movie in London's Leicester Square. It was very strange strolling down the red carpet lined with paps and fans. Needless to say there was no flashing lights or screaming fans on my case, but it was interesting to observe some of the celebs posing for cameras and it was nice to see Mr Caine himself signing autographs willy nilly.

After the film, I popped my head around the door at the aftershow party a mile up the road near Regents Street. Here I rubbed shoulders with the great and the good - people from David Frost to Claudia Winkleman, Phil Tufnell and a couple other people from Strictly Come Dancing. My star stroking ended with a chat with Pete Tong (who I knew from my early clubbing days) and shaking the hand of the great Michael Caine himself!

I left the party early to return to my more normal mortal existence.