A Welsh adventure for Simon King
Post categories: In depth
| 10:23 UK time, Monday, 18 May 2009
Simon - the king of field craft - and his hi-tech, "mission impossible" field team have the unique wildlife of the wilder corners of mid and north Wales in their sights this year.
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From the rugged mountain tops down to the beautiful and dramatic coastline, Simon and team are on another mission seeking close encounters with some of our rarest, most surprising and most charismatic animals and investigating some of our most intriguing wildlife mysteries.
Remember how the team delivered the impossible last Spingwatch when they managed to film the elusive Scottish wild cat? This year they are in search of the polecat - another seemingly impossible challenge.
We hope for daily dramas from a nest of the "ghost of the forest" - the magnificent goshawk. Wales is famous for its ancient woodland and we'll be presenting some of their most beautiful and iconic residents - the redstart, the wood warbler and the pied flycatcher. At the coast, the team will be searching for the heaviest marine reptile in the world, the leatherback turtle, which has a bizarre migration that beggars belief.
Simon will be investigating the great seabird mystery: why are some colonies doing fine while others are in crisis? Is it climate change? What's going on?
And of course he'll also be on hand to comment on events down at Pensthorpe.
Excitingly, this year the BBC Wales Naure blog will be reporting back daily with exclusive updates and video clips from Simon's mission.
Comments
Can't wait to see the Gos, what an amazing bird they are? Magnificent.
Hope they show some red kite footage as this is one of my favourite birds of prey.
There are plenty of old walls around Mid Wales so the polecat shouldn't be a problem.
Brecon Beacons, Gigrin farm at Rhayader and Elan Valley. What a place, wish I were there now.
I photographed the frozen waterfalls and frozen landscapes at Brecon in 2008, the wind chill was -10 on top of the mountains. Cool.
Rob
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This is brilliant news, I am so looking forward to seeing Simon reveal nature at it's best in Wales. Roll on a week!
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I'm looking forward to this!!!! Welcome to Wales Simon. I see you will be looking at our red kites and puffins, and leatherback turtles?
I cant wait. The Pembrokshire coast and Breacon Beacons are a favourate but so is Snowdonia. Simon, you will be spoilt for choice!
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Heya I rlly looking forward 2 the new series and upset bill wont b presenting. :( I was wondering where exactly in the brecon beacons simon will be filming as i am doing my Gold DofE in the area in june and wish to keep my eyes open and my camera ready.
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really looking forward to this - I never realised leatherbacks were seen off wales, cant wait
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Just heard you are after polecats. I have just returned from my local nature reserve after photographing 3 polecats. It is the first time that I have come across the chaps and I must say they gave both my wife and I a great deal of entertainment toady. I took around 35/40 images on my digital SLR and I have uploaded 3 images to the Flickr website.
Bset wishes
Nigel
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Already posted on the Welsh bit of the site, wanted to suggest the Isle of Man for filming pole cats? We have a great population over here as it's perfect for them, and they're not hard to find.
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As Simon is in Wales, is there any chance of him getting to the RSPB reserve near Newport? Plenty to see there, including the newish centre building and birds including Bearded Tits, Cetti's Warblers and down at Goldcliff lagoons at the moment are two Spoonbill and plenty of Avocets, including some nesting.
Come on Simon get your backside down to Gwent quick and show people what the area is all about.
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Hi Simon, have you seen the big birds of prey on the M40 between J5 and J6, there are 8 very big, one with a V in its tail, black and brown and if its OK please Have Look at my 700 photo web site of Bug
here is the link http://mcc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/Photos.html ,thanks for any comments ,great show
Kevin
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I caught a polecat at my home on the Longmynd, Shropshire in a rabbit trap in the first week of November 2008. I let set the animal free and it appeared to have suffered no ill effects.
Only today did I spot a munjack deer within a few hundred metres of my home.
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Hi,
loads of polecats here on the Isle of Man. I must have seen fifty or more dead on the road in the last twenty years and one adult and a young one within feet of each other in the last few days.
You can spot both adults and juveniles slinking along the base of the hedgerows on roads near where we live, the ground in this part of the Island is very sandy, lots of rabbit warrens!
