"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…