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PROGRAMME INFO |
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The Living World is a gentle, weekend natural history programme, which aims to broadcast the best, most intimate wild encounters with British wildlife. In this series Lionel Kelleway watches the blackbird, tracks hedgehogs at night, looks at terns and explores Yarner Wood.
nhuradio@bbc.co.uk |
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LISTEN AGAIN 25 min |
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PRESENTER |
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"The Living World is the next best thing to being there. Our contributors are skilled naturalists who are able to reveal those fascinating facts about animals and plants that you don't always find in books. It's like having a personal guided tour of the countryside, without needing to leave the house."
Lionel Kelleway
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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Blackbirds
One of the most beautiful songsters of the British garden, the blackbird is also
adaptable, resourceful, skilful and fascinating.
Known as blackie, merle, ouzel and zulu in various parts of Britain, the blackbird is not only one of the most widespread of our breeding birds, but it also one of the most numerous, numbering some seven million pairs.
For 5 years, Will Cresswell studied the behaviour and breeding habits of the blackbirds in the gardens and woods of Hopetoun House, a magnificent stately home to the east of Edinburgh and it is here that Lionel Kelleway joins him for an insight into the fascinating behaviour of a bird that many of us take for granted.
The blackbird is recognisable at a distance by the way it moves - especially by the way it raises its tail on landing. Originally, blackbirds lived on the edge of woodland, but have adapted to live in farmland as well as parks and gardens. Today those that nest on farms and gardens are more successful at producing young than those in woodland. Juveniles in towns, however, are commonly caught by cats.
As Lionel and Will search for the garden residents, they discuss the success and adaptability of blackbirds, such as the fact that female blackbirds will lay several clutches in one year until they successfully rear a brood. The programme is a fascinating and enjoyable romp around the garden, and an insight into the life and character of one of our most familiar garden birds.
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RELATED LINKS
BBC Nature: Wildfacts - Blackbird
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