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Private Notes
Cameraman and presenter Gordon Buchanan takes us on a tour of breathtaking scenery and picturesque places in search of Scottish wildlife. In the first of this series, Gordon leaves his home town of Tobermory on the Island of Mull to explore some neighbouring islands - Lunga, Staffa and Coll. Puffins and Seals are the highlight of this film but on the way we get to visit spectacular Fingals Cave.
Series in which Gordon Buchanan goes in search of Scottish wildlife. He explores the island of Rum, famous for its red deer, seeking out some particularly clever crows.
Series in which Gordon Buchanan goes in search of Scottish wildlife. A look at ospreys, which travel thousands of miles from Africa to nest in the forests and hills of Scotland, fishing with their talons for trout in lochs. Plus pine martens, nocturnal hunters that are rarely seen.
Gordon Buchanan is up on the moors. He is hoping to film some of the animals that this landscape is managed for - grouse, hares and stags. Grouse blend in perfectly with the heather of the moor, seeing them is never easy. Being larger, the hares are easier to spot. At this time of year, mid summer, they appear a greyish shade of blue; hence their name - blue hares. Finally, red deer stags; large bachelor herds roam the moors, a truly spectacular site.
Documentary following hundreds of hungry Canadian polar bears as they make their annual journey across Hudson Bay towards the town of Churchill in search of food. It is a natural phenomenon that attracts around 15,000 snap-happy tourists, eager for a close encounter with the creatures and it is up to 'bear sheriff' Wayde Roberts to keep bears and humans well apart.
Infrared lights and cameras step into the night-time world of the badger.
Two-part documentary following cameraman Mike Holding and his team tracking wild dogs in Botswana. Apart from finding the dogs, they face such problems as car maintenance and equipment failure.
Documentary following cameraman Mike Holding and his team as they track wild dogs in Botswana.
David Kennard talks about his life as a shepherd and his relationship with faithful working companions Gale and Greg, as they farm nearly a thousand sheep along the coast at Morte Point, north Devon.
A look at the exploits of a young female stoat trying to raise a family in the grounds of Kedleston Hall, one of Derbyshire's finest stately homes. Her grand surroundings appear to provide her with all she needs - good shelter, a playground for her young and plenty of rats and rabbits to prey on, meaning the 'Stately Stoats' certainly seem to be enjoying the good life!
Bill Oddie looks at one of the last remaining strongholds in the country for red squirrels. How Formby in Merseyside has remained a home for Britain's native squirrel, which has steadily become outnumbered by greys.
Short documentary about a family of tawny owls in the Forest of Dean, with rarely seen footage from inside the nest.
A leisurely trip down the River Dart, through moor and heath into ancient oak woodland and back out onto open pasture. Dippers, herons, kingfishers, mallards and many other water birds can all be found on its water, along its banks live badgers and foxes, and above it soar buzzards and peregrine falcons.
Bill Oddie takes a journey into the wild world behind his favourite book - The Wind in the Willows. Where did Kenneth Grahame get the inspiration for the river bank and those four famous characters Ratty, Moley, Badger and Toad?
Documentary about an inseparable mother and daughter otter living on the idyllic west coast of Scotland. With the young cub never more than a few feet from her mum, a very special relationship is intimately observed as the cub grows up, learning how to fish and fend for herself. As the cub faces the dangers of her first Scottish winter, mum has to work hard to make sure that both survive.
Bill Oddie finds out what's been happening to the remarkable wild barn owl family first introduced on Springwatch in 2005. With unique filming access to the Devon nest site, the whole story of the family's year is revealed, from nesting through to fledging.
The New Forest is one of the few places in Britain where you can find all six of the UK's reptile species living together - but the leader of the pack has to be the infamous adder. This film offers a rare insight into the life of the adder, following them and the other reptiles through a typical season. The male adders emerge early in the year in this stunning setting. They soon shed their dull winter coat, reveal their bright spring colours, and then they are ready to find a mate through one of the most amazing and rarely seen wildlife spectacles...the adders' dance.
Pam Ferris narrates this documentary about the largest great seal colony in England, on the Farne Islands off the Northumberland coast. Early November is the busiest time for the colony with mothers giving birth to pups, females bickering over the limited space, and huge males watching over their females in case another male tries to intrude.
