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The other night I was inspired and motivated in equal measure as I attended the launch of the Natural History Museum's new exhibition, " Extinction - Not the end of the world ". It was an amazing scene in the Central Hall with the dinosaur skeleton lit red and the lights in the vast...

If you're going out with mates this evening and everyone's having a great time, stop it dead by saying the following out loud: "Today marks the fifth anniversary of laws preventing people from paving over front gardens without planning permission". Life and soul of the party you...

Walking along one of the boardwalks at Rainham with the sun washing your face and nothing demanding your attention is, in my book, one of the greatest luxuries in the world. If you ever get the chance to experience this level of bliss, then treasure it. There's something primal about the wide...

Lobbyists have been working hard cajoling reporters and editors this past week or two. What they must have spent pushing their pimped plans for a glossy airport they claim will solve all our ills could probably write off the national debt. Yes, I agree they could reclaim land from the Thames Estuary...

Frazzled. Everyone's frazzled and it's not just the air temperature. Defra's been frazzled by proposals to control buzzards around country estates where people pay to shoot pheasants. Suggestions included capturing buzzards and destroying nests around the estates. Eviction and imprisonment...

The weird weather's still around but nature's soldiering on and is alight with action. The lawn I laid earlier this year is now thriving and has brought in a much wider range of birds to my garden. I've more thrushes, a wren, more finches and even a new blackbird challenging the resident...

Cold, hard rain hit my face on the cycle ride in to work this morning, but the clear and loud song of a blackbird from a garden square in Bloomsbury is my over-riding memory of the commute. It's clarity and volume stood out from the rumble of London, adding a touch of magic to the usual soundtrack...

How was it for you? I gave up smoking years ago but even I wince at the notion of £7.50 for a pack of twenty. £5 for your average bottle of wine may help me drink less and I rarely buy beer in London pubs 'cause I can't then afford the bus fare home. On the plus side for London...

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman's reassuring the RSPB, and the thousands who voiced concerns , that legal protection for the environment will remain as " strong as ever ". Phew. Job done? Not yet! While her announcement is welcome, the details of the full "Red Tape Challenge"...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

I'm confused, what season are we in? Is it spring or summer now. Yesterday (3.5.11) the first of four central London peregrine chicks hatched live on our webcam . This morning, I heard swifts screaming over my house and the tree at the end of my garden is now in full leaf. I'm even contemplating...

We're careering towards Feed the Birds Day at an alarming rate. This haste seems to have been maintained throughout 2010 and frankly, I'm looking forward to the Christmas holidays, which are... just eleven weeks away (sound of alarm bells and cash-tills )! A partridge in a pear tree is possible...

For a change, London is NOT the centre of gun crime... as far as Birds of Prey [BoP] are concerned. Our magnificent falcons and hawks can continue to visit, safe in the knowledge that they're unlikely to become victims of prejudice. The RSPB's 20th annual Birdcrime report recorded 384 cases...

Not quite chocks away but ... Yes the season of peregrine chicks is upon us and soon London's skies will be full of these magnificent creatures swooping and diving and testing their flying skills. Sadly not all of London's peregrines successfuly bred this year. Eggs were washed out on one...

The election's passed and we'll have new faces in the Commons . Maybe we'll have other new visitors too, once the four eggs being incubated by peregrine falcons Beattie and Busby hatch... hopefully any moment now. The peregrines you can see on our pere-cam are the pair that use the Palace...

More than sixty thousand people, marched through London and Glasgow on Saturday as part of The Wave . Thank you to every one of you. This makes it the UK's biggest demo on climate change, sending a clear signal to our Government and world leaders. In London, we set-off from Grosvenor Square and...