#584: Springwatch 2026

It's always good to have Springwatch back... although that means another spring from the ones that I have left to see...

This time round the team are in Northern Ireland.

Last night's episode was a good opener, and you can see them on BBC and iPlayer. You can keep up with the action on the live wildlife cameras too.

One would hope that someone like Chris Packham or Michaela Strachan might be persuaded to work as ambassadors for the new specification once it gets to the stage where it is introduced into schools.

#220: Winterwatch

The new series of Winterwatch starts tomorrow and as always there will be plenty of interest for those who are interested in the wildlife to be found in the UK, and a range of explainer videos and props to explain how animals and plants survive.

The trailer tonight mentioned a look at the temperate rainforest ecosystem along Lydford gorge, and also a look at the red squirrel population on Brownsea Island.

There's some useful content on the accompanying website e.g. a quiz to help identify UK birds of prey.

You can also sign up for natural history emails. This may be well worth doing.

#43: Wild Ken Hill

Wild Ken Hill has been the home of the BBC's Springwatch and Autumnwatch for the last couple of years, and also the occasional Winterwatch.

Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and the team base themselves here, having previously been based at Minsmere and other locations including the nearby location of Pensthorpe, near Fakenham for a while.

Wild Ken Hill is in North West Norfolk, between King's Lynn and Hunstanton.

Wild Ken Hill is a site of rewilding, conservation, and a working farm. Its land is made up of hilly wood, wetter marshland, pasture landscape, and agricultural fields. As such, the ground is predominantly uneven with thick undergrowth. Ponies, pigs and cattle graze parts of the site and it is home to many, small, wild animals.

I lived in Snettisham for 12 years, and walked over Ken Hill many times, through the woods and down through the reed beds and along the old railway line which was sadly a casualty of Beeching's cuts in the 1960s. 

That line, passing through Wolferton, Snettisham and Heacham would make a fantastic route from King's Lynn to the coast. Sadly, there have been some changes and new buildings which mean that the line is unlikely to ever be reinstated despite the fact that it would immediately 

The area has changed substantially over the 12 years since I last visited for a good period of time.

Locations such as this may well form a good site for a field visit, or a case study of rewilding should that be a focus for the final draft specification. 

To find out more you can follow Dominic Buscall on Twitter. Fun fact, my daughter went to school with members of the Buscall family.

I can imagine the area of the Wash, and surroundings landscapes and land uses, and some of the potential conflicts that occur there would make a good large scale case study.