Autumnwatch 2009 (1 Viewer)

[naturistbird]

All the Bill-slagging is pointless and petty. So he isn't everybody's cup of tea, but he knows his stuff and is enthusiastic. I am a Bill-fan and would like to see him back on our screens as soon as possible.
Having said that, I do like Chris Packham, I think he is excellent. I don't think the show is crap without Bill, but I hope he returns in the future.

I enjoyed the main show, but the Unsprung bit was just a mess. It seems that Martin Hughes-Games was supposed to be in charge of proceedings but barely maintained control of the situation, with everyone trying to talk at once. It was this >< close to descending into complete chaos!

I did take a peek at the Autumnwatch forums but its the sort of forum that
makes me grateful for Bird Forum and the like, being full of 'What is the point of xxxxxx species, I hate them, they're horrible' or 'Simon King/Gordon Buchanan/Chris Packham are so gorgeous' type pointless crap posts.

I agree, Vectis Bird, with everything you have said here.

 

[Gill Osborne]

CorpseWatch - Now THAT would be interesting in that it would show viewers the natural cycle of things....but no doubt it won't happen as folks MUST be sheltered from death and reality these days :smoke: Don't know if anyone saw Richard Wilson's (Victor Meldrew in case you don't recognise the name LOL) programme last week about death. I recorded it and watched it on Tuesday night and thought it was fascinating and SUCH an eye opener :t: Not gory or sad at all. Certainly made me think.....esecially that we never know when our times up and we should start living NOW!!!

I recorded Autumnwatch on Friday as I was on early shift on Saturday (getting up at 4.15am!!!) and watched it last night. LOVED it.....just great to see it back :t: I think this weekly formula WILL work - stretch the series out as autumn unfurls and give us a chance to know what events to look out for and get out there and look for them. :t:

Haven't had the chance to watch Unsprung yet so cannot comment on that yet...I'll catch up this afternoon.

Glad to hear that Bill is up and about again too :t: I always enjoyed his wildlife programmes and we definitely need more of them.

 

[Euan Buchan]

It was good to hear Chris saying that Bill is feeling much better now and that they have been working together.

Ron

Chris & Bill were at Birdfair aswell

 

[kingfisher]

There was a film crew at Radipole Lake (Weymouth) yesterday 03/10/09, filming the 3 Ruddy Shelduck that turned up there last week....

 

[Bird-Nut]

hi bird-nut

Maybe it was 'jolly old hockeysticks' I still enjoyed the programme and the 'live' Sparrowhawk was amazing to see.

So the big question is 'where do we go from here?

I see that there are articles about Migatory birds next week.

So maybe some of our views will be changed, based on that there will be more beefy articles next week! We will see!

Regards
Kathy
z

Hi Kathy

If the presenters weren't so over the top and kept to the point viz a viz the programme's raison d~etre Wildlife - rather than making a big deal about being presented with cups of tea and the fact one presenter apparently attracting a lot attention from a group of females (in the background) for which he was suitably dismissive about; and as I mentioned before other production staff chasing around - and all this in the first 5 minutes. It just struck me as irrelevant. They need to get the balance right between making the viewer feeling relaxed and keeping the point - after all, they have less than 30 mins to do so.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for having fun |=)| - after all it is a hobby for the vast majority, and newbies to wildlife need encouraging to get involved. But, my main objection is the manner in MHO in which 'the viewer' seemingly has a low IQ or attention span.

David Attenborough seems to be able to put his message across without having to resort to 'dumbing down'. I know he's in a class of his own. :t:

 

[thenorthernmonkey]

David Attenborough seems to be able to put his message across without having to resort to 'dumbing down'. I know he's in a class of his own. :t:

Saw him the other night presenting "Darwin - The tree of life" on BBC4

Brilliant, absolutley brilliant.....

 

[Roger P]

Has it occurred to anyone else that AutumnWatch may not see BF members as its target audience? I'd rather hope that they were trying to involve people with an undeveloped interest; it's almost inevitably going to be aimed a bit 'below' (can't think of a more PC word) most of us here. So many of the comments above seem so po faced. Yes we know you are very clever and get bored by a bit of fun but the general public need a light hearted but accurate approach.

