Page 20 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10
P. 20
AUTUMNWATCH
hy do we, as “Autumnwatch has always Above: chipmunks
a nation, love will up the show's
autumn so much? been on the move, cute factor. Below:
Chris Packham,
Where spring is Michaela Strachan
showy – flushed adapting to tell the story of and Gillian Burke
with new arrivals will be presenting
W and bright this ever-shiting season.” Autumnwatch
from the USA.
verdancy – autumn is more subtle: a final
flourish of colour as the countryside fades
to brown, and a flurry of summer visitors
fleeing for warmer climes. Likewise, the
harsh realities of winter are yet to set in. But try filming those moments, those broadcast from the highest reaches of
The great flocks of wildfowl and starlings feelings, those smells. Of the three Scotland and from the BBC Bristol car park,
are only just starting to build, and the ‘Watches’ we make each year, Autumnwatch across programmes ranging from single
desperation of the coldest and hardest is the most challenging to bring to the one-hour specials to eight-week marathons.
season is yet to bite. screen. So, for the past 12 years the team Autumnwatch has always been on the move, C ockw se from top
Yet there is clearly something about the has been experimenting with new ways to changing and adapting to tell the story of
year’s latter months – because the pin down this nebulous season. this complicated and ever-shifting season.
Autumnwatch programmes are The search has taken us And now we’re roving farther than ever
some of the most popular we all around the country. before. This year we head to the USA to
make each year. I think that’s We’ve visited Westonbirt explore ‘fall’ in New England – a spectacle S & D & K Mas owsk /FLPA; Visuals Unlimited/NPL; George Sanker/NPL; Pete Dadds/BBC
because it’s the most poetic Arboretum in the billed as the greatest autumn on Earth. eft: John Canca os /NPL; Danny Green/NPL; B
and emotional of seasons Cotswolds as the As summer recedes, the lush greens of
– felt rather than seen; leaves changed to the region’s forests give way to the scarlet
loaded with ephemeral amber and fiery and crimson of maple and red oak, while
moments sensed at a red, and watched birch and elm glint with gold and mountain
deeper level. Autumn is a huge flocks of geese maple glow in deep orange hues. The
subtle tweak in the quality through the mist transformation begins in mid-September
of the light; a shift in the at WWT Slimbridge in northern Maine, seeping south over the Hatcher/Getty;
wind that signals change. near Gloucester. We’ve following weeks through New Hampshire,
20 BBC Wildlife October 2018
