Springwatch is back on 28 May!

I can't wait! Looking forward to the webcams!

Lovely photo, I believe it is upside down though!

Yay! This series is going to be mega, I can tell! Come on the Dream Team, heh heh

Hi Springwatch team,

At my lovely rural school in the cotswolds we have some returning visitors- Swallows! They have come back to the same nest as last year and we even have our own web cam set up! The chirping I can hear through the door into my classroom is getting quite loud now so something exciting must be happening. The children would love it to feature somehow on your show- interested?

From the Netherlands, i'm looking forward to the show very much.

I have a question for Chris, the rest of the team, or anyone else that might know anything about this...

Last year I found a newt apparently hibernating up in a tree. What was he doing up there?

It was January (and cold), the tree was next to a lake. The newt was in some leaves that had collected in a fork about fifteen feet up in the tree. The tree was felled and I was logging it up with a chainsaw when I noticed a tail wriggling amongst the ball of leaves. I put the newt into a nearby rotting tree stump in the hope that he would find a more conventional hibernation site!

Do you think that maybe he was getting warmth from the decomposing leaves? Did he climb up the tree by accident? Was he perhaps dropped by a bird?

Has anyone else found newts up trees?

What is going on?

I have a goldcrest nest outside my bedroom window. The flightpath to it is into a tree just outside about 5M up. The parents are visiting regularly, about once a minute.

I always enjoy the Spring & Autumnwatch series, as well as the relaxed "afterwards" programmes. Great fun, infectious enthusiasm, & informative!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Can't wait for the new series, great to see Michaela joining the team again, but what's happened to Kate? Will miss Kate being on the show, she is a great presenter and as I've watched Springwatch from the start when she started this with Bill and Simon,it's a shame she has left the team as well. Good Luck to Chris, Michaela and Martin and guest presenters for outside broadcasts! I'll be watching each night and the webcams.

We have greater spotted woodpeckers on our bird feeders in the garden and they are just fabulous to watch. Amazing markings. They dont seem to be able to stuff enough food into their mouths quickly enough!

Any chance of featuring plants this spring?

We have a nesting pair of Swifts in our Loft, we have lived here for seven years, the Swifts even longer, It's hard to grasp when you think that prodably the last time they touched down was our loft last year...Truely remarkable Birds..

So looking forward to springwatch this year,infact i look forward to it every year,even more so now i have a computer and can get more involved and watch the webcams.

My bird feeders have regular activity,even my bird table has visitors daily AND i own a cat!!The birds have cottoned onto him though ha ha and he misses out all the time,which is good thing.Quite funny to watch cos he always seems to think the birds can't see him but they know he's there before he knows they are there!

Not sure if my previous comment was posted. I had a blue tit in my nest box. Having a camera in it was great. Gradually the babies (not even a week old) started disappearing. Until no more babies were left. Obviously some sort of predator but what could it have been. Was heart breaking seeing the mum coming in with food for her last chick for it not to be there. I was gutted at losing them. I saw nothing via the camera and no bodies when we checked the empty nest out..

What about Kate? Where is she?

I know that starling numbers are down this year but I have just returned from Canada and couldn't believe the numbers of starlings I saw there everywhere I went. Also I am noticing a marked increase in the number of blue tits in my garden, has anyone else noticed this or am I just lucky this year? Really looking forward to the return of Springwatch.

We've had Blue Tit chicks in our camera box that hatched on bank holiday Monday.Sadly today the last chick succumbed to the cold/wet weather. They lasted for about 10 days but this morning the female was still brooding the chick and the male was bringing in food, however the chick was too weak to eat. The parents regularly brought in food so i can only assume it was down to the weather.

A similar thing happened to a relatives blue tits of which the chicks only lasted for 2/3 days. Have you had any similar stories. If this happens around the country and we have another cold winter, what effect will it have on the tit population.



Any views ??



