Starling murmuration on the banks of the River Severn, shot on 11/01/12.

Image ©Rune Bendiksen 2012

Some other great stuff in this issue, including an article about the Tate Modern peregrine falcons, written by BBC Nature Writer of the Year 2010 – Conor Jameson and illustrated by Daishu Ma’s exceptionally well-crafted wood-cuts..

Portraits © Michael Whelan www.m-whelan.com

Woodcuts © Daishu Ma www.daishuma.com / alienandmonkey.com

Image © TMW / Guinness

Cannavaro for Nike (©)

http://www.happyfinish.co.uk/retoucher/sam-twiddy/

Sheepoodle ©Rune Bendiksen for LO Norway

Image ©John Higginson for McCann NY

It gave me the opportunity to interview Geoff Sample, who I highly respect for the quality of his recordings of British birdsong – www.wildsong.co.uk

I was also lucky enough to be granted permission to use the paintings of my favourite bird artist, Raymond Harris Ching,  to illustrate the article. These paintings originally appeared in the Reader’s Digest / AA Book of British Birds, which I have owned and treasured for many years.

To download a PDF and read the full article click here

Lost in London is stocked in Magma, Pedlars, YCN and the Tate Bookshop or you can order a copy from their website here

These oak leaves were some early examples of works he produced using found objects. After collecting these leaves from a woodland floor during the autumn, he photographed them individually and arranged them in varying spectra of degradation to create this set of images. They are best when viewed as large prints, as the differences in the details of the individual leaves can be studied up close and also make an impressive spectacle when viewed from a distance as a whole.

Adrian’s magpie and bower-bird tendencies were also inspired by man-made detritus. These collections of blue plastic were made from artefacts found whilst beachcombing at Morcambe Bay in Lancashire.

He was interested in the idea that the coast is a place where all that is unwanted by man eventually ends up – nuclear power stations and military ranges get shoved out to the edges of the land, sewage gets pumped out into the sea and any material lost or discarded by ships also washes ashore.

Adrian chose blue plastic to highlight this issue, as although it might seem quite an unnatural material to find in such a wild environment, it is becoming more and more commonplace and is the perfect material to use to represent our man-made and throw-away culture. The colour blue gives emphasis to the point by being such a rare pigment to occur naturally.

These images are also themed around degradation – the plastic artefacts shown have been gradually broken down by the mechanical action of the sea in combination with exposure to light and varying coastal temperatures into smaller and smaller fragments – but that is not the end of the story. Research has shown that microscopic fragments of plastic can be found in tidal sediments. The plastic does not disappear it just gets smaller. Most plastics are largely resistant to biodegradation and are thought to be likely to remain in the environment for hundreds of years. Larger fragments have been found in the digestive tracts of many marine organisms from sharks to fulmars and the deleterious effects of these is reasonably obvious. What effect micro-plastics may have, especially on micro-organisms is still unknown, though studies have shown that filter feeding organisms such as lugworms rapidly accumulate plastics if exposed to such sediments which may have a similar choking effect. Plastic as a material is relatively inert though additives such as bactericides are not. Even “biodegradable plastics” remain in the environment in micro-fragments once the starches which hold the plastic molecules together have broken down.

Adrian concluded his message by using the objects he had collected to create a map of Morecambe Bay - the area they were all found. Here, the darker plastics represent deeper waters and the more degraded and washed-out plastics are used to represent the shallow waters, where the plastics are more rapidly broken down.

As the 2011 Spring migration sessions are about to kick off, I thought I would post a couple of shots from last year.

This view of the London skyline is looking east from Tower 42 towards Canary Wharf. Just before sunrise, the streetlights and offices are glowing brightly

Again, looking east, but this time in portrait and just after the sun has risen. The city lights are no longer visible, so have brightened the lower half of this shot to bring out some detail

David Lindo, aka ‘The Urban Birder’, at the top of Tower 42 www.theurbanbirder.com

The back of my head and a view of the Barbican

Image ©Joe McGorty 2010 www.joemcgorty.com

Tower 42 bird study group blog: http://t42bsg.blogspot.com/