Well, I Never Expected That!

 

Well as some of you may know, I'm a bit of a Springwatch follower and share a lot of my photographs with them through Twitter, Facebook and the Flickr group, on the basis that there are a lot of like minded folks who may like to see what I see nature wise...  

 I never expected this though!

 I've corresponded with members of their Digital Team for some while and a few weeks ago arranged to pop in and see them to just say 'hello!' whilst they are at RSPB Minsmere.  We sorted out the final details or where and when earlier this week....  Wednesday, after lunch, at the BBC Springwatch compound on the reserve.

 On Tuesday morning, I received a very unexpected message from Laura Howard, the Digital Producer:

 'How about we pop along to the Story Developer's truck around 3, to have a chat with presenter Stephen Moss?' 

 Well after a bit of spluttering and rubbing my eyes, to make sure I was reading it right, I agreed, although I have to admit, I did have to ask Laura again later, that it was real!

 Wednesday dawned and Hubby and I set off for Minsmere and after lunch I went along to the BBC Compound, where Laura gave me a brilliant tour and explained how everything fits together to make both Unsprung, the Springwatch programs themselves and also how the Digital Team manage and monitor all the 'stories' coming from the live camera feeds and share on the various social platform.   The amount of teamwork, hard work and planning that goes on behind the scenes to bring us these programs on a daily basis is absolutely astounding!

 Laura introduced me to the other members of the Digital team and also to Stephen Moss, who was to do my interview. Stephen is a naturalist, author, presenter and TV wildlife producer.  We had quite a chat in preparation for the interview - he's a very interesting and knowledgeable fellow and I was put quite at ease!

All set and ready to go, we went back to the Live Cameras truck, only to find that gremlins had snuck in and there was no sound working for the live commentary.  After a while, it was decided that I would come back the next morning, unfortunately, Stephen couldn't be there, however it was lovely meeting him and Laurence Whitaker, whom I've corresponded with at length over time, was to interview me instead. 

The day wasn't over yet though, I still had one last point of call, a place in the Unspung Audience!  I had a brilliant afternoon and evening and went off for supper with a huge silly grin!


Image courtesy of the BBC.

Next morning arrived and posted on their website, I saw this:

Image courtesy of BBC Springwatch.

 Yikes!  it was really going to happen!

 I met up with Laurence and Martin Poyntz-Roberts in the Live Cameras truck, we had a quick talk through what was going to happen, sorted out headsets and then suddenly I was live, one small voice, talking about nature, my photography and hoping that I didn't trip over my words (it was all unscripted) and could manage to get across my delight in all that I see... 


 Image courtesy of  BBC Springwatch 

Left to right: Martin Poyntz-Roberts, Myself and Laurence Whitaker.

 Interview over, hubby and I spent the rest of the day wandering (the camera came along too, but that's another blog!) around Minsmere, with me in totally silly grin mode!

 If you would like to have a watch and listen, my interview is amongst the 'Clips' on the BBC Springwatch website, hope you enjoy watching and listening as much as I did doing it!

 


Image courtesy of  BBC Springwatch.  



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Popular posts from this blog

Big Garden Birdwatch January 2020

Image
  One of the first things I do when I get my new calendar every year is to add a reminder for the Big Garden Birdwatch; as well as it being a little bit of Citizen Science (which snowballs into LOT of Citizen Science with so many folk across the country taking part) it is also a perfectly reasonable ‘timeout’ to just sit, wrapped up warm and with a big mug of something hot, watch and be entertained by our garden visitors.  The first arrival was one of the Robins, appearing in the remains of an elderly Ceanothus before darting across the garden into the depths of the Bay Tree.    A familiar bubbling chatter was heard and a pair of Long Tailed Tits appeared next to the feeders in the middle recently we have had a pair visit as well as a little family group. Within the ivy along the fence and the branches of the Field Maple, as well as from the depths of the Bay Tree, the local flock of Sparrows could be heard discussing whether to approach the feeders… Gradually they appeared, pe
Read more

Magic Moments 2019

Image
  Well now that the dust has started to settle on 2019, I had a browse back through my Nature Diary to try to choose my favourite moments….  There were A LOT of moments!  I’m not entirely certain where the year went – it seemed, once again to pass in a flash, however thank heavens for the camera with which I was able to record more than a few magic moments through the year. Those of you who follow and read regularly will know that I will happily take pot luck with what I watch and am definitely not a ‘tick and click’ person; unless I’m at a bird reserve, where I’ll lurk in a hide for a while, pretty much everything watched has been ‘on the hoof’ so to speak, so watching ‘new’ or ‘firsts’ are special moments indeed. I managed to lose the first part of the year due to a nasty bout of lurgy, however towards the end of January I managed to venture, somewhat wonkily out, first on my local patch  where as well as watching the regulars I also spotted one of the elusive Redwings which I ha
Read more

About ME!

