What a whirlwind couple of weeks. Won Government funding to protect and improve the Thames Estuary thanks to support from Defra. Introduced South Hackney and Shoreditch MP Meg Hillier to our Wild Place Your Space project. Launched a million-pound fundraiser with Tesco's for our tropical rainforest work and I ran a workshop on Corporate Social Responsibility for some staff at the European HQ of digital imaging company…

Two new reports have shed new light on life on earth. The first claims to have found the world's oldest living organism and the second writes off that old phrase... 'there are plenty more fish in the sea'.

The Mediteranean Sea is home to a organism that DNA testing dates as being 200,000 years old. It's a sea grass commonly found in underwater meadows in an area spanning more than 2,000 miles, from Spain…

Coots, moorhens, mallard, swans, geese, pigeons, crows, grey herons and even a couple of smew dotted the ice covering Regent's Park's lakes yesterday morning.

They all seemed happy enough and some poked their heads under water through holes in the ice. Sometimes I wish I was a bird. That I could perch high-up in a tree or on a tall building. Sadly I've not got a good head for heights. I also shiver at the thought…

it's childish. Dropping sticks off the side of a bridge and seeing which one passes beneath the fastest. A kids game. Yet it has an innocent charm that Xbox can't match.

Sadly, after visiting the Putney Bridge combined sewer overflow (CSO) the other day, I can honestly say the vision of pooh sticks bobbing along the Thames under bridges that I now hold in my mind, is far from innocent and is definately not pleasant…

As I type I can hear a blue tit outside my back door, which is firmly closed against the cold. The bird is hidden in the dense ivy covering the wall between our garden and the neighbour's.

After the mild and mixed-up weather of the beginning of this year, the grey, wet and sleety conditions do feel more like winter. But it's somehow lost its mojo. It's not real winter, more of a half-hearted pretence of a winter.…

Taking a Star Trek approach to development is not a good idea, but before the newly announced Thames Airport review even gets started, Mayor Johnson's on the Today programme asserting his belief that it can and will be built.

The very real danger to planes and human lives of bird strike posed by the estuary's vast numbers of wild birds didn't seem to concern Boris. He is not Captain Kirk and neither Doug Oakervee…

This year's Big Schools' Birdwatch is underway and students across Greater London and the rest of the UK will be peering through their dusty classroom windows to see what birds they can spot enjoying the weak winter sunshine.

It's certainly very different from this time last year, when the street where I live was buried under snow. That was the first time in more than a decade of city living that I've experienced…

The stormy winds have passed, leaving London's gardens looking grey and battered, so let's dream of better days ahead.

The RSPB, along with 24 other organisations, want to transform our Capital’s grey spaces into colourful fields where Londoners can feel cool fresh grass between their toes and admire the butterflies and bees attracted by the food from the thousands of colourful wildflowers blooming throughout spring…

This is going to be the year of the performer!

The fastest. The most athletic. The ones that put in the effort to make a difference. I'm talking about volunteers and wildlife. Both actively pursue their goals; whether it's a speedy peregrine falcon diving on its prey over St Paul's cathedral, swifts dipping in to ponds or lakes in our parks, or the thousands of people who give of their time, skills, knowledge…

No. This isn't a bah humbug moan.

I like this time of year. There are lots more birds visiting gardens for people to see and you don't have to get up very early to hear the (winter) dawn chorus.

To add some Christmas jollity, MP's have clearly stated that Government plans to nod through any and all development without thought to the social or environmental consquencies are plain bonkers. That's one of the…

Two of the many great things about London are the River Thames and the large number of open spaces you can escape to, spaces where you can cycle, fish, run, play, walk your dog, watch the world go by or simply rage against the machine.

Much of London's infrastructure, from its sewers right through to its lay-out with large public spaces, was created by the Victorians. They even built an empire and established economic models…

I whole-heartedly congratulate London Mayor Boris Johnson on his latest inflammatory comments.

In a letter to Chancellor George Osborne, the Conservative Mayor of London, has attacked the Government over its cuts to solar subsidies; warning that halving the “feed-in tariff” would “slowly suffocate” the nascent renewables industry. These are the payments to householders for the energy they generate…

A silvery thread of sparkly water is the current focus of my life. It's a mental stream that bubbles and gurggles, carrying hope and energy as it gathers strength to become a swift flowing surge and then a powerful current out into the magnificent ocean of the world's conscience.

