Winterwatch 2022 episode 6: Poet Rob McFarlane transports us into a beautiful birch woodland and captivates us with his lyricism, and we get an insight into the life of one of our most charismatic wading birds, the oystercatcher, as we follow its day from dawn till dusk.
At Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk, Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan discuss some of our most topical wildlife issues. Megan McCubbin visits a marine lab, where she gets a close look at some of the strange and wonderful inverts that use the mudflats at Castle Espie, while Iolo Williams uncovers Mull’s most magical wildlife secrets.
From the Isle of Mull, Iolo Williams introduces us to some of his northerly neighbours – the great northern divers – and live from WWT Castle Espie in Northern Ireland, Megan McCubbin gets to know the oldest endemic mammal on the island – the Irish hare. We also meet an inspiring wildlife photographer whose deteriorating eyesight hasn’t stopped him from following his dreams.
Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch, sometimes known collectively as The Watches, are annual BBC television series which chart the fortunes of British wildlife during the changing of the seasons in the United Kingdom. The programmes are broadcast live from locations around the country in a primetime evening slot on BBC Two. They require a crew of 100 and over 50 cameras, making them the BBC’s largest British outside broadcast events. Many of the cameras are hidden and operated remotely to record natural behaviour, for example, of birds in their nests and badgers outside their sett.
Springwatch begins on the Spring Bank Holiday and is broadcast four nights each week for three weeks. After the success of the first Springwatch in 2005, the BBC commissioned a one-off special, Autumnwatch, which became a full series in 2006. Winterwatch began in 2012, broadcast in January or February.
Winterwatch 2022 episode 6
Waders are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found along shorelines and mudflats that wade in order to forage for food (such as insects or crustaceans) in the mud or sand. The term “wader” is used in Europe, while “shorebird” is used in North America, where “wader” may be used instead to refer to long-legged wading birds such as storks and herons.
There are about 210 species of wader, most of which live in wetland or coastal environments. Many species of Arctic and temperate regions are strongly migratory, but tropical birds are often resident, or move only in response to rainfall patterns. Some of the Arctic species, such as the little stint, are amongst the longest distance migrants, spending the non-breeding season in the southern hemisphere.
Many of the smaller species found in coastal habitats, particularly but not exclusively the calidrids, are often named as “sandpipers”, but this term does not have a strict meaning, since the upland sandpiper is a grassland species.
The smallest member of this group is the least sandpiper, small adults of which can weigh as little as 15.5 grams (0.55 oz) and measure just over 13 centimetres (5 inches). The largest species is believed to be the Far Eastern curlew, at about 63 cm (25 in) and 860 grams (1 pound 14 ounces), although the beach thick-knee is the heaviest at about 1 kg (2 lb 3 oz).
