Episode 30

Available for over a year

30/40. How rich are the UK's rivers and inland waterways for wildlife? Do you have memories of catching tiddlers & sticklebacks? Yes or no, in this week's programme we have Sarah Pitt's latest "Memories" piece about the past abundance of wildlife. This week, how rich were British rivers in the past for wildlife - was it really much better? We'll take you from tiddlers to migratory salmon in the presence of a salmon run as the fish race up the river to spawn - one of the most well known pieces of animal behaviour in the natural history calendar. And Julian Hector reports from Japan's northernmost island Hokkaido about migratory Whooper Swans. These swans of East Asia, which breed in Russia, are the same species that winter in the UK, but which breed in Iceland. Ornithologist Mark Brazil observes that the Japanese birds are wintering 1000 miles further north than they used to - all a response, Brazil says, to climate change. And we hear about the perils to woodlands of foraging too many fungal fruiting bodies (mushrooms) from the wild. Presented by Brett Westwood Produced by Mary Colwell Series Editor Julian Hector.