BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 5th April 2012
Spring woodlands are loud now with the drumming of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and their familiar head-banging territorial sounds are everywhere in the UK . Numbers of Great Spotted Woodpeckers have increased 250% over the last few decades and they have taken to feeding in garden bird-tables along with Tits and Robins. However, their much smaller cousin, the tiny sparrow-sized Lesser Spotted Woodpecker has declined by as much as 90% in the same period and from 2011 is one of the species monitored by the Rare Birds Breeding Panel.
To find out why our Woodpeckers have experienced very different fortunes, Brett Westwood visits the Wyre Forest on the Worcestershire/Shropshire border. This ancient oak wood is one of the study plots for a 3-year RSPB research project on the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, and one of the best sites to see them in the UK. They are one of the most difficult birds to study because of their size, their attraction to feeding high in the canopy and their huge winter range. A single bird may range over 700 hectares of forest habitat in winter and so is very hard to locate. In Spring they call and drum, making February, March and April the best months to see them, before the leaves are fully expanded. For Nature, Brett Westwood visits Wyre with Ken Smith and Elisabeth Charman, woodland ecologists from the RSPB, to search for the birds and to learn about the results of the survey. Although the decline of the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers is still shrouded in mystery, some interesting facts have emerged. A third of the broods are deserted by one of the parents, leaving the other, usually the male, to bring up the young. Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers glean insects from leaves and there are indications that climate change may be affecting their prey supplies.
Among woodland birds, "Lesser Spots" aren't the only species whose numbers are falling. Nightingales, Willow Tits and Wood Warblers are also declining sharply which raises questions about the suitability of our woods for many species. But with the rise of the Greater Spotted Woodpecker, also a woodland bird, teasing out the reasons is a challenge for scientists. Brett talks to Rob Fuller, of the British Trust for Ornithology who's studied woodlands for over 30 years, and hears about the complexities of monitoring woods and the birds which live in them.
Producer: Brett Westwood
Editor: Julian Hector.
BBC World Service broadcast: 15th November 2009
This edition of Discovery examines German partition and reunification as seen through the lens of one of the country’s most prestigious companies, Carl Zeiss. Like Germany itself, Carl Zeiss was divided after 1945 and the history of the two Zeiss factories, both specialising in optical technologies, mirrors post-war political, social and technological separation and subsequent re-unification.
Reporter Tim Whewell charts the history of the company, founded in 1846, which built a global reputation for producing high quality microscopes, scientific instruments, cameras and lenses. Originally based in Jena in eastern Germany, the company was split at the end of the Second World War, with the Americans taking top Zeiss scientists west, to Oberkocken and the peoples' enterprise, V.E.B Carl Zeiss Jena, continuing in the GDR.
Like Germany itself, where early post war hopes lingered that the country wouldn't be divided, both parts of the Carl Zeiss company initially struggled to maintain contact. But the bitterness and mistrust of the Cold War soon created deep political, economic and social divisions and the two parts of the company became bitter international rivals, arguing about who owned the Carl Zeiss trademark on the world market.
But in November 1989, 20 years ago, the Berlin Wall came down and while Germany reunified, Carl Zeiss in Oberkocken was determined that it too, should be reunited with Carl Zeiss in the East. For this Discovery, Tim Whewell, speaks to the key figures who negotiated the subsequent unification of Carl Zeiss, to workers in Jena, many of whom lost their jobs and to current staff and the company's leadership about the impact of this merger.
This edition of Discovery is part of BBC World Service’s 1989: Europe’s Revolution coverage, marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 3rd June 2009
Chris Sperring explores declining seabird numbers and asks if it represents a crisis or just a blip.
Visit any windy, spray laden seabird colony in the spring and early summer and every sense is fired by the sound, sight and smell of thousands upon thousand of birds flying to and fro with fish to feed their young that are perched precariously on every ledge.
Or that is how it should be. In many seabird colonies it is now much quieter and many traditional nesting ledges are empty. Seabird ecologists are increasingly concerned about how many species are fledging young, and in some areas none are successful in raising chicks at all.
These worrying signs are increased by looking at the number of birds that are washed up dead on beaches during the winter months. Once the seabirds have left the cliffs in the summer they spend the rest of the year out at sea. But many are now succumbing to starvation and end up washed ashore. There are definitely signs that the North Sea is changing and that seabirds are finding it harder to cope.
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 27th May 2009
Brett Westwood searches for the reasons behind the declining numbers of many of our migrant songbirds - including the Cuckoo, Turtle Dove and Spotted Flycatcher - and where the birds are most vulnerable.
Speaking to researchers from the RSPB and British Trust for Ornithology, he explores the dual world of our migrants, like the Pied Flycatcher which spends its summers in the lush oak woods in the British Isles but winters in west African savannah woods. For some species, such as the Cuckoo which evolved in Africa, northern Europe is a treasure trove of habitats and food supplies to be exploited, and many of our successful migrants are birds which originated in Africa but then moved north to cooler areas to breed.
Do the reasons for them now being under threat lie here in the UK or south of the Sahara in their winter homes, and will they be able to evolve new wintering or summering areas to compensate for losses?
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 26th June 2007
Last month a pair of Cranes bred in the East Anglian fens, a remarkable event since their chosen habitat was only created seven years ago. Michael Scott visits Lakenheath Fen to see the birds for himself and talk to the RSPB about the arrival of the Cranes and its effect on plans for future wetlands.
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 5th June 2007
As part of the BBC's Springwatch event, Grant Sonnex presents the programme from the RSPB's reserve at Minsmere in Suffolk. Among the reed beds and woodlands, he revels in the voices of some of Britain's finest songbirds and hears about the lives that they lead before their chorus fills the spring air.
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 8th May 2007
Arguably the most influential journal of its genre, British Birds reaches its 100th birthday in June. With the help of leading ornithologists, Brett Westwood looks back at a history which mirrors the growth of birdwatching in the UK. He uncovers the scandal of the Hastings Rarities, the first arrival of the Collared Dove, and the unique legacy of observations in the magazine.
