May Day, May Day - I'm bloody freezing!!

Reykjavik, Iceland (Justine Watson)

What's with the weather? It's May and I should be in my summer plumage having moulted my thick jumpers. But instead, I'm donning a beanie, thick jumper and a jacket to venture out into the metropolis.

On Sunday morning, I did my bit for International Dawn Chorus Day by leading a walk around The Scrubs. The night before saw gallons of water pouring out of the sky. By 5am it had stopped raining but the sky was ominously dark. Surprisingly, 10 people were waiting for me so the walk commenced. The chorus wasn't as rich as previous years partially due to the unpleasant conditions (it peed down!) and the fact that quite large areas of undergrowth had been cleared predominately for the Common Lizard populations. We did manage to connect with our usual songsters including at least 4 Lesser Whitethroats. Unfortunately, heavy rain put paid to a prolonged walk.

Last week, I had a great meeting with the PR company that looks after the Iceland Tourist Board. The long and short of it was that I have been invited over to Iceland in June along with my photographer, Russell Spencer. I'm really excited because we will spend the first couple day in Reykjavik then we'll head out to the northeast of the island to see Ptarmigan, Barrow's Goldeneye and millions of Puffins at first hand. I can't wait!

Before that however, is a trip to Derby that I have lined up for next Sunday. My main goal will be to check on the city's breeding Peregrines as well as whatever else Derby has to offer. But first, it's a trip up that Tower on Wednesday that's floating my boat.