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.