Friday night, I was out on the town in Teddington at an environmental awards ceremony at the Landmark Arts Eco-Fair. A teenage conservationist stole the show. He'd been nominated for his work in the community and for growing organic food. As he accepted his certificate from the council for turning some land into a wildlife haven, he seized the moment to make a speech raising awareness of his campaign to save the grou…

"Whatchalookinat!" In my part of London that string of words usually means it's best to give a kind smile and a sensible response as you beat as hasty a retreat as you can manage, without looking too much like a potential victim.

So, it was with some caution that I turned round to see who had made this quizzical noise. Sure enough there was the usual spotty teenager in a hoodie with a gaggle of friends clustered…

As we wave a fond farewell to the Tate Modern peregrines for another year, work now starts on our next Aren't birds brilliant! [Abb!] project; Ducking and diving on Hampstead Heath.

We'll be setting up our gear near pond 15 on the Heath in October to showcase the wonderful wildlife that lives there. There are ducks, geese, swans, kestrels, moorhens and coots plus cormorants and much, much more. If you manage to get…

"I used to watch you on TV when I was a kid." It gets said and you immediately think, oops, shouldn't have said that, I hope they don't think I'm being rude about their age. This time the phrase went through my mind but thankfully the words didn't come out of my mouth.
 
I was being interviewed by John Craven for BBC TV's Countryfile, being broadcast this Sunday. He launched Newsround when I was…

If you sat up too quickly in bed, you'd do yourself serious damage on the low ceiling, but this loft-conversion rental was otherwise warm, comfortable and very clean. Cheaper than a hotel or B&B too. The trouble was, the seagulls don't half make a racket at 6am.

It's been a hectic summer and with the school holidays ending, the swifts having flown off to Africa and our peregrine watch at the Tate modern…

There was the rumble of trains and the usual hum of London life but I suddenly realised there was something missing over the Bank Holiday weekend; the swifts have gone!

It was quiet and empty overhead. I've been enjoying the spectacle of them darting, swooping and tumbling through the air. Screaming as they played catch and chase with each other and perfomed loops and twists that would defeat fighter pilots. It hadn't…

Starlings, house sparrows and blackbirds must surely rate as among the best known birds in the country. So why aren't more people concerned that they're in decline?

These three species are among the most common garden visitors in London, reflecting their large numbers. Published this week the State of the UK's Birds 2006 reports the long-term trend of their populations is downwards (down 72%, 64% and 17% comparing…

After two weeks of tense pacing, like anxious parents, our Aren't birds brilliant! Officers and volunteers down at the Tate Modern can relax, we've got a name for our newly arrived male peregrine falcon.

Teenager Katie Silva from Hainault took part in our Who's your Daddy competition to name the bird and her entry was drawn from the hundreds of contributors. The male peregrine has fathered four chicks this year…

BAA threw down a hell of a corporate challenge this week. Heard by Justice Swift [you couldn't make this up could you?], the airport operators were seeking an injunction to stop members and supporters of AirportWatch from approaching Heathrow to prevent disruption to flights.

At the very start the judge, Justice Caroline Swift, declared she is a member of the RSPB, also a member of the CPRE and a benefactor of the National…

I can hear the jays, I've seen the blackbirds pecking the food scraps on the bird table, seen chaffinch on the hawthorn and watched swifts overhead, but house sparrows and tits are still conspicuous by their absence from my urban garden.

It's not much at present, we only recently moved in but there are big plans to create a wildlife haven in my patch of inner London. My old home only had an overshadowed concrete…

Okay, you're alone at home, minding your own business and happen to look out the window where you are shocked to see the beady, sparkling eye of a foot-tall bird of prey, its feathers ruffled by the wind, its sharp talons twisted round the metalwork of the balcony - it's a peregrine!

This is exactly what happened to Peter Kenyon, who lives in central London close to our Aren't birds brilliant! Peregrine watch…

Last year, while we were all busy talking to people about the peregrines that perch on the Tate Modern's chimney, a pair of heavily made-up, dark clad Goths having a romantic picnic behind our trailer were interupted by one of the birds hungrily snatching a pigeon right in front of them! Of course we, armed with telescopes, cameras and binoculars, completely missed it.

On Friday I stopped off on the South Bank on…

Sometimes bizarre coincidences do happen and this week bore witness to one. Our RSPB Croydon local group has just published a new book on the history and recording of birds in the London borough. Flicking through I came across three bizarre recordings of puffins.

As it happens, the puffin is the charismatic bird choosen as the model for a giant inflatable we'll be taking to the House of Commons this week as part our campaign…

July started wet and breezy, but despite security alerts and severe weather warnings we rolled on with a great stall at London Pride in Trafalgar Square and our Wild in the Parks team, supported by volunteers, created a giant earth sculpture, using twenty tonnes of soil!

The earth sculpture was designed by members of the Chinese National Healthy Living Centre who opted to create a giant newt five metres long! It will be…

London's wildlife is a degree safer after we voiced concerns over plans to protect the Capital against the effects of climate change.

The London Plan is the Mayor's blueprint for how London should evolve. Wildlife was not included in the section on how developers should tackle rising temperatures, extreme weather and flood risks; until we gave evidence to a review panel.

A sentence proposed by us, requiring developers to…