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I was on the practice range at my golf club the High Post Golf Club near Salisbury about a month ago when a Polecat ran out onto the range with a large rabbit in its mouth it was having a hard job with it but as I stood and watched it dragged it behind me into the line of Fir trees then I lost sight of it. I have never seen one before at the club and have not seen it since but other members have seen it.
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In 2006 we were walking though the local nature reserve in the Cymau just outside of wrexham when we came across a family of Polecats coming out of the undergrowth. We have also had the unfortunate sighting of a Male polecat that had been the victim of a road accident on the road between the Cymau and the Ffrith.
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POLECATS
Saw polecat at dusk last Summer darting out of hedgerow on country lane between Mynytho and Rhiw on Lleyn Peninsular.
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Hi, I am a warden at the Little Tern colony in Gronant beach in North Wales, these birds are the 2nd rarest seabird in the UK and this colony at Gronant is th ONLY one in Wales, i am really suprised that the Springwatch team have not yet been to film there, they are remarkable little birds and are extremely active at the moment with lots of coutship displays and flying down making scrapes etc. Simon King and his team are so close by at Anglesey why don`t they make a trip down to Gronant?, the Little Terns really do deserve a mention. Would it be possible for someone to maybe email me about it?? Thank you
Emma Thomas
Email :- hendrix172007@yahoo.com
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I was walking along the river ely when i saw someting out off the corner of my so then i look around and then i Didnt no what it was at the time untill i have started watching springwatch now thanks to springwatch i no that is was a pole cat that i looked right in to its eyes for a few seconds and the next thing i new it had run off
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Delighted to see that Goshawks are being featured - a particular favourite raptor of mine and much neglected. Will Simon be using this opportunity to mention the persecution that Goshawks and other birds of prey continue to suffer? It might be a chance to mention the RSPB Birds of Prey Pledge and to encourage viewers to sign it perhaps? http://www.rspb.org.uk/supporting/campaigns/birdsofprey/
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Hi Simon, wondered if you can help? Not sure if we have a Goshawk or Sparrowhawk nesting near us in North Yorkshire. Its a very coniferous wood,quite near moorland, last year the young made noises just like a cat meowing. The nest is very high up, in a larch in a remote part of the wood. The bird is large with a very barred chest. Wondered if the noise it made would help identification.
Fantastic footage of the Goshawks in Wales, brilliant show love it.
Jenny
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We have a redstart nesting in our letterbox. It doesn't seem to mind the disturbance of us going in and out of our front door and the postmen are being very cooperative and are leaving our post in another box nearby. Today we caught sight of the chicks for the first time.
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Polecats never quite died out in the Monmouth area of SE Wales. I found one dead on the road at Llandogo in 1981 which was subsequently confirmed as a genuine polecat and not the polecat/ferret which is often mistaken for a wild polecat. I saw another about the same time over the Wye (and English border) near Hewelsfield to the south of the Forest of Dean. Others were seen near Trelech in Monmouthshire in the early 1980s but they are altogether more common these days.
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We caught a polecat in a mink trap set near Denbigh in North Wales in April 2009. It was safely released.
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I was wondering if Simon King could answer a question? I was out on a walk in Oxfordshire last weekend & I found on a path by a river the remains of several crayfish (just there heads & claws) is this a sign of a Otter or of another preditor.
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I am so glad that simon is looking in on the polecats. fantastic. i really love them but the nearest to seeing one is to watch your brilliant show oh and watch my pet ferret,with which look very alike. could be wrong but i am asked sometimes which one is he. thanks for a lovely show
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Was at the vyrnwy yesterday and saw John Aitchison and Chris Watson at the cafe there getting lunch. I then saw them later at the hotel shooting off somwhere, so hopfully they have been busy finding things to bring to our screens over the weekend.
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I hope simon can finally get a video-recording of the polecats it must be mind bobbling 2 them
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Last night, Tuesday 2nd June, I went to Lake Vyrnwy to try and see simon and the camera crew but we got side tracked and when we went to have our picnic we seen an osprey come over our heads we where standing by the picnic tables across from the pump tower.