Short documentary taking a look at a devoted pair of little owls who set up home in an old orchard in rural Herefordshire. From spring blossom to autumn apples, it follows a year in the life of the parent birds, their baby owls and the old fruit trees.
Documentary about the community of wild red squirrels on the island of Brownsea in Poole harbour, one of the few places left in the UK in which they still thrive. The squirrels share their island with breeding colonies of birds, timid sika deer and migrants which stop off at the island to refuel. Release date: 30 November 2005
In the Belize Barrier Reef, the world's second largest, world freediving champion Tanya Streeter comes face-to-face with a manatee.
Documentary presenting an intimate portrait of one of Britain's most charming wild animals, following a family of water voles living on a canal in Derbyshire though a typical year. The picturesque Cromford canal used to serve the regions cotton mills. Now, having been deserted, it serves as a perfect water vole paradise. For these hyperactive little mammals, a year is nearly a lifetime. They spend their lives in a frenzy of activity, swimming, feeding and breeding - the latter most neccessary, since water voles are becoming a rarity these days.
Documentary about the annual autumn red deer rut in the New Forest, a wildlife spectacle that can end in epic battles between the largest males. As the weather cools, herds of females are joined by the stags, pumped full of male hormones and ready to fight for mating rights. Their roars are meant to intimidate, but if this doesn't work, the sound of antlers clashing echoes through the forest as the rut reaches its peak.
More than 50,000 geese fly out of stormy Atlantic skies to spend winter on the beautiful Scottish island of Islay, making for one of Britain's most impressive and least known winter wildlife spectacles - thousands of handsome barnacle geese and angel-like families of swans set against magnificent mountain and wild ocean backdrops. Some say the haunting calls of the geese flying at night led to ancient Celtic legends of the hounds of hell yelping as they ran through the skies during very wild storms. The real story is just as remarkable - most of these birds have flown more than 2,000 miles all the way from Greenland. Why should so many birds gather on one small island for winter? And what impact do they have when they all arrive?
Documentary about the eider ducklings of Inner Farne, which each year undertake a great trek across the island. On their way they pass puffins being mugged by black-headed gulls and terns brooding their fluffy chicks. The eider families gather together in creches for safety as the predatory gulls wheel overhead, but will they reach their ultimate and rather unlikely destination?
Bill Oddie attempts to retrace the journey of the world-famous rabbits from the novel Watership Down as he tries to find out how much fact there is behind the fiction. The story is based on real places such as Newtown Common just outside Newbury, and Bill's journey across river, road and hillside reveals all.
Devoted beekeeper Gerald Fisher tells the fascinating story of honey bees as they go about collecting and refining nectar into one of nature's most valued substances - honey. To get it there is a daily tale of theft, murder and a life or death struggle for every honey bee.
Kedleston Hall is a grand stately home nestled in the Derbyshire countryside. In its grounds lives one of the most elusive of British mammals, the stoat. On the estate at the end of winter, we catch a rare glimpse of a stoat in ermine. A visiting shrike, or butcher bird, is another unusual sight. The stately stoats have resided in Kedleston for many years, and each spring an old walled garden is where they choose to raise their young. The kits give a new meaning to the word hyperactive, and their mum is kept busy catching rabbits to feed them. Eventually the stoat family start to explore their estate, where more surprises are in store.
The true nature of the much-maligned raven is almost as remarkable as the story of its recent recovery. These surprisingly intelligent birds mate for life, so their choice of partner is all the more important. In a unique forest on the edge of the stunning west coast of Anglesey in north Wales, the ravens gather each year to play the dating game. Newborough forest is home to one of the biggest raven roosts in Europe. Built to stabilise huge shifting sand dunes, this man-made habitat has proved a hit with the ravens. Onshore breezes rise up over the dunes, providing the perfect conditions for aerial acrobatics. The young ravens soon show that there is a fun side to their character as well.
Documentary telling the unlikely story of a banished flock of stoic sheep. Two hundred years ago they were turned out of their meadows on North Ronaldsay, the most northerly of the Orkney Islands. They were forced to eke out a living on the island's rocky windswept beach, a home they still share today with seals and seabirds. But, deprived of grass, how on earth have they managed to survive?