Actually I'm surprised that none of the celebrity-haters has mentioned Chris's enormous gaffe when trying to explain the seasons. It was VT too, not live so should have been picked up and corrected. I would hope that at least 70% of our 'challenging-inner-city-comprehensive' 12 year olds would avoid this silly mistake. A moments thought should have shown it was nonsense! Perhaps the National Curriculum has improved things since Chris was at school! (Actually, apart from this example I rather doubt it!!)

Apart from this I thought it was all a good piece of fun for 90mins on a Friday evening. Great format for both parts of the show and as season's are so unpredictable recently spreading out over a month or more is probably the only way of guaranteeing a touch of Autumn to actually watch in at least one week's show!

 

[E.T.]

I've thought of this before when talking about these programmes, but how would a programme about wildlife around the British Isles done on the scale of say Planet Earth go down? By that I mean filming in HD, lots of money thrown at them, going out on primetime? We may not have major predators like lions, wolves, bears etc, but even a three part series on birds, mammals, sealife would be great.

We've surely got enough birdlife to support such a programme, for example, look at all the raptors that could provide excellent hunting footage - Golden and White-tailed Eagles, Ospreys, Goshawks, Peregrines and the rest; massive influxes of geese in the winter, the Starling flocks, our masses of seabirds around the coast, the human interaction with birds, be it garden feeding, or crows and gulls coming in to city centres and landfill sites.

Some of our mammals could provide some good footage - Pine Martin, Red Squirrel, Fox. At sea they could look at Basking Sharks, Killer Whales, Common and Bottle-nose Dolphins, Grey and Common Seals.

I think there's a lot of potential there for a high quality series. I love Springwatch and I've enjoyed a lot of the British nature programmes, but I don't think they've ever really put a lot of money into them like they do with overseas based programmes. I would still love to see them continue to produce the overseas programmes that they make just now, but I just felt a programme centred on the British Isles with all those resources thrown at them is overdue.

I agree :t:


It is a bit dumb down, but I tend to ignore the blabbering and enjoy the piccys. I have to say the Sparrow Hawk was magnificent!

 

[Robert Wallace]

i have just viewed the online tv guide and the write up for this series states that Simon King is covering Red Deer ruts from Rum.

Havent they got anything else to cover?.

Is Britain so devoid of Autumn wildlife we have to cover the same thing every year.

The red deer of Rhum have been an exciting and spectacular feature of autumn watch over the years. The killing of "Titus" by "Percy" last Saturday adds to the reality of nature, I only hope the BBC have the courage to show it.
British wildlife is seasonal and it is only to be expected that the BBC would wish to offer popular appeal.
See the BBC message boards to see how many of the "fluffy bunny" brigade don't want to see real nature.
I for one enjoy the return visits to Rhum to see how the situation is developing over the years, and it is fascinating to note that "Percy" was considered past it - I think he is 14 years old.

 

[Jaff]

The red deer of Rhum have been an exciting and spectacular feature of autumn watch over the years. The killing of "Titus" by "Percy" last Saturday adds to the reality of nature, I only hope the BBC have the courage to show it.
British wildlife is seasonal and it is only to be expected that the BBC would wish to offer popular appeal.
See the BBC message boards to see how many of the "fluffy bunny" brigade don't want to see real nature.
I for one enjoy the return visits to Rhum to see how the situation is developing over the years, and it is fascinating to note that "Percy" was considered past it - I think he is 14 years old.

Ditto. Doing the deer is interesting to know how things are progressing year on year, you nay-sayers seem to forget it's not going to dominate the whole 8 weeks. If every episode was filled with birds would that be better then? 8-P

 

[derelict]

From Autumnwatch to Corpsewatch

sadly the BBC webcam was still being set up when ... one of the big stags got himself killed. It seems to me the AW people have a golden opportunity here - a pile of dead wild meat in golden eagle territory and 7 weeks of Autumnwatch to go- they should do a "Corpsewatch" to see what turns up to feed on it... it could be very good PR for eagles.

There's a message on the \AutumnWatch message board from one of the BBC bods in Rum

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbsn/F14197738?thread=6974815&skip=0&show=20#p86615144

Hello,

In answer to your question, the researchers have already carried out a post mortem on Titus's body. They have taken lots of measurements and samples for DNA analysis. Because Titus wasn't born in the research area, they don't yet have a DNA sample for him. Once they do, they may be able to assign paternity to him.

