The Grand #autumnwatch Finale at RSPB Arne by Jenny Shelton, RSPB
The final show of this year’s Autumnwatch continued to champion all life, from tiny wood mice to RSPB Arne’s impressive sika stags and everything in between. It brought us superb science and breathtaking wildlife spectacles – and Martin Hughes Games making friends with some very woolly pigs. What more could you want from an evening?
With Halloween approaching, Thursday’s episode introduced us to witch’s eggs and bleeding fairy helmets: nope, not craft beers but types of fungi. And at a particularly busy bat cave, we got a lovely look at several of Britain’s native species, including the beautiful brown long-eared bat. It turned out the cave was something of a local nightclub for bats, many of which were found to be travelling up to 15 km in the hope of getting lucky.
(Photo by Nick Tomalin)
‘Hind-and-sika’ Also looking for love were the sika deer. All week, the BBC have been filming their nocturnal interactions using thermal imaging technology – a bit like Dating in the Dark. It would seem that urine is the musk of choice for stags about town, which rub themselves in their own wee as well as decorating their antlers with bracken. Whatever it takes… Elsewhere, Robin Smith got his Pocahontas on in a beautiful film about canoeing down the River Wye, spotting kingfishers and dippers, and Sabet Chowdhury dug deeper into the debate on badgers and bovine TB. Back in the barn, the rodents of Arne faced their toughest challenge yet as the Mouse Maze was turned vertical. I’ve been amazed to see these tiny creatures successfully crack the maze every night, demonstrating incredible cognitive ability. And of course, our bewhiskered ‘mousterminds’ demonstrated agility AND superb memory by finding their way to the peanuts once again. Finally, after giving the public a limited set of sensible names to choose from, Chris, Michaela and Martin revealed the eagle chick’s name as: Freya. The name comes from the goddess who flew on a cape made of feathers, and it’s certainly more dignified than Eagle McEagleface. And so that’s it for another year. But while the sun may have set on this series of Autumnwatch, the BBC will be back at this spectacular south Dorset reserve for Winterwatch in the New Year. See you then!
Looks like it has been corrected now Dom
If the Isle of Purbeck floated free of its moorings it might end up in Devon I suppose.
Pretty sure Arne is still in Dorset, not Devon.