Gary, Swinton, Manchester

Last year we had a family of swifts nesting at the back of my shed they have returned this year.

I have put a nestbox up and it has a pair of bluetits nesting in it,

They must be feeding young as they are carrying small worms in the box

At long last...my most awaited program is soon back on screen...so excited..can't wait!

go on! fantastic program and live show; animals, plants and geeks from the UK (viewer from the Netherlands)

I cant wait!!...Since I started seriously birdwatching (about two years) I have been like a sponge,I am hooked but limited to my local area,need more input!!..I saw Red Kite in Scotland two years ago but never expected to see what I saw this morning...A Red kite flying over the marsh in ROCHESTER medway,unmistakable fork tail,finger tip wings and being mobbed by two crows...so excited!!!!!...as you can probably tell

If anyone is wondering where all the swifts/swallows (difficult to tell the difference but I'll explain) are at the moment, I think the BBC at Media City Salford should be out with their camera's to the sewage filter beds on the Broadway road and film them! There are hundreds of them, sweeping about the area for the past few weeks. What a sight and a privilege to see them on my way to and from my workplace close by. Fortunately most motorists seem to be equally impressed, as so far they all seem to slow down to dodge the birds, unfortunately the birds don't slow down hence why I am unsure as to whether they are swifts or swallows! But it's a great way to start and end a day at work. They are brilliant!

What happened to Kate Humble?

Been thoroughly enjoying watching the delightful red squirrels at the Formby squirrel reserve last week in the glorious sunshine...their coats are utterly resplendent right now in all their breeding season finery [ear tufts and all!] and the amount of excited sparring and gymnastic capers as they chase each other in ascending/descending spirals around the tree trunks is simply endearing to see. This is the best time to see the whole colony in action right now and I have been taking lots of pictures of them feeding and videoing their crazy antics. Spotted a Jay helping itself too at one of the elevated feeding stations..... which was a big deal for me as I have never seen these most colourful members of the crow family at close range until a chance encounter with one perched on a branch after being mobbed by a Blackbird in Birkenhead Park three weeks ago.....so this is only the second ime I have managed to photograph one!

In the last week I have seen two wholly WHITE rabbits in the Norfolk countryside near my home. What's going on? The first one I saw I thought was an escaped pet but two days later I saw another about 3 miles away!

19th May 2012, ruthih wrote:

What about Kate? Where is she?



Away doing other things.



It has been publicised in the papers etc.

Can't wait for the programme to start, I need help to see if my pair of blue tits are on course for raising their family. The pair are very busy, especially one of them, and keep taking food into the bird house but, sadly, I haven't got a camera and don't really know what's going on inside.



It's very sad reading other comments above that have lost their chicks. I'm not sure, but have assumed, there are chicks inside my bird house, due to the number of times food is being taken in - fingers crossed.



So, hurry up guys and start informing me.



All the best to Kate for her ongoing work, she'll be missed.

Have a nest box in my garden and been used last year by blue tit but to my surprise this year it's been empty. Don't they use the same nest box again or have i done something that could have put them off? All i did is opened and cleaned it before winter so it will be ready again for them to use this spring but unfortunately they seemed to have opted to use other nest boxes instead. Anyone with the same situation?

Great to Have you back! One polite request - please can you leave the webcams on until the birds have fledged?? Even if you have completed your run of programmes? Last year felt rather hollow as a couple of my favourites were just "blacked out" before they had flown!

To Jacquie and her Norfolk White Rabbits - Did you also see a tall gentleman in black tie with a top hat and a wand nearby?

We had such a good year in 2011 with blue tits, 9 eggs laid 7 fledged, this year is totally different, 10 eggs but we're down to 1 baby alive now, 3 eggs didn't hatch, we think its been too cold and that's meant not enough food

I have been looking forward to Springwatch 2012 since the last series finished. Can't wait!