They have also taken his head, his jaw and his left back leg bone. Measurements of the jaw and leg bone will give an indication of his body size.

The rest of his carcass will be left to nature where he fell. We have already seen some hooded crows and great black-backed gulls investigating, and a young golden eagle and juvenile sea eagle have also had a look.

Thanks,

Kirstine

If there is a chance of a view of a golden eagle and a sea eagle sharing (0r contesting) the carcass of a dead deer it would be well worth putting up a webcam just for that! :t:

 

[Vectis Birder]

Has it occurred to anyone else that AutumnWatch may not see BF members as its target audience? I'd rather hope that they were trying to involve people with an undeveloped interest; it's almost inevitably going to be aimed a bit 'below' (can't think of a more PC word) most of us here. So many of the comments above seem so po faced. Yes we know you are very clever and get bored by a bit of fun but the general public need a light hearted but accurate approach.

I can see your point, but the 'thicker' elements of society are not going to be interested in nature, period, regardless of the approach taken towards the presentation of the programme. There's no need for dumbing down, it never used to be required so why now?
Bring the levels up, not down to the level that our celebrity-obsessed society seems to be happy to dwell at. Ok, it doesn't require a level of presentation that only people with an A-level in Biology would understand but something above a primary-school 'Hey boys and girls, isn't this exciting!' approach would be nice.
Despite frequent appearances to the contrary, the general public aren't totally stupid and could probably benefit from something pitched higher than the usual matey approach of 'big pictures and words of one syllable'.

 

[E.T.]

I think you'll be surprised at how dense some of the general public are.

Remember Jamie Oliver holding up a potato(e*) or something and asking the kids what it was???










*If you're George Bush

 

[pie]

Anyone read the Chiff Chaff postings on the Autumn Watch web site ?

Over 500 people have written in. The little blighters appear to be suddenly popping up all over the country and singing - in late September and October -anyone know why ?

It will be interesting to have feedback about this on the next prog John.

 

[htcdude]

Anyone read the Chiff Chaff postings on the Autumn Watch web site ?

Over 500 people have written in. The little blighters appear to be suddenly popping up all over the country and singing - in late September and October -anyone know why ?

I just posted post #855. Heard several today, doens't look like they're going anywhere!

 

[luke]

There was a film crew at Radipole Lake (Weymouth) yesterday 03/10/09, filming the 3 Ruddy Shelduck that turned up there last week....

just to put the record straight they weren't filming the Ruddy Shelduck. They were just on the lagoon whilst they were filming there. Infact they have been on site since last thursday. The person in charge of the camera men was a good birder and certainly wasn't keen on incorporating the shelducks into the programme, they are obviously escapes/feral.

You'll have to wait and see what they actually filmed (baring in mind they've had some pretty awful weather!).

 

[Peter C.]

Remember Jamie Oliver holding up a potato(e*) or something and asking the kids what it was???

*If you're George Bush

Close - but no see-gar. Bush (Jr.) was the one who couldn't talk; Dan Quayle (his dad's VP) was the one who couldn't spell.

How the world survived those years is something that I will never fully comprehend ...

Peter C.

 

[Farnboro John]

It will be interesting to have feedback about this on the next prog John.

This is completely non-unusual, groups of migrating Chiffchaffs contain males that given decent weather sing occasionally. Perhaps it has some value in keeping the groups together. Its a common annual event found all over the country. Trying to make an issue of it reminds me of the enthusiasm among birders for thinking Scilly Dunnocks had stronger supercilia than mainland birds one October. The interest lasted till at last a new rarity appeared (thank goodness).

John

 

[John Barber]

Chiff Chaffs

This is completely non-unusual, groups of migrating Chiffchaffs contain males that given decent weather sing occasionally. Perhaps it has some value in keeping the groups together. Its a common annual event found all over the country. Trying to make an issue of it reminds me of the enthusiasm among birders for thinking Scilly Dunnocks had stronger supercilia than mainland birds one October. The interest lasted till at last a new rarity appeared (thank goodness).

John

I guess we non-experts learn something new every day.

 

[pie]

I guess we non-experts learn something new every day.

Amen to that! (which seems to be "the" BF words of the month!)