For those of you that don't know, I'm a bit of a botany geek. I'm quite clued up on British plants and flowers, and also really interested in herbalism and the healing properties of plants. So I jumped at the chance to go out for a ramble with medical herbalist Christina Stapeley to find out more.
I mentioned on last week's show about eco-birding, so if you'd like to have a go here are the rules:
This week we swapped the dense woodland of the Forest of Dean for the mean streets of Central London. We've spent the last week filming at in .
Here's the weekly bird world news for the week from 30th October direct from our friends at the .
They're here! have started to arrive. A report of 8,000 individuals over the Humber Estuary on Tuesday (accompanied by 6,000 redwing) gives an idea of the scale of the arrival that happened this week. In Staffordshire and Cambridgshire, 3,000 and 1,466 flyovers the following day shows that migration doesn't just happen around our coasts.
Hi everyone, another conundrum or two for you. Can you identify these three bones? Let us know by commenting below.
What better way for Autumnwatch to celebrate Halloween this year than head to the notoriously spooky in Gloucestershire in search of wildlife that goes bump in the night.
We all seem to enjoy a bit of unnatural history and now at the witching hour here is a taste of some very un-scientific, if not entirely unsound, brew.
Early next week, there will be a change to how you leave comments on this blog. We're upgrading our current registration system to a new and improved one. When you sign in to the new system, you will be prompted to upgrade your existing account, and you should be able to do that with a minimum of fuss.
The team have loved looking at the fabulous photos you've been sending in to the .
Now they want to show their appreciation for all your efforts by posting a selection of their favourites from the last few weeks.
Hello. We're running a little quiz on tonight's Unsprung. See if you can identify what animals these bones come from. Let us know right here.
And of course keep sending those questions in.
Last week on Unpsrung I asked you to send in your art work that had been inspired by our guest, the red kite.
It was the RSPB's on Saturday 24th October. They ran events up and down the country to help you learn the best ways to help the birds and wildlife in your garden this winter.
If you missed these, don't worry, just follow some of our advice...
After last week's cuddliness with hibernation we wanted to bring the wow factor back with some spectacular autumn gatherings. One of the best places to see these is the north Norfolk coastline.
Here's the weekly news from the bird world direct from our friends at the BTO.
Dabbling ducks are underrated! Perhaps this is due to the ease with which mallards can be seen on or near all manner of water bodies throughout the year. Or it could be the identification difficulties posed by dowdy-looking ducks in late summer.
There is a marvellous quote from by Paul Bowles. I can't remember it verbatim (it will come to me, probably this evening when I pick up another book). It basically confronts the reader with their own mortality. How many full moon rises will you see, it asks. How many times will you recall a certain instance of your childhood? It ends by pointing out our misplaced ideas that life seems to go on forever are a dangerous precedent, likely to reduce our thirst for experience.
I was moved to think about this when on Monday and Tuesday morning this week I stood on a bank of shingle and felt thousands of birds fly through me. It was a very special moment.
Hello all, thanks ever so much for all those fabulous questions you've been asking on the blog posts (here and here). We've tried to answer as many as we can on Unsprung but there's so many interesting ones that we'll use the blog to answer them too.
Sorry, really should have done this sooner. Must try harder next time...
Feet firmly back on dry land after a week at sea. Having done wellÌý
with the top side filming last week we decided to try solely with theÌý
underwater camera for the final three hauls of the net. The first time wasÌý
a farce, with me at one end of the boat and all the killer whales atÌý
the opposite end doing their stuff.
I'm sure that many people will consider what they are about to read as a little quirky if not completely mad. But here goes. Ever since I first started to roam and ramble I've been looking at poo. Not a casual glance or a furtive squint, but a hands-and-knees close-up, full critical examination in terms of colour, size, shape, texture, content and, of course, smell.
This year there have been two key changes to Autumnwatch - a change of shape for the series and a change of transmission time.
If you watched Points Of View today, you'll know we've made an announcement that, from Friday 30th October - and for the rest of this series of Autumnwatch - we are going to be starting the show at 8.30pm. I hope that this will come as welcome news to those of you who were concerned about our current start time of 9pm.
