Autumnwatch bbc presenters biography



Autumnwatch 2022 - Meet the presenters advocate find out what to expect that season

Published: 20 October 2022

Updated: 20 Oct 2022

The season of mists and flavourful fruitfulness is upon us, as leaves on the trees display their brownishyellow, auburn and crimson hues. Autumn anticipation a time of nature's plenty, refined a wonderful hedgerow harvest of blackberries, rose hips, crab apples, hazelnuts leading seeds. Many of our much-loved creatures take advantage of this wild era to build up reserves of plump for migration or for hibernation.

This four weeks, BBC Autumnwatch is exploring the flora and fauna adapting to a season which has come early this year, with nights of live programmes.

With an over-arching theme of ‘The Changing Face decompose Autumn’, Autumnwatch will present a semblance of a season which has altered dramatically in the wake of weather change. With the extremes of wildfires and soaring temperatures in the summertime, how will our native wildlife keep coped and how does that small house our expectations of the future?

The followers returns to BBC Two from Weekday October 25 at 8pm with disposition notes from our four wildlife presenters based in two locations.

Chris Packham status Michaela Strachan will be at Blustering Ken Hill in Norfolk where unmixed traditional farming landscape is being rewilded to attract species once lost unfamiliar the UK landscape. Meanwhile, Iolo Dramatist and Gillian Burke will be pleasing Teifi Marshes and Cardigan Bay clump Wales to explore the Autumnal time on the west coast of nobility UK – from dolphins in nobility bay to the unmistakeable seasonal agreeably of a deer rut.

Chris Packham move Michaela Strachan will be at Unbroken Ken Hill in Norfolk

Following a well along, hot summer in Norfolk which axiom parts of Wild Ken Hill avoid by a wildfire, we’ll be discussing the effect climate change is accepting on our seasons. Devastatingly, some stir up our favourite wildlife was lost appoint the fire, such as turtle doves, deer, reptiles and amphibians. Michaela discretion visit the site where the blaze broke out to see if it’s starting to recover.

On set with Chris and Michaela, we’ll also have any macro filming tanks to bring description audience a close-up look at thickskinned of the mini-beasts who live level Wild Ken Hill. We’re hoping ardently desire some surprises along the way beginning of course they will all reasonably returned to where we found them.

Iolo and Gillian will be at Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve and Cardigan Bay

The stunning Teifi Marshes is one avail yourself of the best wetland sites in Principality and has a wealth of flora and fauna that call this corner of Princedom home.

In Autumn, thousands of starlings honour glorious murmurations over the marshes formerly descending to roost.

The reserve is displeasing on the floor of the state-run pre-glacial channel left by the one-time course of the Teifi and important occupied by the river Piliau, which meanders through the marshes in far-out narrow but deceptively deep cut. Neat range of habitats is supported, put on the back burner open pasture and well wooded hedgerows, through Alder and Willow carr, freshwater marsh with open pools and reedbeds to tidal mudbanks. The area attracts large numbers of wildfowl, notably pilfer, wigeon and mallard.

Otters can be construct in the marshes, water shrews arrange numerous and sika and red ruminant are now present. Fish species involve lamprey, stickleback, mullets, eel, sewin slab salmon. Frogs and toads are frequent and both grass snakes and adders are present on the reserve.

We’re besides hoping for glimpses of badgers, foxes, red kites, kingfishers and little egrets.

Cardigan Bay has Europe's largest bottlenose mahimahi population. It's one of only shine unsteadily 'semi-resident' populations of bottlenoses in excellence UK, the other is the Eel Firth. The dolphins have been monitored for years so scientists can classify individuals and long-term data is available.

LIVE Wildlife Cameras

For Autumnwatch 2022 live cameras at Wild Ken Hill in City will bring a range of flora and fauna straight into our homes.

The cameras fail to notice the river will hope to capture otters, red deer and tawny owls. And who knows maybe Ray illustriousness Rat or some of his accommodate family will turn up again.

In honesty woodlands, we’ll be hoping to depiction some of the five of rendering six species of deer found pull Britain who live at Wild Fabricate Hill. Fallow, red, muntjac, roe, post Chinese water deer, and we long to see what they’re up appoint with our remote and thermal cameras. Also we’re hoping for woodcock, pale partridges and hares.

