Springwatch
Springwatch, Autumnwatch until 2022 and Winterwatch, sometimes known collectively as The Watches,[1][2] are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom.
The BBC Springwatch website offers further video content and allows viewers and programme makers to interact through a message board, Flickr photography group, blogs and the @BBCSpringwatch and @BBCAutumnwatch Twitter accounts.
The executive producer of the three programme strands is Rosemary Edwards (before 2018: Tim Scoones, series launch to 2008 and 2012: Fiona Pitcher) and the score was composed by David Poore.
Other regular contributors include cameraman and presenter Gordon Buchanan and sound recordist Chris Watson, who has occasionally appeared on-screen to describe his working methods.
Badgerwatch was followed by Birdwatch, broadcast annually throughout the 1980s and presented by Tony Soper, initially from locations around Britain including Slimbridge, Minsmere, the River Exe, the Farne Islands and Martin Mere.
Viewers were encouraged to record key events indicating the passage of spring, including the first sign of frogspawn, blossom on hawthorn trees and the arrival of swifts.
Breathing Places evolved from an earlier BBC campaign called Make Space for Nature, launched in 2004 to coincide with Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie.
Simon King visited three locations across the country; firstly, the Isle of Mull to watch white-tailed eagles on a nest; secondly, the London Wetland Centre to observe peregrine falcons and red foxes; and finally, the Farne Islands to view the seabird colonies and grey seals.
Bill Oddie and Kate Humble again presented from the Fishleigh Estate farm, where more than 50 secret cameras were rigged up to film the day-to-day dramas of nesting birds including pied flycatchers, barn owls and dabchicks.
In the Shetland Islands, Simon King followed a family of otters and a host of birds: puffins, great skuas, oystercatchers, merlins and red-throated divers.
Springwatch also tracked brent geese on their spring migration from Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland to their breeding grounds in Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, via stopovers in Iceland and Greenland.
Simon King travelled to the Hebridean island of Islay, where he filmed local specialities such as red-billed choughs, corncrakes, hen harriers, golden eagles and common shelducks.
[10] For the fourth series of Springwatch, the production team moved to a new location at the Pensthorpe Natural Park in Norfolk due to a change of ownership at the Fishleigh Estate farm.
Bill Oddie and Kate Humble watched local birds on the nest, including little ringed plovers, goldcrests and reed buntings, all new species for Springwatch.
Simon King was based in the Cairngorm National Park, where he brought viewers footage of ospreys with chicks, pine martens, Scottish wildcats, ptarmigan and crested tits.
The Points West studio was used for the indoor portion of the show and the normal theme music was replaced for the end credits with the song "Walk Out to Winter" by Aztec Camera.
The series closed with a montage of clips of the cast "singing" the Tom Jones song It's Not Unusual, whose lyrics had been surreptitiously inserted into the script over the three-week run.
A Christmas Special was broadcast on Boxing Day, 26 December, recorded at Ynys-Hir and presented by Strachan, Packham, Hughes-Games and Humble, and featuring guest appearances by Chris Watson and others as well as a newly filmed sequence from Bill Oddie.
Special features included cameraman Doug Allan's underwater footage of grey seals on Lundy, a report on how the wildlife of the Somerset Levels was affected by the winter floods and updates on the latest research into urban foxes and cuckoo migration.
[43] Packham and Strachan again broadcast from Wild Ken Hill sustainable agriculture in Norfolk; McCubbin did a roadtrip through northern England, visiting Kielder Forest, Hauxley Nature Reserve and Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Williams was again on the Isle of Mull; Gillian Burke did not appear, having also missed Winterwatch 2022.
Oddie and Kate Humble were based at Martin Mere wetland reserve in Lancashire, where they awaited the arrival of local wild swans and the return of the brent geese to Northern Island.
[citation needed] For Autumnwatch 2008, broadcast from 27 October – 6 November,[52] Oddie and Humble were based at Brownsea Island, one of the few places in southern England where red squirrels can still be seen.
[29] Autumnwatch moved outside the UK for the first time, being broadcast from a site on the shores of Squam Lake in New Hampshire, United States, on four consecutive evenings from Monday 15 October.
[33] Autumnwatch was broadcast from four locations: Iolo Williams at the Centre for Alternative Technology near Machynlleth; Michaela Strachan at Tenstmuir, Fife; Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin in the New Forest; and Gillian Burke at RSPB Dearne Valley Old Moor, South Yorkshire.
[61][62] Packham and Strachan broadcast from the Wild Ken Hill sustainable agriculture in Norfolk,[63] Megan McCubbin was on the Isle of Mull,[64] while Gillian Burke was at WWT Castle Espie, Northern Ireland.
Winterwatch returned to BBC Two between 20 and 23 January 2014, broadcast live from the Mar Lodge Estate in Aberdeenshire, with Unsprung following the final episode hosted by Nick Baker.
Winterwatch began again on 19 January and was broadcast from the presenters' home areas: Iolo Williams at the Centre for Alternative Technology; Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin in the New Forest; and Gillian Burke at the Cornish beaver reintroduction project.
[78] The same three locations were used as in Autumnwatch 2021: Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan at Wild Ken Hill; Megan McCubbin at WWT Castle Espie, County Down; and Iolo Williams on the Isle of Mull.
[90] Following Simon King's departure in 2010, the role of field reporter was filled by various guest presenters; notably Gordon Buchanan, Charlie Hamilton James, Iolo Williams, Liz Bonnin and Michaela Strachan.
In the 2018 edition of Springwatch, several guest presenters rotated the role alongside Packham and Strachan, including Steve Backshall, Iolo Williams, Lucy Cooke and Patrick Aryee.