This came in from Gordon late last night...
Managed to get our grubby mitts on an underwater camera while we were offloading the fish in Lerwick. We tested it out on some seals by the boat. It works! Got some really great views of the seals with a little encouragement with some delicious Charisma-caught mackerel.
In Unsprung this week (Friday 16th October) we're joined by artists Jenny and Simon who are creating works of art inspired by the red kite picture below.
We rushed off Rum after Friday night's show. Amazingly it took us a whole day to get to southern Scotland, which gives you an idea of how remote Rum is.
Hibernation is the theme for the third programme in this year's series of Autumnwatch. In particular we're concentrating on Britain's only spiny mammal and quintessential hibernator, the hedgehog!
The thought of curling up or hanging up and hiding out for a few months when things are tough is a tempting fantasy and not only when it's winter that's looming. I'm not so sure about being torpid although I recall some Sunday mornings after Saturday nights when that would have been a polite description of my metabolic state.
Now then! For all you really keen birders - and anyone who just likes a good story - here's something new. Every week we'll be bringing you the latest bird migration news direct from our friends at the .
Having a quiet moment (for a change). Landing the catch of mackerel inÌýLerwick, it takes a little while to offload so hoping to head back outÌýsometime tomorrow for a the last trip of the season. Felt a bitÌýunsteady back on dry land, have adapted to life at sea very well.Ìý Really looking forward to seeing Autumnwatch this week, and seeing ourÌýcontribution edited.
Shouldn't blog just before bedtime, but a quick update won't hurt. We're still to better our very first encounter with the killer whales. Today was frustrating. We spent most of the time waiting out on deck for the nets to be brought in. We could have come inside but it's such a palaver pulling on and off all the safety gear. Besides it's nice out, and you never know what you might see. As it turned out, we didn't see anything!
Ate some of the catch for dinner last night. Simply the best mackerel I have ever eaten. The net is still in the water. We got few fish on the first pass so we've turned to face the shoal again. This one is a long haul.
This little piece is from the footage I just sent back to the guys in the office in Bristol. They've edited this together. As you can hear I'm pretty excited...
It's been action stations since first light. Woke at 6am to a rolling boat in pitch black seas. Within five minutes of being upright, the call went up to shoot the nets. Davie the skipper had been keeping a keen eye on the sonar through the night, locating shoal of mackerel, thankfully at a respectable hour. The light came quickly, and by the time I had thrown on my safety gear and was out on deck it was light enough to film.
We have an impressive . Seeing and hearing bats can be a thrilling experience for the whole family, but their nocturnal nature means that they're not always the easiest animal to see.
If you've been reading my diary you'll know that I've so far been a mixture of nervous and excited. Excited at the thought of filming the orca; nervous because there was no guarantee we'd even see them.
Woke to a beautiful clear dawn out in the North Sea. We left the harbour at Symbister last night at around 10.30pm. Symbister is the capital settlement of , an island five miles long by two miles wide, home to Britain's most northerly golf course, 1,000 souls and three pubs. We had limited time so no chance for a round of golf before departure. Then again, I don't play golf so no tears there.
Driving home on Saturday (which for me means an M32/M4/A34/M27 route) I only counted a single kestrel hovering on the verges. Last weekend it was the same. That's just one kessie in 114 miles, a pretty clear indication that this species is in trouble. Yes, this is subjective rather than scientific, but a striking change of affairs for this little falcon.
Gordon sent in his second report from Lerwick in the Shetlands, just before he heads out into the North Atlantic. You can follow his adventures right here... (Read part one of his High Seas Diary)
The day of departure is upon us. To see us off, Shetland has had a plague of redwing descend from the skies. Yesterday the main island was bristling with thrillions of them, still bursting with energy, showing no signs of fatigue from their flight over the North Sea from northern Europe.
Gordon sent in this report from Lerwick in the Shetlands, just before he heads out into the North Atlantic. You can follow his adventures right here...
