Springwatch 2011 heads to Wales

red headed cardinal beetle (credit: wildlife news)

The best of Wales wildlife is going to come under the camera soon as the BBC Springwatch team heads to Ceredigion for this years live broadcasts. They will be based at the Ynys-hir reserve which is close to Machynlleth. The reserve covers 700 hectares and has a wild range of habitats and species.

It’s great to see a major TV wildlife show come to Wales. There is such a great range of wildlife and with it’s open spaces and clean rivers and streams it’s an ideal destination for bird watchers and wildlife lovers.

Wales offers a wide range of wildlife and habitats.

The regular team, Kate Humble, Chris Packham and Martin Hughes-Games, will be joined by Wales’ very own wildlife expert Iolo Williams. He and his team have already been hard at work filming on Skomer Island to record the arrival of the islands regular bird inhabitants – the puffins, razorbills and guillemots.

I think anybody who lives in Wales will agree that the Springwatch team will be spoilt for choice as to what to record -they can choose from the dolphins of Cardigan Bay through to the otters on the lower reaches of the River Wye. I’m sure they’ll visit the Red Kite feeding station at Gilgrin Farm. Sadly the kites do not eat supper so no live pictures but well worth the visit to see 300 red kites take their afternoon snack at 3.00pm.

The ocean currents of Wales can bring some unexpected wildlife surprises.

There’s also the option for surprises as well, especially with marine animals and plants. The south west corner of Wales can see wildlife and organisms from the tropics being carried along on the North Atlantic Drift – a warm current of water that comes from the Gulf of Mexico. Who can forget the invasion of the giant jellyfish of 2009. During this episode thousands of giant moon and barrel jellyfish appeared along the south and west coast of Wales.

The ocean current also means that south west Wales is the most likely place in the UK that you will see sun fish (Mola mola) – the largest tropical boney fish that exist. They can grow up to 3 metres long and weigh up to 1,300kg. They are still quite rare but are being spotted more frequently in Wales during the summer months.

From dragonflies to badgers.

This year the programme will also be on the lookout for our smaller wildlife friends such as dragonflies, moths and butterflies. I spotted my first damselfly of the season a couple of days ago so by the time that the programme starts the new series (May 30th) there should be a good selection of species to see. I just hope that they have not discovered my favorite dragonfly and damselfly pond on the Blorenge.

One species the Springwatch team may have a problem in spotting in Wales is the badger – with the Assembly Government plans for a cull I guess most of our badgers will have become camera shy and gone into hiding.

Get out and spot wildlife.

I’m looking forward to the new series of Springwatch and I’m not alone. Over 3 million people tuned in last year to find out what wildlife you could see if you headed outdoors. If the programme encourages you to go out exploring the natural world then that’s great. If you see plants and animals that you don’t recognise then don’t worry. Just take a picture of them and head over to the iSpot nature id site and ask the community of experts over there. You may even want to look at doing an extra bit of study with one of the Open University nature courses.