I need a hug. Damp, grey and cold is how I feel, so how apt that the weather has obligingly changed to fit my mood. What I need is a swirling cloud of starlings, a murmuration, to lift my spirits.

There are a few small clusters of starlings that perform mini sky-dances around London but I've a full month to wait until the Brighton Pier starlings are fully up and running. The sheer number of starlings perched on the…

Twice this week, I've had people who love birds condemn magpies as the devil's spawn. Their hatred for these birds couldn't be any stronger. Yet, they are magnificent birds. When you look at them up close their plumage is a brilliant, pure white and the black takes on a sheen of metallic green, like oil on water. They look so smooth, sleek and clean you want to touch them, stroke them and feel their their firm…

The BBC's week long focus on invasive species certainly got people talking, which is always good. Let me throw a brick into the debate. As our ancestors explored the globe and created new trade routes, they took house sparrows with them. The descendants of those early sparrow settlers are now invasive species in other countries.

House sparrows are probably the world's most successful introduced bird. Originally they…

Global credit crunch and climate change are vying for position in the newspapers but it's concern over our finances that gets the most column inches, meanwhile I shuffle into the shade in my garden because it's too hot in the sun. 13 October and it's 23 celsius!

The plants and wildlife in my London garden must be more confused than me, although it was such a nice day I did find myself looking upwards to see…

House sparrows, grey herons and sparrowhawks appear to have been the birds that raised most interest in London this past week.

A friend of a friend mentioned a website where a few people had been chatting over the appearance of a sparrowhawk in someone's garden. It had caught and eaten a pigeon and they were concerned that it had left a "feathery mess" on the lawn. They were worried that more birds of pr…

Feed the Birds Day is almost upon us and I've charged my feeders and bought in some flowering bulbs, but it seems my autumn is more like a summer than the summer.

At the weekend I was out walking in woods near Enfield with my children and friends and we were all gobbling blackberries. I can't believe this season has gone on sooo long! I picked my first blackberry in June and had harvested a healthy crop from scrubland…

As the dust settles from the eight-week long daily peregrine watch at the Tate Modern, we've started to analyse the event.

Among the highlights, one incident stands out, when the peregrines chased off a buzzard that had found its way into central London. It came gliding in from the north but before it could even cross the Thames, Misty and Bert had leapt from the Tate chimney to chase it off. The nimbler peregrines…

The sun shone as we waved farewell to our peregrines on the Tate Modern chimney. If they called to us, we couldn't hear over the noise from the Tango masterclass taking place behind us - it was of course the Thames Festival and the southbank was a riot of colours, smells and sounds.

It's been a tough year at the Tate, the weather wasn't very kind and the birds were nervous about using the chimney whenever workmen…

It's wet, my swifts have gone and the plants I'd been growing to support my garden birds through winter have been gobbled up by squirrels. Welcome back after the summer break.

I went to France and the thing that stood out for me was the sheer number of birds and insects on mainland Europe. Each day I'd see more sparrows on my Brittany break than I can see in a fortnight in London. Birds of prey were everywhere…

They soared, they dived, they harrassed seagulls and filled the sky with their antics. We stood, necks craned and swivelled our bodies to track them as they flew around the Tate Modern chimney, over the Thames, past Blackfriars Bridge and buzzed the dome of St Paul's Cathedral.

I am, of course, talking peregrines. The two adults and one of their young. He must be about six months old now so this aerial dance was about…

I've an owl. It sits on the dining table and it's starting to rule my life. This is no Harry Potteresque messenger, but it constantly delivers scary news and has confirmed a suspicion I've held for some time.

My owl is a bit of technology that connects to the mains electricity supply of my house and tells me how much carbon my energy use is creating. It measure power consumption in my whole house. Why it's…

30 degrees and counting. It's hot and London's mosquito season is in full swing, evidenced by the itchy and angry red swellings on my ankles. Flying insects outnumber frazzled and fractious people in the Capital, luckily there's a horde of swifts and other birds having a feeding frenzy high above us. If only they could gobble-up all the mosquitos!

More earth-bound birds have sensibly taken to the shade and…

It's started. Our Aren't birds brilliant! Tate peregrine watch is underway. The birds are using the Tate Modern's chimney again as their favourite daytime perch. The female and male sit there watching us, watching them.

