I'm delighted to welcome Gemma Hogg, from the RSPB's media team, as guest blogger here on Saving Special Places
Julia Bradbury, Matt Baker and a BBC film crew turned up to Wallasea Island last Friday. They were there to film a feature for Countryfile and were interviewing our very own Jeff Kew about the project and why it’s so important. The cameras had spent the previous day filming Crossrail, our partners on the project, so it looks set to take up a good chunk of the programme, which is set to be on BBC1 on 21 July.
Julia Bradbury and the RSPB South Essex Team in the sunshine at Wallasea Island
As ever, despite taking months to arrange, these things always get a bit hectic as the day of filming looms. A couple of days before we were all set to film the BBC researcher asked that we have a gang of volunteers and staff ‘doing something’ that can be filmed. This wasn’t much of a brief, but thankfully the wonderful team in South Essex rose to the challenge and quickly assembled a group of people, including a lovely volunteer called Jane, to be at Wallasea Island at short notice, very early in the morning and armed full of tools!The sun was already beating down at 8.30am as they got stuck-in, mowing grass on the sea wall to reveal bare patches which will improve the conditions for oil beetles and basking reptiles.
By 9am, when Matt Baker arrived, the team were ready for a quick breather; luckily Matt was on hand to step in and have a go himself. After some quick health and safety advice from the experts (not that the ex-farmer really needed it) he got stuck into some strimming. When Julia Bradbury arrived, the South Essex team found themselves helping to co-ordinate an amusing sequence between the two presenters which was filmed for the end of the show. All in all it was a pretty unusual day for all involved, but I think everyone enjoyed it. It’s days like these, when plans change and people have to drop everything and do something entirely different at very short notice, that show just how brilliant RSPB staff and volunteers really are. And to top it all off, the sun was shining, so those newly-created bare patches on the sea wall will no doubt have been very well received by sunbathing lizards.The Countryfile episode featuring the Wallasea Island Wild Coast Project will be aired Sunday July 21st, so don’t miss it!
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