Our office is in central London and we look out on to a building site at the back and, at the front the imposing concrete bulk of Wellington barracks; presently home of the Grenadier Guards.

It's not the sort of place you'd expect much biodiversity. This year, we've recorded a leap forward. Not only do we have blue tits and great tits nesting in the tree-lined street at the front, we've breeding blackb…

They're here, they're noisy and they're most welcome. Swifts are once again soaring, swirling and diving over my home. It's amazing that they find their way back here year after year, all the way from their African wintering grounds. I like Hackney, but you have to ask, why do swifts come here?

The answer is that with the watery, damp riches of both Hackney and Walthamstow Marshes and the River Lee nearby…

It's May and there's still no sign of the swifts that performed amazing sky dances over my house last year. Where are they?

I've been away over the Bank Holiday, enjoying the Suffolk coast and fresh sea breezes and was hoping the swifts would be back to welcome me home. We went to Orford, where swallows and martins put on a good show, but they simply can't compare with the grace, style and sheer exuberance…

They're here. Swifts have been spotted in London this last Sunday (26 April) but I've yet to see them over my house.

With today's grey skies and showers it would seem wrong for them to appear. I want my first sighting of 2009 to be on a sunny day with clear blue skies as I relax in a comfy chair with a mug of coffee; the moment heralded by the bird's distinct screech making me raise my eyes.

Things never…

I've been away on my hols, a sort of busman's holiday in that I visited some RSPB sites and talked to people about birds and conservation.

One of the highlights was Symonds Yat on the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border. The view's breathtaking but the sight of the peregrines nesting on the cliff while tits and finches bob around you blows your mind. I was dead jealous of the RSPB staff perched on their viewing…

Bird behaviour's predictable. Right? No. Just like people, birds are always doing odd things. The week before last, I was excitedly relating details of Bert the peregrine who was apparently mating with two females. I wondered how he'd cope trying to feed both females and their young. It appears that prospect daunted Bert too. He's ended his new relationship with a young peregrine he'd courted near Regent's Park…

I can't wait to go away on holiday and discover some culture, explore unknown areas and see new  things. How often do you hear people say that? I've said it myself before now. Yet when the weekend comes, do I explore the area around my house? Do I seek out culture and new things? Nope. 

That's part of the philosophy behind ThamesWatch, a joint initiative between the RSPB and The River Thames Guide. A free bird…

Peregrine fans, have I got news for you. But first, this Wednesday the results of January's Big Garden Birdwatch are publicly released, you can see the London results here.

For data dweebs this is an exciting time, the results give a snapshot of the state of our garden birds. It's not the immediate figures that are most interesting. Every year has its own story that changes with the weather. The real interest lies in…

Globally, it's a busy day for conservationists. There are meetings in Brussels and Istanbul and a report on the world's forests is due to be published in Rome.
 
For someone famous for rasping out the phrase "I don't like Mondays" Bob Geldof could be putting himself in the firing line today (Monday 16 March). He'll argue that biofuel production could eradicate poverty across Africa when he addresses…

As luck would have it, I had to attend a training course at our Rainham Marsh nature reserve the other day. Now, you can't visit a place like that without taking a stroll.

Along with a couple of colleagues, we walked along a boardwalk, parallel with the Thames, and within five minutes had seen a pair of water voles, noisily crunching on some reeds. The size of a toddler's football but fluffier than a fluffy thing in…

They are the soundtrack of our days, especially mornings, yet I wonder how many people just don't acknowledge the presence of birds?

It's coming to a time when we'll all need to ask, how important are birds? Research published this week shows that many birds are going to vanish as a result of climate change. This finding supports earlier research by the RSPB (Our Climatic Atlas of European Breeding Birds), which…

You can hear it in the chirping and cheeping. Not only are green shoots thrusting through the soil and tender buds unfurling, but the birds are getting fresh too. As if to underline the arrival of spring, a big fat queen bumblebee has explored our flowering heather and the few crocus flowers not yet eaten by the squirrels. The poor bee's probably looking for a suitable hive site.

Spring is here. There'll be a frenzy…

In the space of just three months I seem to have acquired three new and regular visitors to my garden. A ginger and white cat, a black and white cat and a tabby.

They all loiter in the shrubs and hide behind bumps and pot plants. They stalk leaves blowing in the wind and have had several attempts to catch garden birds. I'm delighted and amused to report that, so far, each witnessed attempt has failed.

