There was definitely a culinary flavour to tonight’s show, which was a veritable feast of autumnal wildlife by RSPB's Jamie Wyver
Juicy red berries, said Chris, appear on evergreen plants or those which keep their green leaves late in the season. That contrast of these colours matches the eyesight of birds rather well, inviting in their feathered diners who will pay for their meal by helping to spread the seeds of those plants.
(Photo 1 by Terry Bagley)
Cutlery-faced waterbird the spoonbill is one of RSPB Arne’s specialities. Tonight, Robo-Spoonbill has been activated! One of the Autumnwatch’s cleverest inventions is staking out the shoreline with Martin in the hope of capturing roosting spoonbills on its hidden camera. Tonight’s attempt was thwarted by a hungry fox on the prowl but there was some lovely footage of spoonbills on nearby Brownsea Island – an entire “canteen” of them in fact.
(Photo 2 by Terry Bagley)
Some marvellous names have been suggested for the golden eagle chick, although apparently Beaky McBeakface is not likely to be shortlisted! The eaglet did not recognise a plucky (and lucky) grey wagtail as food as it scuttled around her nest.
Martin demonstrated how different birds feed in and around RSPB Arne’s mudflats. The curlews and spoonbills whose beaks he was explaining must have been very puzzled to see a man splashing around in the water with turkey basters and tongs!
Continuing the foodie theme, the aptly monikered Lucy Cooke met (but didn’t cook) the edible dormouse, a non native species which, although ridiculously cute, could be causing problems for wildlife and people where it has colonised the Chilterns. There could be nearly a million of these furry invaders, which as well as becoming a nuisance to people could be decimating populations of native dormice and displacing bats and hole-nesting birds from their trees.
We also heard about the threat the Asian hornet poses to our native bees. You can find out more in this blog by Paul Walton: Asian hornet alert
Michaela described some more welcome arrivals in the UK: Bewick’s swans. These birds are in decline across Europe so my former WWT colleague Sacha Dench is following their migration route to highlight their plight. She’s been following the swans, flying a paramotor from Russia to the UK. The swans have a distinct advantage, needing fewer rest stops, flying faster and having no requirement for a ground crew. So to travel in their wake all the way to their wintering grounds as a human is going to be an impressive feat.
One of my favourite RSPB Arne facts is that it’s home to all six native British reptiles. Gillian Burke joined RSPB's Rob Farrington to meet some of them, including our rarest snake, the smooth snake – which may have been eating all the adders on the heath!
(Photo 3 by Ben Andrew)
On Wednesday we’ve been promised ladybird spiders, sika deer and grey seals – can’t wait! Autumnwatch returns at 9pm.
(Photo 4 by Terry Bagley)