See you soon,Paddy & Paul.

angryhippy83,



I've heard of a newt being found high up in a tree fork before. This one was found in a pool of water during spring, so not hibernating, but they can climb trees very well. I have a few pet newts (not native species of course) and they can climb verticle plastic and glass with little trouble so they are very good climbers. The one you found was almost certainly hibernating up there, but you put it in a good place so it may well have been fine. Interesting story!



Warty Newt

cant wait :)

I can't wait! And it's back to the beautiful Ynys-hir nature reserve, too... yay! Only one disappointment for me.... no Kate *sob* SHE HAS LEFT THE TEAM????? Please say it ain't so! The terrific trio make the show for me and I'm afraid it lacks lustre when she is not with the guys. Sorry if this upsets anyone but it's my personal opinion and I feel the whole house of cards wobbles continually without her :(

me too, roll on thurs

looking forward to new series also glad to see a bat roost on webcams hoping now weather warming will get more bats about and i will get to use my new bat detector present i got

Hi,

We are in the process of building a garden pond in our home on Romney Marsh,and got as far as excavating a hole for the liner to be inserted into when we have had to stop work for some exciting visitors.

It seems we have at least 2, possibly 3 colonies of ? native bumblebees living in holes in the mud both on the base of the pond and in the excavated soil.

A local bee enthusiast has visited this evening and he will be informing our local DEFRA bee expert to come and identify them and monitor their progress.

So work has to stop until at least September, but on the plus side our neighbours should have a very successful vegetable season with all those pollinators living locally!!

Once we have identification on our bumblebees would you be interested in featuring them in anyway?

Looking forward to the program starting

A CHALLENGE. I challenge the makers of Springwatch to find and photograph every species of native orchid and every species of native saxifrage in mainland Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) before the start of Autumnwatch. Not including hybrids and not using library photos. I do not think even the BBC can do it! The results to be shown on Autumnwatch. Diapensia.

Welcome back Springwatch team! One request - please make a big deal of reminding people not to cut their trees and hedges during the bird breeding season. I'm sure people don't think about breeding birds before they unwittingly destroy their nests. Thank you.

Have you seen our stork?!



I posted a comment earlier on what I thought was this blog, but may have been a related one. Just to say we found a huge stork roosting on our doorstep last night in a village just south of Aberystwyth (27th may) - I hope he was heading up to see you in Ynyshir! I'm trying to send pictures but your email keeps bouncing so will have to brave flickr...sorry, I'm a bit of a luddite. Looking forward to the programme tonight!

just came back from hebridies seen some fantastic wildlife buzzards,otters,harris hawks,was great

We have a little bird nesting in our cigarette bin at work, I threw a cigarette in it and the poor little mummy bird flew out I retrieved the burning cigarette and the mummy bird came back to the nest. She has 7 eggs in there and it's all very exciting watching her come and go waiting for the eggs to hatch, would love to have cam in there but the boss thinks no work will get done :0)

My wife and I have a natural pond on our property and this year have had a pair of ducks (male & female) residing at the pond. Last week to our pleasure 11 ducklings had arrived and were busy exploring their surroundings and trying to jump and grab passing flies. Unfortunately the next day there was no sign of any of the ducklings despite the parents still being there. We have had several magpies in the surrounding trees and wondered if the magpies old take the young ducklings if not what could the culprit be? Appreciate your views Dave and Julie Francis, Elswick Lancashire.

We have some blackbirds which have some fledgling babies which have obviously been trying to learn to fly in our stables. Sadly I found one drowned in a water bucket and another is currently on the floor in another stable looking rather lost and forelorn (thankfully the horse is out tonight). The mother is about and has been feeding it worms but I'm concerned about what to do if it is still there in the morning ...should I try to move it to a safer place? Is it true that the mother will abandon it if it is touched by a human? Any advice much appreciated.

great show - love watching the developments and the fab camera work - and bowie album titles too Chris??

