URBAN BIRDS

Among the build­ings old and new, nature sur­vives. Come and join us on Sunday May 21st, 2012 as we seek out the birds and some other creatures that still live in the heart of London.

Our early morn­ing walk will look at our wild neigh­bours: some are dis­ap­pear­ing, some are recent col­on­ists. Can we still make the space for them? Where will they breed and bring up the next gen­er­a­tion? What do they need?

The walk will be led by author and broad­caster Peter Holden and archi­tect Cath­er­ine du Toit of 51% Stu­dios Archi­tec­ture and will be a jour­ney of dis­cov­ery round the streets and parks of Bank­side, end­ing in a secret garden not usu­ally open to the pub­lic. Along the way there will be oppor­tun­it­ies to see a num­ber of the Nest­works installed in 2010 & 11.

Meet 7.30am Sunday 21st May @ the Island Cafe, 1 Flat Iron Square, South­wark, Lon­don SE1 0AB

We’re excited to announce that a mon­it­or­ing pro­ject for the Nest­works is being launched at the Lon­don Chapter of Archi­tec­ture for Human­ity tonight. We are look­ing for volun­teers to help us assess which ones are being used and how by mon­it­or­ing a box and its environs for 20 minutes 1–3 times a week between 15 May & 15 June 2012.

The pro­ject will be aug­men­ted by a guided walk through the area by orni­tho­lo­gist Peter Holden and Cath­er­ine du Toit of 51% Stu­dios Archi­tec­ture on Sunday 20th May, time to be confirmed.

If you are inter­ested in par­ti­cip­at­ing, please do let us know via email: info@51pct.com.

Look­ing for­ward to return of the Per­eg­rine Falcon’s to the Tate Mod­ern, which has become a favouite sum­mer hunt­ing spot for a pair of flac­ons and some­times their young too, where they can be seen perch­ing high up on the former power station’s chimney.

Dur­ing the sum­mer the RSPB has in pre­vi­ous years brought power­ful tele­scopes offer­ing vis­it­ors free close-up views of the fal­cons from the river­side fore­court out­side the gallery.

It is under­stood the pair nest nearby, just across the river, at a top secret loc­a­tion. As we don’t have access to them yet, thought you might enjoy, via Edward Mayer of Lon­don Swifts, the latest live image from the per­eg­rine nest plat­form on the spire of Nor­wich Cathed­ral, installed by a part­ner­ship between the Hawk and Owl Trust and Nor­wich Cathed­ral, and with the help of volun­teers from Nor­wich firefighters.

Every spring the sound of bird­song fills the air.  This is a magical time as birds sing their heart out and begin build­ing their nests.

Robin: Pho­to­graph Peter Holden

The National Trust want to find the nation’s favour­ite bird­song and have talked to experts to come up with a short list in this ‘battle of the bird­song’. Here at 51% stu­dios we noted that two of the ‘Birds of Bank­side’ are on the list — the Robin, nom­in­ated by Stephen Moss and the Black­bird by Mat­thew Oates.

You can visit the National Trust web­site to see oth­ers on the list, listen to the song and then cast your vote. The res­ults from the battle of the bird­song will be revealed on inter­na­tional dawn chorus day on 1 May.

Don’t for­get also to visit the loc­a­tions pages on this web­site. If you’ve seen any nest­ing activ­ity in your local area, we’d love to hear about it, so please do fill in the short form and let us know!