Guest blog by Amy Burns (RSPB NI Fermanagh warden)
To appreciate the beauty and uniqueness of county Fermanagh you need the summer sun to be shining high in the sky, to take a boat out on the waters of Lough Erne and set your watch to ‘Fermanagh time’!
That’s the experience I was lucky enough to have last week when the BBC Countryfile crew visited us to film for their Summer Special show.
At first I was a bit apprehensive when it was confirmed that the crew and presenter/farmer Adam Henson were coming to film what I would call a ‘normal working day’ on the reserve. We were due to met them first thing on Monday morning and as I left the house the sun was splitting the stones and there was hardly a smudge of white cloud in the sky. I felt so relieved that the weather was in our favour. All our equipment was in situ and ready to go. Our plans were coming together – a great start!
The process of pre-recording a program for television definitely doesn’t flow as flawlessly as the final version makes it appear. Every conversation and movement is filmed from at least three different angles and several different times (depending on how much I messed up my lines!) I didn’t know what to do with my hands so they became very animated once the camera started rolling! Once my piece to camera was over I instantly relaxed and had the pleasure of watching my colleague Andrew re-enact moving cattle off the boat – cattle that had actually fled the scene five minutes previously!
For lunch we lay up on the shore of Muckinish Island among the wildflowers and indulged in the sunshine while exchanging stories about Lough Erne with local man Fred Ternan, the last person to be born on an island on Lough Erne.
The BBC crew were very easy to work with and it was a pleasure to be able to show the work we do alongside local farmers to give nature a home in Fermanagh. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the piece turns out this Sunday (31 July). Be sure to tune in to BBC1 from 7pm!