Nature documentary. An underwater journey to see the wildlife treasures that lie beneath the waves of the Channel Islands. Here, at the southern most tip of the British Isles, the waters are home to a rich variety of marine life from curious cuckoo wrasse, to soft corals and cuttlefish. Underwater film-maker Sue Daly gives a personal insight into her aquatic backyard as she dives amongst the kelp, colour and secret anemone caves.
A seasonal tale of how the Garden of Eden really was invaded not by a bad snake, but by one of the nation's favourite little birds. The Eden Project is an architectural wonder, a world of different habitats created in a single Cornish quarry, and probably the unlikeliest place to find the robin. So why have they set up home in one of our top tourist attractions?
How thousands of strange nocturnal birds make their home on the tiny island of Bardsey in north Wales, and an exploration of the rich history of the island itself.
The story of the white-tailed sea eagle is one of the great successes of British conservation. When wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan grew up on Mull there were no sea eagles at all, but now they are back and thriving. A third of all Britain's sea eagles now live on the island. Gordon returns to Mull to find out what makes this place such a paradise for the magnificent birds.
There are estimated to be 30,000 wild parakeets in Britain. Why are they thriving?
Nick Baker explores the rainforests of Costa Rica. The country is home to nearly five per cent of all living creatures, despite being only half the size of England, and the forests are filled with billions of insects, flamboyant birds, poisonous frogs and tree-topping monkeys.
Bush girl and elephant expert Saba Douglas-Hamilton visits Kapama Reserve in South Africa to test out an extraordinary idea whereby 13 African elephants are being trained to track down their most deadly enemy - the poacher.
Nature documentary about winter on the north Norfolk coast, where the attractions include seals and pink-footed geese.
Saba Douglas-Hamilton travels to the Arctic Circle to live with Sami reindeer herders, and participate in the winter reindeer round-up.
Nature documentary following African big cat expert Saba Douglas-Hamilton as she teams up with Indian tiger expert Valmik Thapar on a safari to Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, India.
Saba Douglas Hamilton travels to the frozen High Arctic in search of two female polar bears who became famous through David Attenborough's Life of Mammals and Polar Special. The bears have endured starvation, there having been a succession of mild winters leaving them with only scraps to feed on. But as the last winter has been a cold one the bears may be in better shape and may even have newborn cubs.
Saba Douglas-Hamilton uncovers the wildlife of Namibia's seemingly barren deserts. The arrival of Cape Fur seal pups off the Skeleton Coast draws predators from the land, while further north Saba has an encounter with one of the last truly wild black rhinos in Africa. Meanwhile, radio collars help to track a pride of desert lions, and a sand river reveals itself as a lifeline for a unique group of elephants.
Saba Douglas-Hamilton joins the Egyptian Bedouins to experience their way of life and to find out about the animal that has made their existence possible, the camel. She then learns how to race them.
The lives and loves of Africa's elephants are laid bare in the first of two programmes based in Kenya's Samburu reserve. Saba Douglas Hamilton, who grew up among Africa's elephants, is on home ground as she opens up their world. There is rivalry and passion as the biggest male in the park fights over a female, a baby elephant is washed away in a flooded river and an orphaned elephant is found starving, alone and in need of rescue. Show less
The second part of Saba Douglas Hamilton's look at the elephants of Kenya's Samburu reserve. The elephant orphan still on the loose, and as darkness falls his life depends on whether Saba and her team can come to the rescue. Crippled elephant Babel encounters crocodiles in her struggle to survive, and we follow a newborn elephant through her first day of life.
World freediving champion Tanya Streeter goes on an underwater adventure, swimming alongside the fascinating marine life that inhabits the beautiful Caribbean.
Documentary about a spring day on the Hebridean islands of Colonsay and Oronsay. The islands are alive with wildlife, as seasonal migrants such as the corncrake have arrived from Africa and residents such as otters and the red-billed chough hunt for food. For the hundred or so people who live and work on the islands, spring is a great time of year - oyster fishermen can now work in calmer waters, and farmers are busy with new lambs.
