Winterwatch 2022 episode 8

Winterwatch 2022 episode 8

Winterwatch 2022 episode 8: In the last episode of the series, we take a look back at this magical season. At Wild Ken Hill in Norfolk, Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan remind us of the array of wildlife that has visited our live cameras throughout the series. We meet a man who has spent his lifetime getting to know the forests of Abernethy in the Cairngorms, and he reveals his passion for this incredible and diverse habitat. Iolo Williams revels in the seasonal feast that Mull has offered this winter, while Megan McCubbin looks back on her winter at WWT Castle Espie in Northern Ireland.


 

 
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 8

 

Eurasian oystercatcher

The Eurasian oystercatcher (Haematopus ostralegus) also known as the common pied oystercatcher, or palaearctic oystercatcher, or (in Europe) just oystercatcher, is a wader in the oystercatcher bird family Haematopodidae. It is the most widespread of the oystercatchers, with three races breeding in western Europe, central Eurosiberia, Kamchatka, China, and the western coast of Korea. No other oystercatcher occurs within this area. The extinct Canary Islands oystercatcher (Haematopus meadewaldoi), formerly considered a distinct species, may have actually been an isolated subspecies or distinct population of the Eurasian oystercatcher.

The oystercatcher is one of the largest waders in the region. It is 40–45 cm (16–18 in) long, the bill accounting for 8–9 cm (3–3+1⁄2 in), and has a wingspan of 80–85 cm (31–33 in). They are obvious and noisy plover-like birds, with black and white plumage, red legs and strong broad red bills used for smashing or prising open molluscs such as mussels or for finding earthworms. Despite its name, oysters do not form a large part of its diet. The bird still lives up to its name, as few if any other wading birds are capable of opening oysters at all.

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