From rubble to redstarts

摘要

Renowned as the 'bombsite bird', the black redstart has often been overlooked by conservationists, but now a new approach is helping to save this rare British bird and is also changing our attitude to green spaces in our cities. It all began one Maymorning back in 1997. It was 3am, and my partner and I, a little addled from a night of clubbing, stood looking out onto the urban blight of Deptford from the seventeenth floor of her council block. It was a beautiful morning - still, warm and quiet, which is rare when you live beside one of the main roads into Central London. Leaning on the balustrade and looking towards London and St Paul's, we were enjoying the relative tranquillity when a male black redstart broke into its distinctive, jangling song from the derelict land beneath us. The early morning air seemed to amplify his song, which rattled across Deptford Creek. When the sun rose, we spotted him perched on top of an old boat, which in turn was perched like a miniature ark on a pile of rubble on the site of the old Ferranti Power Station - right in the heart of the 'urban blight' of South-east London.