Bill Oddie takes a trip to the hidden part of South America in search of some of the most weird and wonderful creatures on the planet. He encounters underground penguins, burrowing parrots and has a close encounter with whales, before the unexpected climax - a killer whale attacking a baby seal.
Red deer stags fight for a stake in the future while adders and common lizards face their last chance to find a meal before winter. It's also time for one of Britain's answers to the Wild West, as local people saddle up and round up the forest's ponies for their once-a-year health check.
Bill Oddie savours the delights and drama of autumn - from rutting deer to seal pups, from glorious colour to extraordinary fungi. He reveals the results of the first Autumnwatch survey ever carried out in Britain, as thousands of viewers have been out spotting the first signs of autumn to build a record of how the season is changing.
A very special family of Lowland gorillas are the only group in the world to allow humans within five metres. Primatologist Charlotte Uhlenbroek travels to the heart of the Congo to meet the family of silverback Kingo, who soon come to accept her as one of the family. Whilst getting to know this remarkable group, we find out about the many threats facing gorillas in the wild and their struggle to survive in the future.
World champion freediver Tanya Streeter plunges into the greatest whale-watching spectacle on the planet. For only a few weeks each year, humpbacks migrate to a remote corner of the Caribbean to flirt, fight and give birth. Tanya can hold her breath for over six minutes, but diving with whales is not without its risks. Rutting males are very protective of young mothers, so will Tanya be able to fulfil her dream and be accepted into the whales' world?
World champion free diver Tanya Streeter visits the Galapagos Islands to discover how aquatic performance has evolved since the time of the dinosaurs. She encounters a flightless cormorant, a bunch of tiny penguins, sea lions and primitive lizards and turtles that can hold their breath for hours at a time. Show less
Simon Donald narrates a documentary about the Cairngorms in the Scottish Highlands. A mountainous park where wolves, buffalo and beavers still roam, reminders of Scotland's Ice Age past, it is one of the wildest places in the UK, especially during winter. The people that live here work alongside some of Britain's rarest and most unusual wildlife, including capercaille and wildcats. However, there is a feeling that winters in the Cairngorms are changing.
Documentary looking at Cornwall in summer, the perfect time to enjoy the dramatic landscape and spectacular wildlife of the south-western tip of Britain. Giant basking sharks arrive to filter the rich waters, dolphins frolic in sheltered coves and seals haul ashore to give birth to their snow white pups. Cornish fishermen, artists and lifeboatmen explain what makes this part of Britain unique.
Charlotte Uhlenbroek travels to Madagascar to follow the story of three mother ring-tailed lemurs struggling to survive one of the driest and hottest seasons in decades. One lemur has already lost her baby, the other two have a fight on their hands if their infants are to stand a chance, and matters are made even worse when neighbouring lemur tribes invade the mothers' territories.
An escapist portrait of the unexpectedly wild side of Provence, seen through the eyes of the people who live there. From French cowboys to an English cellist, we meet the people who live among some of the most exotic wildlife and rugged scenery in Europe. Among the fauna are chamois, griffon vultures, wild black bulls and tens of thousands of pink flamingos.
A unique island tour of the Mediterranean's Galapagos, seen through the eyes of local people and full of the rare wildlife they are helping to protect. Midwife toads still sing in mountain canyons, and black vultures are the emblem of the mountain people. Offshore, protected islets are release sites for rescued loggerhead turtles and home to friendly lizards and endangered Balearic shearwaters. And next to the high rise hotels is the Albufera swamp, home to purple swamp hens and egret colonies.
Only a handful of people on Earth have ever seen a wild mountain lion. Award-winning cameraman Gordon Buchanan takes up the challenge not only to find one of these elusive big cats but also to see how they hunt. In his search, Gordon travels to the far tip of South America, high into the spectacular Andean mountains. He endures all-night stakeouts in the freezing sub-Antarctic conditions, intense frustration and raw fear. Gordon is on foot and unarmed as he searches for his prey.
World Champion freediver Tanya Streeter is scared of sharks. To conquer her phobia, she travels to the Maldives in search of the biggest shark in the world.
