Poor show!

The nearest we got to a Wood Pigeon!

Despite yesterday's fairly good numbers of Wood Pigeons winter thrushes and finches across the Capital, this morning was absolutely rubbish!

Despite a visitation from top BBC Producer/Director and prolific writer, Stephen Moss, the birds were not behaving themselves. Let's hope that this Sunday's Migrant Bird Blitz, that will also incorporate an early morning blitz at Canary Wharf, is more successful. The forecast on Sunday is for northerly winds and the chance of showers.

What will be will be.

Tower 42 list: fairly clear with the wind swinging from several directions.

7:30 50 Black-headed Gull Thames
8:08 1 Peregrine Tate Tower
9:10 200 Black-headed Gull Thames (updated count)
9:20 2 Lesser Black-backed Gulls Over Liverpool St. Station
9:40 1 Peregrine (returned to perch) Tate Tower
9:40 1 Mute Swan Thames

Tomorrow's the day?

The cityscape looking east from Tower 42 (Geoff Nutter)

The past few Fridays have been frankly rubbish. We'd get up on the roof to be greeted by thick mist, rain and no birds. Well, I say no birds, there was evidence of movement with a couple Meadow Pipits passing over. Of course, we can't hear any migrants due to the loud extractor fans that kick in every 15 minutes.

Tomorrow promises to be the best one for weather in several weeks. If it is anything like today then we should be recording good numbers of passage Wood Pigeons, Chaffinches and winter thrushes.

Roll on tomorrow.

Our Next Autumnal Watch and How to Get Involved

Our next migration watch session will be this Friday 8th October.

The autumn target species will be any passerines, hirundines, waders, gulls, terns (along the Thames) and of course raptors - although we may be up on the roof too early in the day to get any significant numbers though. During mid-October until early November we will also be collating the numbers of passage winter thrushes and Wood Pigeons using London's airspace.

If you wish to be involved then please email Des McKenzie at onebluegull@ntlworld.com as David is currently on The Azores. There is a limited number of people allowed onto the roof (for security, health and safety purposes) therefore the first people to get back to me before noon on Thursday will be invited to meet outside the Tower 42 building at 25 Old Broad Street, London EC2N 1HQ (nearest tube Liverpool Street - Bank is not too far away) at 6:30am sharp so that we can be escorted up by security en masse. There will be a secondary meeting time of 7:30am for those having transport issues. Please stipulate which meeting time you would like to make. If you are significantly late you may not be granted access. Please also let me know if you have to leave early to get to work so that a mutually agreed time can be set to suit the group and the Tower 42 security.

Here are a few helpful tips for high-rise birding:

The final ascent to the roof involves climbing two sets of steep ladders and hauling yourself onto the roof. Please take this into consideration.

All participants must arrive outside the Tower 42 at 6:30am or 7:30am on time.

You may find that a telescope will be useful for scanning the horizon.

Bring a flask of tea and some food.

Dress warmly as it can get a bit nippy or wet.

Be prepared for long periods of inactivity but keep your eyes peeled.

Wear dark glasses in order to cut the glare from the sky and to pick out birds more easily.

Try to bring a whistle to help alert other observers of distant birds over the din of the extractor fans that are on almost constantly.

Here's to an amazing autumn studying the migrants flying over our heads in London.

Tower 42 Bird Study Group

Keeping our eyes to the skies