Fancy words to paint a picture of small voices coming together in greater numbers to loudly deliver a joint message to world leaders…

Conservation is not about setting things in aspic, it's about natural balance; getting the best outcome for wildlife, people and our economy.

The Thames Tunnel, which should prevent raw sewage spewing into the Thames as it passes through our Capital City in the 21st Century, is a typical example. It's also long overdue, which is why the RSPB has joined a coalition called Thames Tunnel Now.

I love the Thames…

If the change in weather to cold mornings and dark evenings hasn't been enough to dampen spirits, a burst soilpipe in our office block has snuffed out the remaining cheer lingering from the warm start of this month. Our new office mantra: "Wake up and smell the beings". Umm. Full roast.

That open sewer smell transports me to adventures on foreign soils, or occasionally after heavy downpours in London, the…

If you commute in and out of London, at some point in your life you'll no doubt feel stuck in a rut;  the same old, same old.

But 'tis the rutting season, so Bushy Park and other open spaces are echoing to the bellow of frisky deer. The warm weather of late has helped stir the deep emotions of these majestic beasts.

Think of the fight scene in Romeo and Juliet, two strutting males circle each other, exchanging verbal…

A blazing start to October will this week turn to a more traditional autumnal month, with forecasters predicting snow in the UK before Christmas - yes it's just a couple of months away!

So, it's time to put away the shorts and crop-tops and dig out the woolies and hats with ear-flaps. If you're unlucky, that favourite winter wooly may have holes in it, courtesy of some hungry moths. Our conker trees aren't faring…

A study of bird numbers, used to reflect the health of our environment, has revealed a north and south divide; with birds doing better in the north than they are in the south.

It's a huge generalisation, but it does paint a fairly desperate picture, and that's where we are. Politicians and bankers are all performing headless chicken contortions, but they need to know that long-term recovery plans MUST include…

It's awesome. Standing on Southwark Bridge as I was the other day, looking over the edge in to the river. The sheer volume and movement of water is astounding and mesmerizing. Is the Thames London's greatest but most ignored asset?

It's a muddy emerald of a river that used to be the Capital's main artery. Talk to people wandering along the southbank and you soon learn that  many consider it to be the city's alimentary…

Sunday 11 September is our last day at the Tate Modern, where we've been pointing out a pair of peregrine falcons perched on the gallery's iconic chimney to passers-by.

These birds can reach jaw-dropping speeds in excess of 200 miles an hour when diving on prey. That makes them the fastest living creatures on the planet! If you want to see them through our telescopes, be there before we pack-up on Sunday evening…

I'm sure a couple of days ago I was too hot out in the sun. I remember my beans and tomatoes gasping for moisture. Today, I'm trying to save them from drowning, as wave after wave of freak torrential rain lashes London.

If it were a degree or two warmer, I could be forgiven for thinking I was in India or some tropcal rainforest. The dry spring and then mild summer are said to have been great for spiders, but they…

If you believe the national chatter in the media and social networks, we're all living in fear of what we now term "young people"; the ones being blamed for the lawless rioting witnessed across the country and dubbed a lost generation of "no-hopers".

It's not true of the children, teenagers and young adults that I know from my community in Hackney or from the friends and class mates of my children…

Riots, financial crisis and global droughts. The world can be a hostile place.

Cycling back home to Hackney from work was an unsettling experience. I didn't know what I'd find or encounter after passing the lines of parked-up buses  in Balls Pond Road, which marked the exclusion zone. Neighbours businesses were lost and my community was left fragile and uncertain. Thankfully nothing like the losses felt elsewhere…

I've almost filled the freezer with this year's blackberries. Big juicy ones plucked from brambly hedges in Ye Olde Hackney town.

Now I know what you're thinking. How dare I deprive the poor birds of all that deep velvety berry goodness. Well, I'll make sure I make up for it by inviting said birds and other wildlife to come dine with me. The menu includes seed cake and suet pastry rubbings followed…

The top of a concrete silo alongside one of Europe's busiest motorways is not everyone's ideal home, but these industrial chic surroundings are heaven to a family of kestrels.

Brett Erwin, a plant supervisor working for Lafarge [supplying concrete to the Highways Agency project, widening the M25 at junction 29] first saw and recognised the birds. Calling upon schoolboy memories and experience of a previous job…