Image
  Some years ago,   I decided to learn my way around digital photography so that I could keep pictorial records of the wildlife and nature on my local patch as I began to explore it – an area of   of woodland and farmland near to where I live with a fallow field.  To say I was surprised at the variety of birds, insect life and flora would be an understatement.     When I was considerably younger (a mere Tween!) I had thoroughly enjoyed a bit of birdwatching, so with the interest very much re-awakened, this time with different eyes and taking a very different approach with an appreciation now of seeing the natural world far more, observing and wondering at how, from the soil upwards, through plants and insects to birds, reptiles and mammals, everything fits together in an incredible way with an important place in the huge Nature Jigsaw.  This time around, no tick lists, instead, everything I watched and or photographed I was going to learn something about it – lifecycle, name, habit
Read more

Looking Back at 2015

Image
  Well as 2015 draws to a close, I was having a browse through my Nature Diary and thought I'd share some of my favourite moments.  For me, it has been an exciting year, with quite a few sightings of creatures I have not seen before, or of moments of watching old favourites and as I learn more about the natural world, having more appreciation and wonderment at seeing them.   We start off back in January, when we had a day out at RSPB Lakenheath.  We'd been there briefly before, but decided to have a 'proper' walk round.  It was a bright, but chilly afternoon with plenty about to see, from Reed Buntings up clo se and sunbathing outside the visitor centre, to a far off view of the Cranes, however the highlight of the afternoon were our first ever sightings of Bearded Reedlings.  These tiny birds live in reedbeds and are extremely agile amongst the reeds, feeding on seeds and insects and were very busy that afternoon, feeding up against the cold.  Bearded Reedlings, whil
Read more

Big Garden Birdwatch January 2018

Image
Well I seem to have blinked and a year has disappeared! This year, I managed only one #Biggardenbirdwatch, we were at my Dad's on the Saturday having a belated Burn's Night lunch to celebrate his 90th birthday, so all attention was on the Birthday boy and not on his garden birds, although a Wren was spotted in the Philadelphus along the fence during lunch!   Next morning, I filled up the bird feeders; I use kibbled peanuts and sunflower hearts in one, fatballs in two others and a standard 'high energy' seed mix in two others.  Once I'd got my cup of coffee and camera to hand, well wrapped up, I settled on a chair just outsode the back door to watch and count.  The weather was markedley different from the previous day, cold, but with sunshine and quite a bit of blue sky, it was quite breezy from time to time as well!   The first birds to arrive, in the Hazel at the end of the garden were the Blue Tits, three of them.  One paused amongst the catkins, watching the
Read more

An Alternative Day Out...

Image
  Well recently I decided to forgo a Company trip into town and take the time instead to visit, to me at least, a far more appealing environment;  for some time I've had the Fens in Cambridgeshire on my wishlist of places to explore, so I decided to start with Wood Walton Fen.     Wood Walton Fen is one of a few remaining areas of the ancient fen which covered the area and is a haven for many wildlife species.  Charles Rothschild had already purchased part of Wicken Fen, whch he had gifted to the National Trust and had intended to do the same with Wood Walton.  The National Trust were unable to take the site on so he maintained it as a private reserve for some time before donating it to the Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts.  Today, Wood Walton is maintained by Natural England and is classed as a National Nature Reserve, a RAMSAR site and a Special Area of Conservation.     After an interesting drive (navigation is not one of my strong points, however I did have an unexpecte
Read more

A Big Garden Birdwatch And a Catch up on My Local Patch.

Image
  There’s a Dunnock singing outside…   They’ve been flicking and flirting around the front and back garden for the past week or so, Robins have also been chasing about in the garden for territory rights and I’ve watched Blue Tits flying ‘tag’ in the garden as well as hearing Great Tits beginning to declare…  The weather since November has mostly been on the mild side, a bit damp with (for here) a smattering of snow and a couple of frosts.  In the local woods, the Bluebells are a couple of inches through the soil, the Elderberries are all bursting into leaf and there is a carpet of young Stinging Nettles and hopeful Ground Ivy.  Here and there on old wood, toadstools and brackets have appeared as well as a few slime moulds. There have been plenty of Jays about in the woods and I have seen them on their regular winter commute across the back garden as they go back and forth prospecting for food.  We have even had one stop by the garden feeders on several occasions, having a fine meal
Read more