Second of a two-part programme about world champion freediver Tanya Streeter. To conquer her phobia, she dares herself to swim with sharks in the Bahamas.
World champion freediver Tanya Streeter travels to the Bahamas in search of wild dolphins. She spends a week with Dr Denise Herzing, who has studied the dolphins here for more than 20 years.
Wensleydale is James Herriot country with spectacular Yorkshire scenery and all manner of creatures - great and small. It is home to the iconic curlew and to rare surprises like sea lampreys and peregrine falcons. There are pretty villages, wonderful waterfalls, rare flowers, wild fells, and even wilder weather. But best of all, Wensleydale is the keeper of an ancient British recipe, not only for a natural way of life but also for one of the nation's favourite bits of cheese.
Florida's coasts are hugely populated, and home to sophisticated places like Miami and Palm Beach. But adjacent to the concrete jungle is a Florida hidden from most visitors, containing exotic wildlife.
Leatherback turtles are mysterious ocean wanderers, yet each summer a few are spotted around Ireland's Dingle peninsula. Turtle scientist Tom Doyle needs to catch and track a leatherback to find out more about these endangered creatures, but with so few sighted each summer can Tom defy the odds and catch one? This is the story of Tom's search to find a leatherback turtle off the coast of Ireland and of one summer spent among the extraordinary wildlife of these seas.
Wildlife documentary. Each year in the heart of southern Sweden, a special lake hosts a natural spectacle. It's a stop-off point for more than 10,000 cranes migrating northwards. The sight of these huge birds milling around on the icy banks of the lake is a remarkable sight in itself, but the best is yet to come. As the spring sunshine melts the snow and ice, the cranes start to dance. Once seen, the dance of the cranes is never forgotten.
World champion freediver Tanya Streeter presents a unique and personal insight into her top wildlife dives. Her ability has taken her to the four corners of the world, to encounter some of the ocean's most iconic animals. From the chilly waters of the Galapagos to the balmy Caribbean Sea and the turquoise of the Indian Ocean, she has used freediving to meet whales, dolphins and sharks on their own terms, just by holding her breath.
Free diver Tanya Streeter travels to a remote corner of Indonesia in search of stunning coral reefs and a shy tribe of people, the Bajau, who depend on the reefs for survival. For Tanya, free diving is a sport which has allowed her to meet marine animals on their terms. But in Bajau society, free diving is not a sport, it is a fundamental part of a culture completely entwined with life in the water. Children are initiated into the sea from birth and playtime involves swimming and diving in the open ocean. As they hone their skills, they learn to catch octopus by day and sea cucumbers at night. The very best Bajau divers use hand-made spear guns to catch fish on the reefs, staying under for minutes at a time. But how will they take to the arrival of an outsider? Will Tanya be allowed to join them and see for herself just how impressive their diving skills are?
When wildlife film-makers Philippa Forrester and Charlie Hamilton-James adopted an orphaned otter cub as one of the family, they had no idea of the challenges that lay ahead of them. Separated from her mother in a flood, the otter cub, 'Grace', would depend on them for everything - their mission was to raise her not as a pet, but as a wild otter, equipped for survival in the wild, so that she could be released when she reached adulthood. Their highs and lows make for a charming, and at times deeply moving, story for the whole family to enjoy.
Series in which Philippa Forrester and her husband Charlie Hamilton-James adopt an otter named Grace. Grace is becoming aggressive, so Charlie and the kids try to keep her entertained. But Grace is injured, damaging her chances of returning to the wild.
Steve Backshall discovers Japan's wilderness, from majestic cranes dancing in subzero temperatures in the north to giant salamanders hanging out near the rice paddies in the south. Along the way, Steve boils an egg by volcano, shares his hot spring with a flock of swans and meets some feisty macaque monkeys on the beach.
Wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan travels to the Shetland Islands to try and track down Britain's most formidable predator - the killer whale. His adventures take him all over these rugged islands and on the way he has endless entertaining encounters with the local wildlife.
A compilation of BBC footage of animal migration presented by Philippa Forrester. Includes interviews with the production crews and presenters who made the films explaining how they did it.
Portrait of the wildlife of the Scilly Islands.
