natures calendar

Barry3 · #1 (**permalink**) 23-09-2007, 09:25 AM

New series Natures Calendar BBC 2 September 24 6.30 p.m. Barry

goosey · #2 (**permalink**) 23-09-2007, 10:08 AM

Thats good news and had totally escaped my attention - thanks

. I've really enjoyed the past programmes.

Ukwildlifeo · #3 (**permalink**) 23-09-2007, 10:25 AM

Oh good. I managed to miss everyone of the last run, but I should be able to see them all with bbc iplayer now

Pete Collins · #4 (**permalink**) 23-09-2007, 10:31 AM

Thanks very much, Barry - I probably would have missed it! I only noticed the last series was on after I'd missed the first couple of programs.

rlchew · #5 (**permalink**) 23-09-2007, 11:32 AM

Many thanks for the heads up Barry.

This is an excellent series of programmes and I did not know that another series was due to start.

I must remember to set the video for 6.30 p.m. each evening as I am rarely home by that time.

Richard

rlchew · #6 (**permalink**) 23-09-2007, 11:35 AM

More information here on what we can enjoy watching ....

BBC - Nature's Calendar

Richard

jamie_from-kent · #7 (**permalink**) 25-09-2007, 09:10 AM

I watched that last night and thought it was really good. That woman on it does surely have the best bird table in the world!! So is it on every night????

pressld2 · #8 (**permalink**) 25-09-2007, 09:36 AM

Rats! Missed this thread on Sunday and missed last night's opening episode too

But, on the bright side, nine more episodes to look forward to!

It's on every night this week and next, 6:30pm on Beeb 2.

Dave P.

jamie_from-kent · #9 (**permalink**) 25-09-2007, 09:58 AM

OK cheers for that. If you have telewest or virgin media have look and see if it is on catch up tv, then you will be able to watch last nights one.

Pete Collins · #10 (**permalink**) 27-09-2007, 07:10 PM

Thanks again for the 'heads up' Barry. The third section of tonights episode was at the Ashridge Estate which is in my 'patch' - in fact I'm probably going walking there on Saturday. So I'd have been really annoyed if I'd missed it.

Apart from the Fallow Deer they showed (no, I'm afraid I've not yet got up ridiculously early to go on the Deer walk) there are also a lot of Muntjac in the woods there. The estate covers a large area (there's an Ashridge Estate Boundary Trail which is sixteen miles long!), mainly woods, especially beech woods. Its great for walking, and you stand a fair chance of seeing some deer at any time (I think there's 800 Fallow Deer there). Not far from Ashridge House (now a business school, I think) there is a large open enclosure in the middle of the woods (where they filmed the bucks fighting either side of a fence, I think) and you can occasionally see a large group of deer there (I have twice seen 80+ there). There is also a field beside the main road through the estate where you very often can see smaller groups of deer.

Dan Salter · #11 (**permalink**) 27-09-2007, 07:59 PM

Dam...why do i ALWAYS miss these things...sat bored till 7 oclock waiting for the one show in the hope they would show some wildlife tonight ( they didnt)...and i was missing this on bbbc2 ha ha.

We had a new regional south east programme on bbc1 last night after the one show...cant remember the name but it was full of wildlife related stuff...its on weekly.

Pete Collins · #12 (**permalink**) 05-10-2007, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete Collins

Thanks again for the 'heads up' Barry. The third section of tonights episode was at the Ashridge Estate which is in my 'patch' - in fact I'm probably going walking there on Saturday. So I'd have been really annoyed if I'd missed it.

...

Due to various reasons (mainly laziness and inclement weather) I didn't go for my walk round the Ashridge estate until yesterday. It's about a 15-mile walk, all round Ashridge and the adjoining Berkhamsted Common (mainly within the NT's Ashridge estate) and including Ivinghoe Beacon and Pitstone Hill. It's a great walk which I've done several times before. The time before last, I saw six groups of Fallow Deer (totalling over a hundred deer in all). This time I only saw a total of about 20 deer, but had the closest view of a large buck (I think male Fallow Deer are called bucks rather than stags?) that I have ever had.

I saw it run across the path about 50 yards in front of me - when I got there I looked in the direction it had gone, not expecting to see anything as they usually run off and disappear when they see a human. To my surprise I first saw a hind about 50 yards away, and then noticed the big buck only 30-35 yards away, staring straight back at me! I guess it was acting braver than normally because it's the rutting season - I took a couple of quick snaps and then moved on. Sorry for the poor quality of the much-cropped image.