The mammal s…

I have a confession. I'm in love, but frustrated.

I love my partner, my children, my work and the way nature constantly surprises, amazes and reminds me how unimportant people can be. The recent weather is a case in point. A couple of hours of heavy snow and life changed for thousands of people. But that's not why I'm frustrated.

My children make lots of noise and break things, but they're not frustrating me…

You're cold and hungry. You sit down for a meal but your food, the plate, cutlery and even the table are covered in six inches of freezing cold wadding.

That's the reality for some of the birds in my garden this morning. Deep snow has blanketed everything; and it's still falling!

Birds have quite high body temperatures that need to be maintained or they die. You're quite possibly tired of hearing this from the…

Saturday was glorious, chilly but comfortable in the sunshine. Just right for the Big Garden Birdwatch.

It was all pretty much what I'd expected, as my children and I scanned the trees and shrubs in my Hackney garden. Here's what we saw:

• eleven great tits
• seven magpies
• three feral pigeons
• two blackbirds
• two blue tits
• one robin
• one mistle thrush
• one black-headed gull

Twenty-eight birds in all. Whilst I was counting birds…

Here we are in the first week of this year's Big Schools' Birdwatch and careering towards the weekend of the Big Garden Birdwatch. It's more important than ever that people take part. We need to keep track of changes in our environment.

Once upon a time, the Government made the bold move to impose a target of an 80% reduction in atmospheric CO2 by 2050. Sadly, the decision to push ahead with a third runway at H…

Please say it's not just me and that you too have not yet got into the habit of writing 2009? Maybe it's another one of those age things, or perhaps it's denial that time's ticking away?

Time is a tricky old beast, more cunning than the urban foxes at the end of my garden, faster than the peregrines that feed on London's pigeons and more elusive than the dunnock that lurks in the shadows under my shrubs…

My first bird of the year was heard and not seen at twenty-two minutes to two in the morning of New Year's Day. I was in my back garden marveling at the silence when a cheery robin gave of its best and trilled in 2009.

Until the robin broke the silence, the lack of noise had sent shivers down my spine, reminiscent of the haunting peace that fell on London for Princess Diana's funeral. No sirens, no rumble of trains nor…

And what have you done, another year over....

I heard John Lennon's Happy Christmas on the radio and it prompted me to consider what the RSPB London team has done this year. Well, it ended on a high with snowflake the albino robin on Hampstead Heath. To use the proper term, snowflake is leucistic rather than albino; with patches of white. It's quite rare to see birds like this.

Over the past twelve months in London…

A snowy white robin has been wowing people strolling across Hampstead Heath's Parliament Hill. It's an albino.

Albino birds are quite common but rarely survive for long, they normally have weaker systems than usual and they're far too conspicuous to predators. The robins' timing couldn't be better with Christmas almost upon us. Our national bird is forver linked with the season thanks to its cheery red breast…

Yo, ho,ho. No, I'm not a sick pirate Santa suggested by the title. I won't be sticking a bird over some hot coals. I'm asking you to join me in raising a glass to the amazing and irreplaceable nature that makes these fair isles the green and pleasant place they are.

I'm not much of a whisky drinker. In fact I don't really like whisky, but I'll be buying a couple of bottles to give as presents this year because…

Once upon a time, canaries used to save coal miners by giving an early warning of gas. When the bird fell from its perch, the miners dropped tools and ran for their lives.

Oh, how times have changed! Coal-fired power stations are pumping out greenhouse gases and bird populations are changing and moving. The natural world is reacting to climate change. In response to this early warning, what do we do? Government and Ind…

In all the coverage about insect loss being responsible for the alarming decline in house sparrows, not one journalist has asked 'so what?"

The answer is that house sparrows may be small, brown & grey and, well, a bit common. But they are chirpy, happy little birds that add sound and movement to many people's lives. They are part of the natural world and part of our culture. Their loss would indicate that…

There's been a real buzz among bird lovers in London this week thanks to a woodcock.

These bulky waders are mostly nocturnal, favour woodlands and are incredibly shy, so to see one during the day in London, Lambeth no less, is a bit of a surprise. Well, I say surprise, but in fact there have been more than ninety confirmed sightings of woodcock in Greater London since the mid-seventies. My theory is that they've nipped…