NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

It started with a short film-clip that was shot sometime the 1950s. Trafalgar Square. Looking up at the statue of Nelson, motionless on top of his column, surveying all before him, in grainy black and white. Atmospheric and redolent of faded Empire, rationing, post-war gloom.... and Starlings. Thousands of Starlings. Swirling around our fabled Admiral, clouds of chattering, screeching birds, getting ready to roost in one of London's most famous squares. In 1950 over 100,000 Starlings were recorded roosting there. And it got me thinking of the roosts of my youth and how we all took this most humble of birds for granted, even dismissed it from our list of what were considered to be birds 'worth bothering about'. It got lumped in with House Sparrows and Feral Pigeons. Not worth looking at. This was, of course, before their numbers plummeted. During the 1970s I grew accustomed to seeing the pre-roost gatherings of Starlings over Sutton. Black vortexes that morphed in shape...

Thanks to Derek Coleman and members of the London Bat Group, I was able to join them on one of three winter visits that they undertake to count the bat roost that can be found in two disused tunnels right next to Highgate tube station in north London (above). These Victorian brick tunnels were used by steam trains up until the 1950s and are now boarded up and pitch black inside, save for small caged openings at either end. The floor of the tunnels are a medley of old track, corroded metal and shattered stone, a murderous cocktail without a torchlight to guide us through. The walls have been blackened by soot over the years and age has taken its toll on the mortar - nice hidey holes for the mammals to roost in. There were plenty of experts at hand to explain about bat ecology and the history behind this particular roost. On a mild day the experts prediction was that the count would be 'in the low-to-mid teens' and they were spot on - we found 15 individual bats, 12 Natt...