I wondered if this buck might have been one of the stars from the piece on Nature's Calendar but as there are supposed to be 800 deer on the Ashridge Estate it probably wasn't. Later on I saw two more large bucks, or rather just their heads and antlers above the intervening bracken. I saw one of them eating leaves from a low branch. I also came across a young buck standing in the path maybe 30 yards in front of me - it had its back to me, but when I tried to get my camera out, the noise of the velcro on my camera pouch alerted it to my presence and it was off.

I had a nice view of a Fox, too!

jamie_from-kent · #13 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007, 11:02 AM

Has Natures Calennder finished now? I was expecting to watch it last night at 6:30 and I looked in the paper and it wasn't on!!

smartie · #14 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamie_from-kent

Has Natures Calennder finished now? I was expecting to watch it last night at 6:30 and I looked in the paper and it wasn't on!!

I think it must have finished, unless they are going to change the time. It has been replaced by the Strictly Come Dancing show that will be on every weekday night now until Christmas

jamie_from-kent · #15 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007, 11:26 AM

I know I hate it when that happens. Natures Calender was a good programme and they replace it with something like that. Now the next nature series that is on is autumnwatch on November the 5th.

ChrisJB · #16 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007, 07:26 PM

We've got Mr T to look forward to tomorrow on 'Nature of Britain'.

Regards, Chris

Pete Collins · #17 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007, 07:44 PM

I think Nature's Calendar just runs for two weeks at a time, at the start of each season. So hopefully they'll be back in three months time to tell us where to go and what to look for in winter.

glsammy · #18 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007, 08:05 PM

I've just finished watching a batch of these, as I rarely watch them live. I've enjoyed them all, and I'm determined to get out to see some of these coastal migrants this year, something I've never witnessed before.

jamie_from-kent · #19 (**permalink**) 09-10-2007, 08:11 PM

Is Nature of Britain on once a week????? I know it is on tomorrow bbc 1 9:00.

smartie · #20 (**permalink**) 10-10-2007, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glsammy

I've just finished watching a batch of these, as I rarely watch them live. I've enjoyed them all, and I'm determined to get out to see some of these coastal migrants this year, something I've never witnessed before.

It was watching one of those that triggered me to go out to Snettisham last week to see them, and we had a really excellent day.

Pete Collins · #21 (**permalink**) 13-10-2007, 06:46 PM

Sorry if this is a little off topic now, but on Thursday I again walked round Ashridge, where Nature's Calendar filmed the Fallow Deer. Again I had a remarkably close view of a large Fallow Buck.

As you can see, when I first saw him, it was as if he hadn't quite got the hang of playing 'Hide-and-seek' ...

But as I walked past, he got to his feet, wandered a few yards and turned to look at us.

Later on in the walk, I saw about 100 Fallow Deer in the large field next to the road close to the turning to the Bridgewater Monument.

Jez · #22 (**permalink**) 13-10-2007, 07:27 PM

Theres definately a magical sense i feel when in the presence of the Majestic Stag the lord of the land!

cavscott · #23 (**permalink**) 13-10-2007, 09:20 PM

Hope people don't mind a blatant plug, but Nature's Calendar producer Sue Wilkinson writes a 'wildlife spotter' page every month in the mag I edit, BBC Countryfile with info gathered from the programme.

To keep it on topic, did anyone here build a birdbox as part of the birdbox challenge earlier this year?

Cav

Ann2 · #24 (**permalink**) 13-10-2007, 09:24 PM

Sadly, I miss out on all these good TV programmes as I don't own a television. Instead, I have to get out there myself to experience the joys of nature.

I too was up at Ashridge recently and saw this little fella amongst all the darker coloured deer.

Pete Collins · #25 (**permalink**) 14-10-2007, 10:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ann2

Sadly, I miss out on all these good TV programmes as I don't own a television. Instead, I have to get out there myself to experience the joys of nature.

I too was up at Ashridge recently and saw this little fella amongst all the darker coloured deer.

Fallow Deer do vary tremendously in colouring, don't they! I remember reading an article in a paper some years ago saying the white deer were sometimes called Poacher's Deer - poachers would never kill the white deer as they are so much easier to spot and so give away the presence of the rest of the herd.

Television can sometimes show you things that you would never see yourself in nature, but it can't compare to getting out there and seeing things for yourself. (But how can you live without seeing Match of the Day?

)