Page 89 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #05

REVIEWS BROADCAST

Q&A WILD until February
2019),a new two-
parter filmed in
Chris Jordan STREAM Essex that offers
a glimpse into
THE LATEST ON iPLAYER, the lives of these
What attracted
NETFLIX AND BEYOND characterful
you to Midway?
I was shown creatures
some images World Pangolin Day may The pangolin is the only through the
of Midway by have been and gone, but we truly scaled mammal. seasons.
Anna Cummins, can always make time in our Finally, if the
a friend and founder of the lives for this endangered little to Greece, catch up with the mesmerising scenes of Blue
I
5 Gyres Institute. I had the mammal (right). Narrated by world’s most famous natural Planet II have got younger
same feeling that I had after David Attenborough and the history family with the third readers setting their sights on
Hurricane Katrina – that this second in the new Natural series of The Durrells (ITV a caree er in marine
was a profound tragedy that World series, Pangolins: The Hub, until mid-May),a ligght- biolo ogy, there is
me great advice
wasn’t being treated with World’s Most Wanted Animal hearted drama based onn som
om producer
reverence. I was drawn to the follows conservationist Maria Gerald Durrell’s memooirs fro
nd scientist
story like a magnet. Diekmann as she makes an of his childhood on the an
emotional journey to Vietnam, island of Corfu. Closer R
Rachel Butler
Thailand and China to better to home, Strigidae i n How Do
Why do you take such a
understand the global issues superfans can learn Y
You Become
poetic approach to the film?
a
I’ve never been convinced facing these animals, and more about their a Marine
Biologist? (BBC
by the information approach joins forces with a Chinese favourite birds with B
to documentary features. megastar to raise awareness of The Secret Life of Owls Ea arth Unplugged
ouTube
The pictures can be almost their plight (BBC iPlayer, until (My5, Let little owls Yo
c
secondary. I wanted imagery end of May).From the East available into your life. channel).
to be at the fore, as I think
something is transmitted
when you look into the lives
of magnificent beings. I also SLOW START
think beauty is as important TO SPRING
as facts – I’m a big fan of the
transformational power of art. Nightingales
RADIO BBC Radio 3. Due to air 1 May
For a break from the everyday
There are 1.5 million birds on
Savory Midway. Was filming easy? rush, tune into this Slow Radio
experience from Radio 3. The
tt e ow : Russe Far from it! Imagine being show delves into the remarkable
surrounded by thousands of
and magical experience of
birds – every possible behaviour
the nocturnal song of the
is going on all around you, and
n: Mar a D ekmann, REST; trying to focus on one particular Sir David nightingale, recorded in a
Sussex woodland one night
thing is hilariously vexing. To
contemplates
in April. Musicians perform
film a chick opening its wings,
a swan egg.
for instance, we’d have to zero
soloists taking it in turns to
in on one youngster, which alongside the birds, with four
Attenborough: M ke B rkhead Assoc ates; n ght nga e: Robert Bann ster/A amy; pango
might then decide to keep us WHAT CAME FIRST? respond to the birds as they
waiting for six hours. Attenborough’s Wonder of Eggs sing. Folk singer Sam Lee is
ONLINE Available on iPlayer until the end of April on hand to explain the species’
Are Laysan albatrosses in migratory nature and favoured
Think Easter and you think eggs – so what better time to learn singing habitats, and to unpick
decline due to plastic?
No. Numbers are actually more about these miracles of nature? The first of the exciting the character of its song.
increasing. That doesn’t make new run of Natural World films for 2018,d Attenborough’s
s
the individual suffering of these Wonder of Eggs is like a one-on-one biology lesson with Sir
birds any less tragic, but it does David as he gently talks you through everything egg – why they
allow us to view Midway in a are laid in the first place; how they are formed; how their design
more symbolic way. We need to at once protects a life within while allowing it to breathe. A
see it as a mirror reflecting back wealth of new science is revealed along the way: blue and great
our broken relationship with tits, for instance, use weather cues to encourage eggs to hatch
the living world. during the two-week caterpillar glut; tiny goldcrests incubate
their disproportionately large clutches by heating up their
CHRIS JORDAN wrote, narrated legs; and the hosts of cuckoo eggs are evolving more complex
and edited Albatross. patterns on their own eggs to deter the freeloaders. Enjoy the
song of the
nightingale.
Spring 2018