by Matthew Cobb
Given that Jerry is currently in the UK, I thought it would be appropriate to draw the attention of WEIT readers to an excellent UK initiative, which has its roots deep in the British tradition of amateur natural history.
Springwatch is a playful, informative, family-oriented BBC TV programme that goes out live for 60 minutes every evening, four days a week, over three weeks at the very end of spring. This year’s series began on Monday this week.
Although there are many filmed pieces from around the UK, the heart of the programme involves live coverage of the vicissitudes of life as experienced by a number of animals (mainly birds) in the British countryside. All of life – and death – is here. There are occasional hints of sentimentality (children are watching), but the honesty of the presenters and producers preclude anything more than hints. Nature’s cycle of life and death – natural selection in action – inevitably intervenes.
For example, last night we had an update on the blue tit nest. On Wednesday evening, eight babies had successfully flown the nest, in seven short minutes. But one remained in the nest, and by the time it flew, the others had disappeared. And there it was, as night closed, huddled in the lower reaches of a tree. The next day, there was no sign of it. But the webcam in the kestrel nest revealed, in glorious technicolour, a blue tit being shredded by the cruel beak of the kestrel, while her fluffy white babies opened their gapes in the hope of a titbit. All on prime-time TV. Good for the kestrels, but not for the blue tit (which, of course, might not have been the same one we had fixed our attention on the previous evening).
The wonder of the world wide web means that much of this fascinating material is available to people round the world, though only UK readers will be able to catch up on missed programmes. But there’s plently for the rest of you, which you can access from the Springwatch webpage: [EDIT: As you may see from the comments – in fact, NONE of the video or webcam material is viewable outside the UK, which kind of takes away the point of this post! You can still visit the other still and text parts of the site, though. I will complain to the BBC! – MC]
Watch the webcams (with live logs explaining what’s happening, written 18 hours a day by knowledgeable staff) – at the moment we can see swallow, avocet and blackbird nests, and a webcam over a river called – guess why – “Otter bridge”. Scroll down on the same page for more information about the animals they’re following.
Visit the Flickr site – tens of thousands of photos, some brilliant, some amusing, sent in by viewers.
Join in the discussion boards (registration needed).
Can a non-UK reader let us know whether *any* of the videos are viewable from outside the UK?
Non-UK reader (Australia) here. Tried to access video on the website. Programmes, clips and webcam all seem to be presented through BBC iPlayer, which restricts access.
Which is to say, no, I couldn’t view them.
Bum. Not even the webcams? That does seem cheapskate. Can others confirm this?
*(thanks for the great reveiw. I’m the web producer on Springwatch)
Afraid the video is only available in the UK. Most BBC programmes are funded by a license fee, which everyone in the UK pays if you own a tele. But as streaming video to global audiences is expensive, and rights are usually only cleared for UK use, you only see it on certain areas of BBC.co.uk
Its annoying for us too! But I can understand why.
My wife and I are great fans of Springwatch, although we missed it last night in favour of a radio astronomy lecture at our local astronomy club.
Did you see the bits about the black foxes? Perhaps these are our mysterious “black beasts” of rural Britain.
Message on trying webcams:
“Sorry, but these videos are not available outside of the UK”
Grr…
Apparently they don’t want our license fee going toward a bit more bandwidth for non-UK folks.
It seems too tight to me. For one thing, they can sell a lot of programmes abroad on DVD if people can view at least part of them online.
“…number of animals (mainly birds)…”
Because we British have pretty much annihilated every thing else.
and now we want to exterminate the badgers. Grrr.
Annihilated, really ? That would be why the Otter, Polecat, Wild Boar and Pine Marten are making a comeback then, presumably it also explains why Fallow deer are so abundant. Britain has never had many species of mammal and they are generally doing as well or better now than at any time in the past 500 years. Insects aren’t having such an easy time admittedly especially moths and butterflies but this isn’t unique to Britain. For a small crowded island we have a more diverse flora and fauna than might be expected.
The BBC also does a number of science blogs, all of which I believe are available outside the UK . . . continuing the amateur theme, one of the podcasts (Material World) is promoting a set of amateur science projects
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/so-you-want-to-be-a-scientist/
itunes is the best place to find a list of the podcasts
The Springwatch folk ignored my message, but a later one from someone else complaining about the same thing led to this FAQ answer: “Broadcast rights restrictions prevent us from showing Springwatch programmes and content to people outside the UK. In addition, broadband content is expensive for the BBC to stream, so we have to give priority to people within the UK, who ultimately bear the cost of us doing this through their licence fee.” In other words – it costs for all you non-UK citizens to watch our low-res webcam so you can’t do it…
I would call it mind-numbing and frustrating rather than informative. The presenters insist on literally reminding viewers what had been shown a minute earlier. The presentation of information is extended so much as to have one fact draped over twenty seconds, with uninformative, meaningless ramblings between.
Honestly, anyone wanting to be informed rather than patronised would be well advised to read Wikipedia over watching Springwatch.
Yes I have to agree, I gave up watching it because the personalities of the presenters ( especially Kate Humble ) got in the way. despite what Matthew says it does anthropomorphise things too much, so all you non UK people aren’t missing as much as you might think.
It’s clearly a matter of taste. All I can say is that as a university lecturer and a parent, I find it entertaining and informative (I learn something on every programme, which is more than you can say for a lot of TV), and not in the slightest bit patronising. Explanations of quite complex phenomena (eg honest signalling) have been done remarkably well. You have to explain things simply to 10 year-olds, and make it vaguely interesting for parents who might not find it otherwise interesting. And I would not trust Wikipedia for anything that I did not already know!
Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh and I’m sure you’re correct about it’s value to the very young. Maybe I’ve just let my dislike of Kate Humble get in the way but that’s the trouble with TV, too personality oriented, that’s fine when you have someone like David Attenborough but there’s very few like him.
While I agree that there are significant problems in the style of presentation, I must agree with Dr. Cobb in the sense that there is always something to learn. I don’t like that science skit with Packham on the pogo stick, but when he talked about mimicry, he did not water it down. You have to give them credit for the information they pack in.
Many years ago BBC Bristol did a similar series of programmes following the daily doings of some fox cubs. My cat was entranced by it.
While I agree that the style of presenting is aimed more at children than at adults, I find this programme engaging and informative.
It also prompted me to go here at the weekend:
http://www.lros.org.uk/fossemeadows.htm
…where I was followed around by Common and Adonis Blues, and divebombed by sand martins. Thanks Springwatch, for reminding me of my local lovely places.