Brett Westwood is joined by keen bird watcher, Stephen Moss, on the Devonshire coast.
With the help of wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson they offer a practical and entertaining guide to identifying the birds which you're most likely to see and hear on sandy shores around Britain's coastline; birds like Common Tern, Sandwich Tern, Ringed Plover and Oystercatcher.
The programmes helps identify many of the birds found around our British coastline in places like sandy beaches, rocky shores, sea cliffs, off-shore islands and estuaries.
Not only is there advice on how to recognise the birds from their appearance, but also how to identify them from their calls and songs.
Brett Westwood is joined by keen bird watcher, Stephen Moss, on the Devonshire coast. With the help of wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson they offer a practical and entertaining guide to identifying the birds which you're most likely to see and hear in Britain's estuaries; birds like Redshank, Dunlin, Curlew and Knot.
This is the first of five programmes to help identify many of the birds found around our British coastline in places like sandy beaches, rocky shores, sea cliffs, off-shore islands and estuaries. Not only is there advice on how to recognise the birds from their appearance, but also how to identify them from their calls and songs.
This series complements three previous series; A Guide to Garden Birds, A Guide Woodland Birds and A Guide to Water Birds and is aimed at both the complete novice as well as those who are eager to learn more about our coastal visitors and residents.
"Make the boy interested in natural history," wrote Captain Scott from his tent in the Antarctic. He was talking about his son, three year old Peter Scott, whom he never saw again and who went on to found the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust and campaign against the hunting of whales. The son also designed the panda logo for the Wold Wide Fund for Nature and was its first chairman. David Attenborough called Scott the patron saint of conservation and he appears in this programme. Nominating him in studio is the adventurer Pen Hadow, whose father knew Scott and with whom he shared a nanny. The programme also features two of Scott's children, Dafila and Falcon, as well as some rarely heard archive.
From his early years as an arctic adventurer, Pen Hadow has developed into an ardent conservationist with the 90 North Foundation. He describes this programme as an enormous responsibility and wonders why Sir Peter Scott, the founder of Slimbridge, is not better known today.
The producer for BBC Audios Studio in Bristol is Miles Warde.
Stones, patios, rockeries and walls may at first seem an unlikely habitat for wildlife but that's far from the truth as you can hear when Brett Westwood is joined by naturalist Phil Gates in a garden near Bristol and, with the help of recordings by wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson, they offer a practical and entertaining guide to the wildlife which you're most likely to see and hear associated with walls and stones in the garden.
Many invertebrates like to sunbathe on sun-drenched stones whilst others live in the cool shade under the stones. Wolf spiders and zebra spiders (the latter so called because of their black and white markings) can be found sunbathing on patios or house walls. "Watch out for their courtship - this is real edge of the seat drama " says Phil of the wolf spider as the smaller males risk their lives as they approach the female signalling to her, often for hours, before he mates, or in some cases, is eaten!
Stone walls may also harbour slow worms, although you can also encourage these into your garden with pieces of corrugated iron as Phil explains. Turning over some edging stones, Brett and Phil discover masses of black garden ants, which milk aphids for their sugary honeydew "rather like we milk herds of cattle", explains Phil. Snails in the garden are kept in check by Song Thrushes which use stones as anvils on which to crack the snail shells and extract the contents for a juicy meal. Perhaps most valuable of all are ivy-clad walls which offer shelter in winter for many species, as well as nesting sites for birds, and year round food. And if you have ivy and holly in your garden then you could be rewarded with the sight of a lovely Holly Blue butterfly which requires both to complete its life cycle.
If you want to take a closer look at the wildlife in your garden trees and shrubs, then you need an umbrella. The reason why becomes clear, when Brett Westwood is joined by naturalist Phil Gates in a garden near Bristol and with the help of recordings by wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson they offer a practical and entertaining guide to the wildlife which you're most likely to see and hear in garden trees and shrubs.
Storied vegetation creates the most diverse habitat for birds in gardens, mimicking the woodland edge. Willow Warblers, Blue Tits and Great Tits all use trees as a caterpillar food source and song posts. With the help of the umbrella, Brett and Phil discover looper caterpillars (larvae of Geometrid moths) and a staple diet of many nesting tits and warblers. They get their name from the way in they loop their body up and then stretch out. They are sometimes called 'measurers' or 'inch worms' as they appear to measure out an inch at a time.
Phil then produces a strange looking object "It reminds me of dish mop" he laughs. It turns out to be Rose bedeguar gall (Robin's pincushion) and Phil explains how these and other galls are produced in a fascinating process in which insects, (a wasp in the case of the Bedeguar gall) reprogramme plant tissue development.
Brett and Phil then move into the back garden to compare notes on the ideal tree for a small garden before finally discussing the value of old trees and dead wood in the garden; including feeding sites for birds like Nuthatches and sounding boards for drumming woodpeckers.
