Springwatch Extra!

On the 2nd of June I got invited to go on Springwatch Extra, as you could imagine I really couldn't wait, I was so looking forward to it. I was a tiny bit nervous but all the excitement took that away! The drive down to Minsmere was about 4hours but that didn't really matter as it was all completely worth it! We arrived about half twelve and we went straight to the BBC area where we arranged to meet up with Libby Prins and Lindsay Chapman. Once we had found them they showed me round the whole studio and all the cameras. They showed me basically what was going to happen in the show and which photos they wanted me to show.

Afterwards me and my Dad were allowed to look round the reserve for an hour. We headed off in the direction of the Bittern hide. We took a look in the Bittern hide but unfortunately we saw no Bitterns, we then moved on to the Island Mere where we saw all the cameras which were focused on the sticklebacks where we even saw Spineless Si! From Island Mere we saw a cracking Hobby which hawked at lightening speed across the reeds hunting Dragonflies as it did, a great thing to watch!

Hobby

 

Then it was time for the show! We rushed back and got all set up and I was ready to go. Once on all the nerves dropped and from the first question I really enjoyed it, it is one thing I will always remember. I hope from everyone who watched it enjoyed it and I would just like to saw a massive thanks to the whole Springwatch team for having me and allowing on the show. But it wasn't over as I got to go on Springwatch Unsprung that night too!! But before all that we had a few more hours around the reserve. This time we went in the way of the East hide where we were hoping to see some Little Gulls. The scrapes from the hide were packed with birds. There were tons of Gulls and we thought we would never spot the Little Gulls in this but thankfully I spotted 2 of them on the back end of the scrape! they were very distant but still nice to see. Also around the hide we spotted Barnacle Geese, Oystercatchers, Little Egret, Avocet and we saw another Hobby.

 

Little Gull

Barnacle Geese

 

We then carried on our walk to the sea wall where we saw Green Woodpeckers and we had a brief view of a Bearded Tit also we saw a Moorhen nest where all the chicks had almost certainly just hatched, possibly in the last hour or two.

 

After we went back to the studio to watch the live Springwatch show and then after when that had finished we headed moved into the audience of the Springwatch Unsprung show which was great to watch live. It was great hearing about different Reptiles in the UK especially about Sand Lizards, I haven't seen them in the UK before but it is one species which I am hoping to see soon! After we left and began the 4hour journey back to York but what a great time we have had!