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I have seen a polecat at the disused airfield at Little Rissington, Gloucestershire. Mostly in the early hours of the morning, diving in and out of the thousands of rabbit warrens.
Ian. London
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I saw polecat 4th June it walked into our conseratory and the evidence of dead rabits found lately seems to confirm its identification.
Linda Mid Wales
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Just wanted to say how fantastic it is to see Simon here in Wales. He is doing a superb job introducing the fantastic variety of wildlife we have here!
I work at a red kite feeding site so I am the luckiest person in the world as I get to see these gorgeous birds everyday (Bug-Macroman....the birds you describe in your earlier post are red kites. They were actually re-introduced to that part of England....magnificant aren't they!)
Completely love the show....great stuff!
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SIMON THANK YOU SO MUCH.... I hope you get to read this....just watched your piece of film this evening on herring gulls at Llandudno, i live in Prestatyn 20 minutes away and i am so glad that you did that piece of film and highlighted the beauty of these persecuted birds. In my area of prestatyn and around rhyl, llandudno and the seaside towns around, herring gulls and the other gulls have a really bad name and i am so sick of people saying how much they hate them and the cruelty they suffer. There was a front page spread not so long back in the local paper calling for a cull on seagulls around these areas i could not beleive what i was reading, there is netting up on pubs, railway stations and other buildings stopping gulls landing and nesting there even on peoples homes. This article was complaining about the gulls landing on the shopping precinct in rhyl, luckily nothing came of this proposed cull they wouldn`t be allowed would they???. Holidaymakers and people alike say how they hate gulls but then they walk around with food, drop litter, leave rubbish out what do they expect. I rescued a gull a couple of years back with a broken wing and let it recooperate in my garage, i actually stayed in there with it for 2 nights and one night i awoke to find it sitting on my chest i was so touched. I took it to an animal rescue and they fixed the wing and it got released. I go abroad a lot doing voluntary work with wildlife and i just know i am home when i hear the gulls, i love that sound and to me too, it is the sound of the sea.
Thank you simon
Emma Thomas (Prestatyn, North Wales)
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wheres about of wales have a modest number of pole cats been seen, because im wondering if they are more common in some areas than others ?
Ed.
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Totally off topic, but i am really liking Simon's green Heroes of Telemark jacket (front pocket job) anyone know where he got it from?
Or if Lord king would like to give me an idea I would be truly happy.
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i am useless with computers so have lost the comment i sent wed night after seeing the great film on manx shearwaters .in the late70,s we lived in epping forest and coming home one foggy night our son found a bird in the lane .we searched the bird book to see what it was .the only one it was like was a Manx Shearwater . So i thawed some spratts from the freezer ,put him in a bath of water . eventually he eat some .kept him in a box overnight . We had thought he may be injured as he was shuffling about ,but now know why as the leg,s are so far back on the body in.In the morning he was bright and alert . I phoned the local rspb . a grumpy man answered , oh i very much doubt it is a Manx Shearwater , but bring him to the local resavour , which we did , >o seeing the bird he said my God it really is a M Shearwater so we took him to top of the resavour where we waited for a gust of strog wind and threw him high , he circed above us for a few turns then flew away strongly .The next day the inspector phoned he was getting calls saying we have seen a M S .i now know how lucky we were to be so close to such a special bird
The prog; this spring has been the best ever .Welcome Chris & Martin you are agreat team and the whole crew great , What am i going to do at * pm now . I know biuld a better wild life garden and look forward to autumn watch . a great big thank you all such a magic show esp the Stoat Family and all the fantastic camera work .xx
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I just caught the tail end of a show about Simon King on Radio 4 about big cats loose in Britain. A couple of years ago, two nights running my then boyfriend and I watched a very large dark animal in the field next to where we were camping in Seaford, East Sussex. The unmistakeably cat like animal marked out a repetitive triangular path around the field. This was dusk and the light was fading but it seemed perhaps four feet long. On returning home a did a google search and it would appear there had been 10 sightings in the last 5 years or so. Can anyone suggest what this may have been.
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