Why isn't it on iPlayer :(

I want to ask Chris a question about poo. I and my neighbours used to have adders in our gardens but two years ago, sightings ceased. The disappearance coincided with an explosion of the rat population. I've never seen anything that I thought could be adder poo, but does Chris know what it looks like? If we can find some, it would confirm that the adders are still around but lying low! Have I beaten the poo expert?

Have the cast tried using Avon "Skin so Soft" spray - good for keeping off the midges!

Hi, we have regular visits to our moderately small garden & 8ft pond by a Pair or Pairs of mallard. Sometimes they stay several hours, and once overnight. Two years ago the female returned to our pond with her new chicks. How unusual is this? We love the program. KM

Hi I have each year visiting in my garden 2 sets of blue tits and a pair of great tits , they come every minute or so as I feed them mealworms ( dried ones but I soak them to hydrate them ) and insect suet pieces , I bought a small ground cage from the rspb website to stop any larger birds getting in so they had a constant source of food no matter what the weather.

And what joy it is when they bring their babies to show them where the food is.

Chwis said some rather unkind about jazz, so he obviously has lousy taste in music.

Question,

Would a swan and a goose mate, and produce offspring. Locals believe this has happened recently. What would the young be called.

We have a pair of bullfinches that come daily to the seed feeders in our garden, often staying for 5-10 minutes. Presumably this means that they are not raising or feeding young. Why not, do they perhaps not breed in their first year as an adult?



Garfield Lewis

Why is it taking so long to go on iplayer?!

My wife & I have A caravan in highland Perthshirewith our own wildlife garden where i have been filming for the past 16 years .Mostly birds ,but I do have footage of many animals including fox,badger adders sloeworms pygmy shrews red leg partridge(with 7 young) . I also have a mole above ground a pine marten a Wild cat?. It is still interesting to see your programme.

Some years ago BBC news reported that Eagle Owls have taken up residence in NE England and were causing concern to farmers. Nothing heard since so did they in fact become established in the UK

I've just been watching the blue tits live and they're really entertaining; every so often, they will randomly turn their heads upwards and leave their beaks gaping, as if a parent is present to feed them, but an adult blue tit doesn't arrive. Is there something outside the nest (within their view or hearing) that is causing them to stir in apparent readiness for food, or is this something young blue tits periodically do?

Watched a recording of last night's Springwatch - couldn't watch it live because my son needed a lift to the pub in Sheffield! Very sad about Runty and the baby kingfishers. Which brings me on to a question for Chris. We have a nest box with a camera and last year a pair of blue tits managed to raise 5 out of 6 babies which fledged successfully. This year a pair laid 7 eggs, 5 of which hatched and mum and dad worked very hard feeding them. However, after a few days, dad disappeared and mum really struggled. The babies started to disappear one by one until there was only one left. We were really rooting for this one to survive but, alas, that disappeared too. And now the nest has been abandoned. It was hearbreaking. Any ideas?

Brill show, even if Chris is a bit Geeky, and I have seen him wearing Glasses, your'e getting on Chris.

Humour.

Hi Springwatch Gang. Me and my husband heard a cuckcoo this morning at 7am. In our Village, Loddon in Norfolk, NR14 6LL. I hope this is helpful to you all as I know Cuckcoo's are very rare.

I have a crow in my garden & when i put some bread out anything he pick it up take it to the bird bath & soak it & then eat it, why?

What do you feed a young seagull we have just found one dead and one alive on the road out side our flat in Barton on sea in the new forest,I called the RSPCA now remember I found it on the road the RSPCA told me to leave it to the parents they will look after it if I had left it would have been dead in a few minutes.

So now I have to try and find a bird rescue the RSPCA should have been able to offer some information I would have thought.NOT INPRESSED.

I have just seen two nuthatches making a nest in one of my nest boxes. I thought they would be too big for a blue tit box. Unfortunately I do not have a camera in this box, mores the pity.