Living World - Swifts

LIVING WORLD - SWIFTS (320kbs-m4a/49mb/22mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 3rd May 2015

Chris Packham relives programmes from The Living World archives.

In 1947 David Lack, Director of the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology began observing swifts around Oxford. His observations, led to the creation of one of the longest continuous studies of a single bird species in the world, the Oxford Swift Research Project. In 2000 Lionel Kelleway joined Chris Perrins high up the Oxford University Museum tower to take Living World closer to these 'devil-birds' than ever before. They begin the programme high up on the outside of the tower, watching swifts feeding in the air.

Living World - Stone Curlew

LIVING WORLD - STONE CURLEW (320kbs-m4a/50mb/21mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 20th October 2019

The Stone Curlew is one of the rarest birds in Britain. The historical change in agricultural practices across the country resulted in the decline of suitable habitat, such as grazed chalk grassland and fallow areas, which are the kinds of habitat most favoured by the stone-curlew for breeding. Subsequently, their numbers dwindled to an all time low in the mid-1980s of just a few dozen pairs in the Brecklands in East Anglia and the Wiltshire downs.

For this weeks' Living World, Joanna Pinnock travels to a remote part of Wiltshire to meet Nick Adams of the RSPB's Wessex Stone Curlew Project where she is keen to discover for herself the lifecycle of this strange almost prehistoric wader, with wide open beady yellow eyes and knobbly knees.

Secretive and difficult to see in the breeding season due to their nocturnal behaviour, in the autumn, Stone Curlews gather in roost flocks to prepare for their migration to Africa. So, after a wet autumnal day, as the light begins to fade, for this Living World, the pair listen and wait for the eerie calls of this summer migrant resonating around the equally strange and prehistoric landscape near Stonehenge. With increasing darkness, Stone Curlews begin to leave their daytime roost sites to forage and disperse over the landscape. In doing so Joanna and Nick become eager spectators to a cacophony of calls as birds fly from area to area, calls that in days gone by people likened to banshees of the night. All too soon darkness envelopes the pair, but pointedly this is Nick Adam's very last day on the project, and as the calling becomes more intense, are the birds saying goodbye to Nick for one last time?

Producer: Andrew Dawes

Magnolia Warbler, Saint Govan's Head 24th September 2023

I travelled to Pembrokeshire yesterday to see just one of the unprecedented infux of American landbirds since 20th September. The Magnolia Warbler found by local birder Toby Phelps at Saint Govan's Head is the third record for the UK, one of fifteen (so far) different species recorded across UK & Ireland, with multiple sightings of some.

I arrived at Saint Govan's Head shortly after midday and made my way around the large hawthorn north of the car park. There was a path through the scrub with about twenty birders crammed into a small area. The toggers at the front were well placed! The Magnolia Warbler appeared almost immediately flitting about, but with branches frequently obscuring the views as well as negotiating other birders, my only views were a second or two as the bird zipped about. I crept around the edge of the glade to the vantage point in the photo above. Sitting patiently, waiting, the Magnolia Warbler appeared several times, but again only for a couple of seconds, until eventually it was out in the open in the middle of the glade for several seconds. Fantastic!

I was also hoping to see the Canada Warbler only a few miles away, amazingly also found by Toby Phelps on 23rd September. First for the UK, with one in Ireland in 2006. However, that wasn't seen. I learnt today that it has been seen again!

The third of the trio of vagrant American warblers in Pembrokeshire was a Bay-breasted Warbler on Ramsey Island RSPB, found by Assistant Warden Alys Perry. The second for the UK, after one in 1995. Again, not seen yesterday, but seen again today! With the next boat not until Saturday there could be a repeat of last Saturday when some saw all three warblers in a single day! That is if they stay...

Photo by Dave Hutton | Photo by Will Bowell

Previous records:
1981 Isles of Scilly - St Agnes, 27th to 28th September.
2012 Fair Isle, male, 23rd September.

BBC Morning Live - Roy Dennis White-tailed Eagle report

 

Living World - Hen Harrier

LIVING WORLD - HEN HARRIER (320kbs-m4a/50mb/22mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 23rd September 2018

Ghosts of the Moor are how the pale grey male hen harrier is sometimes referred to as it glides seemingly without effort across an upland landscape. To find out more and to revel in actually seeing a hen harrier on the wing, in this episode Brett Westwood & lolo Williams are on the Berwyn Moors in Wales in search of this enigmatic bird of prey. lolo has brought Brett to this particular spot as since seeing his first hen harrier here as a young boy, lolo has returned every year to study their ecology and biology. As the duo watch harriers on the moor, lolo expands his understanding of how harriers utilise this unique man made habitat, especially in early spring when the males perform their spectacular "sky dances" to attract the female. Not everyone is as pleased to have hen harriers on their moorland so discussion falls to how rare in England & Scotland they are due to loss of habitat to conifer plantations or sheep, as well as conflict on grouse moors.

Lindsey Chapman revisits this revised Living World from 2001 bringing the story up to date for today's listener.

Producer Andrew Dawes.

BBC North West Today - Neston Marsh Recovery report

Living World - The Late Arrivals

LIVING WORLD - THE LATE ARRIVALS (320kbs-m4a/49mb/21mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 8th September 2017

Brett Westwood relives programmes from the Living World archives, this week an episode from 2008.

More familiar in our gardens and parks, the Red Admiral butterfly is found throughout the British Isles and is one of the highlights of the butterfly season. It is an unmistakable butterfly with its black wings, and striking red bands. But how do they get here?

Well for this Living World, Lionel Kelleway travels to Lulworth Cove in Dorset where, standing on the cliffs and fully expecting to be looking out for autumnal bird migration, instead he witnesses the small bands of Red Admiral butterflies flying in from the sea as they migrate from mainland Europe. With Lionel is Richard Fox from Butterfly Conservation, who explains what's happening.