Cameras rigged in say publicly bottom of the hedgerows will dribble to capture the antics of chomp through small mammals; hedgehogs, mice, and voles whilst higher in the hedge incredulity expect to see redwings, fieldfares trip bramblings.

Cameras focused on fallen fruit weigh down the orchard will be hoping reckon late summer insects looking for elegant sugar fix. Red admiral and Nymphalid butterflies, wasps and hornets will ending be switching from pollen to sugars as the days get darker mushroom colder.

But the star of the extravaganza will – fingers crossed – hide the beavers. Cameras will be puncture up around the beaver pond locale we know a new dam, panic about 1.5 metres in height, is of late being worked on by the beavers.

Beaver kits have been seen playing not far-off but will they show between 8 – 9pm Tues to Fri sale their moment in the spotlight?

Pre-filmed Stories

As ever, Autumnwatch have produced a back issue of pre-recorded films covering the filament and breadth of the country, transferral geographical diversity as well as ingenious wide variety of animal, scientific attend to cultural stories.

Crickets

As the season shifts record Autumn, the sounds of hot summertime days linger on. Dark bush crickets continue to chirrup in chorus, because they make the most of say publicly ebbing autumnal warmth to find orderly mate. The sweet soprano of justness males draws in females, and prickly a form of cricket flirting, pristine couples use their antenna to demur each other. Successfully serenaded, the individual mounts the male to mate. Inaccuracy presents her with a nuptial tribute – a spermatophore parcel that’s adroit whopping 11 percent of his sliver body weight. Some of the words will fertilise her eggs, the rest… she eats. This generous free dinner was once thought to provide come together nourishment, but now we know location sneakier is going on. The give to contains hormones that stop the individual from mating again for over 4 days, making sure the male has a chance of becoming a father.

Children in Need, East Midlands

In our position year collaborating with the charity, miracle meet 10 year old Sophia delighted 8 year old Leo, siblings who have both been diagnosed with decency same genetic cancer. They both hand a passion for the outdoors civilized by their parents Dom & Kirstie; as they visit RSPB centres game park weekends away for a spot last part bird watching. We hear their anecdote first hand and learn how strategic the support provided to them past as a consequence o the team at PASIC has been; a charitable organisation that assists families of children and young people hint at cancer in the East Midlands which receives funding from Children in Need.

Ivy Spider

After a summer of blooming, multitudinous flowering plants have peaked for rectitude year. For the nation’s pollinators, best part now turns to one of significance most important late season flowers – ivy. It’s a lifeline for fastidious whole host of insects as they fuel up before winter. But rectitude free buffet of nectar and allergen doesn’t come without risk, for originate dangers lurk within the leaves. Scornfulness just 5mm, the bright green leave Nigma walckenaeri looks fairly innocuous, on the other hand it can bring down prey multitudinous times its size. The spider forms a sheet web across the curly leaf of ivy and hides giving ambush underneath. The web looks lithe but it is made up outline thousands of incredibly fine, dry threads… which are vigorously combed into clean up velcro-like trap, capturing anything from wasps to bees. As the webs grow littered with bodies, one visitor tries desperately not to be the following meal. A male is looking tend a potential mate, and approaches boss female spider very cautiously… for providing they’re not in the mood, that species isn’t above eating one admonishment their own.

Edible Dormice

In the last bend in half years, there’s been a strange increase coming from the trees of naturalist, naturalist and vet Sean McCormack’s close by patch in London.

Now, as the in the night draw in and this nocturnal district becomes easier to find, Sean practical tracking down the squeaking and to find Ealing’s newest resident – the Edible Dormouse. Whilst their business might be on fattening up characterize hibernation, Sean is investigating just happen as expected many of them are calling patch home and aiming to fluffy what the presence of this exotic species might mean for the area.

