Remembering the Wellington bomber

In the September issue of Warwickshire Life magazine I have an article entitled ‘Remembering the Wellington bomber’. For it I interviewed 90 year old Bill Bryce who flew Wellingtons during the war. He summed up why the plane was so special when he said “What made the Wellington unique was its geodesic airframe. The criss-cross aluminium structure meant that the bomber held up well under enemy fire, even after a direct hit. As a result many more Wellington aircrew came back from operations over Nazi Germany in one piece”.

Interview with Kate Humble

I spent yesterday interviewing the TV presenter Kate Humble at the London Wetlands Centre in Barnes. She was launching her new book ‘Watching Waterbirds‘ with Martin McGill, the warden at Slimbridge. Its a photographic book aimed squarely at the enthusiastic beginner featuring personal anecdotes from Kate and Martin. For example how do you distinguish between Canada Geese and Barnacle Geese? The C-anada Goose has a C-hin-strap. Sounds a bit, dare I say it, birdbrained? Well bird guides do suffer from either being aimed at complete idiots or hardcore birders but this one manages to straddle the two and is surprisingly readable. Birds are given points depending on how common they are and readers are encouraged to take the Great Waterbird Challenge leading up to 100 birds in a day.

Kate also revealed that she is currently working on a ground breaking project for the BBC called 23 degrees following the sun as it moves around the earth (or the other way round I never can remember). She also dropped a bomb shell and let slip that she wont be doing the next series of Autumnwatch due to filming commitments and will be replaced by Michaela Strachan. So the old Really Wild Show partnership of Chris Packham and Michaela Strachan will now be back on our screens. You can read the full interview in the October issue of Country Walking magazine.

Tracking Cuckoos

The British Trust for Ornithology in an amazing project have satelitte tagged 5 cuckoos and are tracking them across Africa. The cuckoo is in serious decline and our knowledge about what this species does once it leaves the UK in August is extremely poor. To help conserve them the BTO have tracked the routes they take to Africa for the first time. You can see in incredible detail where they are now in real time by zooming in using Goggle Earth on the BTOs website. And below is an exclusive interview with the director of the BTO Andy Clements talking about the project I recorded at the Birdfair at Rutland Water last weekend.

The return of the otter

Fantastic news about otters in the Guardian today – after nearly becoming extinct they are now back in every county in England. Terry Nutkins, a friend of Gavin Maxwell who wrote the famous Ring of Bright Water, said he was “absolutely overjoyed” at the news. “They are such a beautiful species of the weasel family and part of our heritage,” he said. “It’s good news and shows that the rivers are clean and there are more people becoming involved with environmental issues.” I worked with Terry on the children’s television programme The Really Wild Show in the 1980s and know only too well how passionate he is about them. During his time with Gavin Maxwell Terry hand reared an orphan otter cub and paid a very high price, losing two fingers in the process.