From the ground they're a couple of grey smudges, sitting about 90 metres up on the front face of the chimney on some ledges created by raised brickwork. It's not quite the top. If it gets too…

I ate my first wild blackberry Saturday (12 July), plucked from a bramble in Woodford that was overburdened with fruit!

I'm more used to them being ready in August/September and although my first blackberry of 2008 was a bit sour, it was plump and juicy and a day of warm sunshine would have set it to rights. It's another example of the changing seasons. Just another plant running ahead of schedule. Strangely, that evening…

The depth of knowledge and sheer joy of working with iconic birds has stood out for me this week during chats with RSPB colleagues at peregrine watches up and down the country.

I've been trying to find out more about these amazing birds, with a focus on differences between rural and urban peregrines. There's a hint of a difference but nothing concrete beyond the obvious difference of one lot nesting on cliffs and quarry…

Twenty four birds successfully netted, one escapee. The London House Sparrow Research Project has been running for a couple of years now, and this week I joined two of the team as they weighed, measured and ringed sparrows in Islington.

Without taking any ages in to account I can reveal that the average weight of the sparrows was equal to that of a two-pound coin and a one-pound coin combined. Average wing length was about…

Friday was a black day. We lost an eight-week-old female peregrine.

These magnificent birds have taken to London in a big way. We now have half a dozen breeding pairs living wild in the Capital and probably double that in single birds - not yet at breeding age.

The female was found on Thursday last week, badly injured on the ground in London Wall near the Museum of London. She was taken by one of our volunteer peregrine…

I cheered, then my heart sank, then it soared again, finally it swelled with pride. This was all while listening on a crackly mobile phone as RSPB Local Group leader Bob Husband explained where he was and what he was doing.

He was in a field in Barnet, near the M1. It’s normally home to some horses from a nearby stables but is also frequented by skylarks. Hence, Bob’s presence; accompanied by fellow North West…

Southwark has a new nature reserve. It's small but perfectly formed and it's just off the Old Kent Road.

A small army of volunteers helped create this new sanctuary for residents around Surrey Square. It's one of the BBC's Springwatch Action Team [SWAT] projects where scraps of land are transformed into usable spaces where people and wildlife come together; and it's beautiful.

Along with colleagues from…

"You'll think me mad," said the woman. "But to me, robin's are the bringers of bad news." No I didn't think her mad but I needed to know more.

"One appeared at my bedroom window and a few minutes later the phone rang and it was my brother calling to say Mum had just passed away. Then two year's later, I saw a robin at the kitchen window. The phone rang and I just knew someone else…

You go girl! Misty, our star peregrine, has FOUR chicks.

Last week we'd spotted three, but we can now confirm there are FOUR chicks. That's the second year running Misty has successfully hatched four chicks since dumping her old mate, Houdini.

Whether it's her toyboy partner, Bert, or the extra spring she has in her high-speed stoop we'll probably never know. The stoop is when peregrines dive on their prey mid…

London welcomes three new peregrine chicks. Proud parents Misty and Bert have been seen feeding their young on the deep ledge they call home in the heart of the Capital.

The site is extremely hard to reach and nearly impossible to view. When one of our monitors poked his head above the parapet to see how they were doing, the message behind Misty's aggressive screech was clear - GO AWAY! He didn't get to see the chicks…

I froze, I didn't want to shatter the moment. It's nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. It was just that I was within a metre of the tiniest, perkiest, perfect little wren that I hardly dared breathe.

It's white eye-liner reminded me, bizarely, of Adam Ant and ever since I've had that damn Stand and Deliver song rattling round my head. This encounter happened right next to my backdoor. I've suspected…

It was an epic struggle but there was one clear winner.

Yes, Boris Johnson is Mayor of London but I was talking about the arrival of our summer swift population. They've battled Saharan storms, food shortages and blistering temperatures but they've returned to London, all hail the swift.

These birds are truly remarkable. They spend most of their lives on the wing and gobble lots of flying insects. We should be bending…

A beautiful collection of rare eggs and a stuffed avocet are not usually things you come across at fetes and urban shows but I must congratulate the Metropolitan Police for a great stand. They were at the Lee Valley Wildlife Weekend showing the sort of illegal stuff they deal with.

It's nothing like those exciting TV detective shows. Their work is more mundane, but vital. A typical job would be inspecting development…