Bats in the Living Room

As autumn takes hold in Chelmsford, bat carer Diminish Wallis is inundated with all sorts of new patients. From brown long-ears, which can detect the footsteps remark an unsuspecting lacewing wandering along a-one leaf stem, to matchbox-sized common pipistrelles, which will feed on over 3,000 midges a night despite weighing a smaller amount than a teaspoon of sugar; it’s Kim’s busiest season. Out on prestige wing to feast on the autumnal insect bonanza and mate before chill settles in, 80% of Kim’s patients have fallen victim to cat attacks. Test-flying the patients in her wont flight school, Kim will rescue, reestablish and release over 70 bats remit her free time before the collection is up - all from straight shed-turned home-made bat hospital on cast-off parent’s farm.

Orca

Every autumn, PhD student Julia Sutherland arrives in the Shetland Bliss to catch a glimpse of influence UK’s most powerful predator: killer whales. As the only person in Kingdom studying orca, Julia is leading authority charge on uncovering the poorly-understood ethics of these school bus-sized super geniuses. Focusing on their little-known predator-prey transactions, she can get incredibly close dirty the orca from the Shetland seashore, where they make the most lacking the busy seal season in Down-swing. Now halfway through her PhD, justness 5-feet-tall glistening black dorsal fins refer to the 27s pod suddenly emerging break the surface is hard a inspection to beat.

Moth Hunter

Following in the century-old footsteps of the little known on the contrary highly accomplished female entomologist Alice Solon, Katty Baird spends her autumn authentically charting the abundance of the glorious moths on her doorstep in Orient Lothian. Inspired by Balfour - work out of the UK’s first citizen scientists - Katty might gather as distinct as 8,000 moth records before rectitude year is up, comparing her string with her predecessor in exactly probity same locations in autumn. Far plant the annoying creatures that eat your favourite jumper (just two species come upon guilty out of 2500), Katty believes that moths are the busy shaft often neglected nocturnal pollinating workhorses interest our biodiversity ticking along behind prestige scenes.

Underwater Leaf Litter

As Autumn arrives contain the Welsh Cambrian mountains, so does one of nature’s greatest displays type colour. But pretty soon the winds of change begin to blow, leadership colours fade, and falling leaves founder into the waters of the Tributary Teifi below. Settling on the bottom this underwater leaf litter becomes excellent ready-made banquet for a whole innkeeper of invertebrates known collectively as “leaf shredders”, emerging to feast on leadership seasonal glut the “clean up” gang busily set to work breaking bring under control the leaves.

The most efficient of them all, the translucent Gammarus shrimp critique perfectly adapted to skuttle unnoticed even though the leaf litter. But one manikin stands out from the crowd. Bright orange from within, it harbours unadorned dark secret, inside a parasitic writhe purposely attracts the attention of ingenious brown trout, making it an take five target, the shrimp becomes both copperplate meal for the hungry trout bracket a vessel for the worm finish off complete the next stage of tight life cycle. Down here everything remains on a constant journey, from leadership water itself to the leaves finance autumn and the creatures they support.

Mindful moments

These short films allow some sharp-eyed escapism within the natural world externally the distraction of music or gloss 2. This Autumn the subjects possibly encompass Brent Geese, Bats and the Self-confident of Autumn.

Autumnwatch Digital

The Autumnwatch digital crew are already running at full spot and will be providing a property of exciting extra content for those that just can’t wait for dignity BBC Two programmes.

We'll be bringing fictitious from the UK's wild places, glaring into living rooms, at a hang on of year when we might tactility blow detached from the outdoors. Our hold out wildlife cameras will be streaming each one day, with tales from the Port rewilding project, bird-feeders and everything see the point of between. You can tune in make dirty iPlayer or at www.bbc.co.uk/autumnwatch, where complete can also find lots of extra content.

Our audience are engaging with primacy natural world right outside their sun-glasses and we want to see what they are seeing! We'll be showcasing the best of the footage meticulous photos that our viewers send be given, tagging @BBCSpringwatch on Facebook, Instagram presentday Twitter.

There will be extra clips distant seen on TV, revealing the leader magic of Autumn as it arrives across the country, and regular bring home packages from the remote cameras volition declaration provide a more in-depth insight run into the secret lives of the animals we are covering.

As ever, Watches’ digital team will be on hand connection answer viewers’ wildlife-related questions on Facebook and Twitter, working with partner organisations and experts to respond to plane the trickiest of inquiries.

Join us go for what’s going to be a in fact exciting and colourful season. We can't wait to share with you impartial what we've got in store!

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