The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness is upon us, as leaves on the trees display their amber, auburn and crimson hues. Autumn is a time of nature’s plenty, with a wonderful hedgerow harvest of blackberries, rose hips, crab apples, hazelnuts and seeds. Many of our much-loved creatures take advantage of this wild harvest to build up reserves of fat for migration or for hibernation.
This month, BBC Autumnwatch is exploring the wildlife adapting to a season which has come early this year, with four nights of live programmes.
With an over-arching theme of ‘The Changing Face of Autumn’, Autumnwatch will present a vision of a season which has changed dramatically in the wake of climate change. With the extremes of wildfires and soaring temperatures in the summer, how will our native wildlife have coped and how does that change our expectations of the future?
The series returns to BBC Two from Tuesday October 25 at 8pm with nature notes from our four wildlife presenters based in two locations.
Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan will be at Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk where a traditional farming landscape is being rewilded to attract species once lost from the UK landscape. Meanwhile, Iolo Williams and Gillian Burke will be at Teifi Marshes and Cardigan Bay in Wales to explore the Autumnal season on the west coast of the UK – from dolphins in the bay to the unmistakable seasonal sound of a deer rut.
Following a long, hot summer in Norfolk which saw parts of Wild Ken Hill hit by a wildfire, the Beeb show will be discussing the effect climate change is having on our seasons. Devastatingly, some of our favourite wildlife was lost in the fire, such as turtle doves, deer, reptiles and amphibians. Michaela will visit the site where the fire broke out to see if it’s starting to recover.
On set with Chris and Michaela, the show will also have some macro filming tanks to bring the audience a close-up look at some of the mini-beasts who live at Wild Ken Hill. We’re hoping for some surprises along the way and of course, they will all be returned to where we found them. The stunning Teifi Marshes is one of the best wetland sites in Wales and has a wealth of wildlife that call this corner of Wales home.
Otters can be found in the marshes, water shrews are numerous and sika and red deer are now present. Fish species include lamprey, stickleback, mullets, eel, sewin and salmon. Frogs and toads are numerous and both grass snakes and adders are present on the reserve. Cardigan Bay has Europe’s largest bottlenose dolphin population. It’s one of only two ‘semi-resident’ populations of bottlenoses in the UK, the other is the Moray Firth. The dolphins have been monitored for years so scientists can identify individuals and long-term data is available.
BBC Two:
“Join us for what’s going to be a really exciting and colourful season. We can’t wait to share with you just what we’ve got in store!”