If you recover a dead bird that has a ring on its leg or if you find a bird ring on its own, there are a number of things you can do to help research and learn more about where the bird could have come from:
After kicking off Autumnwatch 2009 in Herefordshire, we sent Chris and Kate on a mission down to the Weymouth area of Dorset to the last leaving post for many a gargantuan migration.
Six hours to go! We've almost got too much material for tonight. Which is great. Level-headed Joe and I are trying to pull it all together.
We've got another mystery guest and, without wanting to give anything away, if you happened to have any questions about bats... Please, please get them in right now!!!!
Thank you.
is an old stomping ground of mine. I started visiting this migration hotspot in 1980 when I began to spend most Saturdays there during the spring and autumn peaks of activity. We would journey down from Southampton to arrive at first light at Ferry Bridge or before moving onto the bill itself.
Sorry the first Autumnwatch Unsprung was a bit manic. We, well, I sort of mucked up answering some of your questions. But I aim to put that right this Friday.
Wasn't Sky the sparrowhawk amazing? We were all really frightened she might bate (leap off Kate's fist and flap about) on air which would have looked pretty bad. are generally thought to be pretty nervous birds of prey, but in the event she was brilliant.
Kirstine Davidson, one of the webcam team who will be folllowing the red deer rut on Rum, has sent this story back about the dramatic turn of events.
When we arrived on Rum last Wednesday, one of the first things that everyone told us was how bad the weather was going to be on Saturday. Being the day after the first Autumnwatch programme, a lot of the live crew were hoping to get off the island, and the chances weren't looking good.
On tonight's Autumnwatch Unsprung, I'm going to reveal three skulls. Can you identify A, B and C? Answers below please
Autumnwatch 2009 begins at a 400-acre cider orchard in Herefordshire. It's at this time of year that orchards right across the country are a glorious sight to behold: branches, heavily laden with fruit, look resplendent in the dappled autumnal light whilst the sudden abundance of juicy crops provide an 'all you can eat buffet' for hungry wildlife.
Kirstine Davidson, one of the webcam team who will be folllowing the red deer rut on Rum, has sent this story back about the trials and tribulations of the project.
Transmitting live images from the , a remote island off the west coast of Scotland, was never going to be easy, although I probably underestimated quite how many complications there would be. But as I sit here in the sunshine at , listening to fairly positive murmurings from the technical and camera team, I can't believe it was only a week ago that we weren't sure if we would make it here at all.
We are getting reports from people up and down the country of chicks still being fed in the nest, in October? Quite a number of in particular.
I hadn't realised how late some birds will still nest until I started looking into it, but if you have noticed chicks in the nest again this week, could you tell us below by posting a comment. We'd like to try to build up a picture of just how late birds are nesting this year, and which species they are.
Thank you very much!
I was up at 6.30 this morning and there was a wonderful, uplifting, dawn chorus going on - but, hang on... dawn chorus in autumn? Have you heard birds actually singing recently? In particular have you heard the chiffchaff's characteristic song? (To remind yourself of the song click on the play button on the ).
If you have heard a chiff chaff, specifically this week, could you please let me know by posting a comment below?
The big day has dawned with a chill and I met it with a yawn from the eighth floor window of a Bristol hotel. Yet somehow even the towers of bricks and concrete say 'autumn'. It must be the light, the sky, the late arrival of daybreak, a subtle complex of information which my sleepy senses subconsciously recognise as October.
A few weeks ago, I set off to witness one of the first natural events of the autumn. At the time, Britain was basking under glorious sunshine and the leaves were only just threatening to turn. But about two thousand miles north autumn was well under way.
Thousands of were preparing to leave their summer breeding grounds and begin their long migration to our shores. So I flew up to , an archipelago of islands in the high Arctic, hoping to try to see some of the geese before they set off.
Spring erupts into a riot of highly energised and exuberant life. It explodes across the landscape, blooming and buzzing through the woods, over the fields and bursts all over Britain in a frenzy which is terribly exciting but all too short-lived.
Autumn seeps in gently, unfolds in the dingles and dales and unfurls in the copses and spinneys. It builds, envelopes and plateaus before drifting darkly into winter leaving just the rustle of windy leaves behind it.
It's been three years since I was last on the to witness . This year, I just had to return.
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