Sneak behind the scenes at BBC Wild Week Live – Castle Espie Day 4
Last night’s penultimate programme saw Kerry, our blue tit family and, of course, Dot the undisputed stars of the show once again.
Although a stiff north-westerly made May feel like March, the benefit of on-site bird hides gave shelter from the breeze as Wild Week Live presenter Donna Traynor met our resident birding expert Dot Blakely once again for the nightly round robin of nesting activity here at Castle Espie.
Off-camera, Dot mentioned how the aptly named ‘Buster’, the larger chick in the blue tit nest, is characteristic of many dominant chicks in nests everywhere at this time of year. She also emphasised the importance of keeping your distance from nesting birds, as disturbance can cause stress to the parents and their babies.
Castle Espie Grounds and Reserve Manager Kerry Mackie who has been at the centre for 18 years, gave Donna a tour of the reserve and described how the recent redevelopment of the site to restore vital habitat along the shores of Strangford Lough was encouraging greater numbers and variety of species into Castle Espie than ever before. Off-camera, Kerry added: “We’ve really made the most of Castle Espie’s potential with this redevelopment and the investment is really paying off!
“Ringed plover have returned to Castle Espie for the first time in 30 years which is amazing, and the habitat is prompting large numbers of terns actively looking to nest – well protected by a nearby population of black-headed gulls who seem to act like sentinels. And along the shoreline our summer migrants, including sedge warbler and chiff chaff are returning in good numbers this year.”
Lorna nursing her neck and holding a jar containing a poplar hawk moth (which is going to be painted into the picture for tonight's show)
Castle Espie’s captive collection has gone from strength to strength, swelling the numbers of species happy to be fed by visitors in the Plumbs area of the centre – Kerry said: “We’ve had lots of new arrivals, including three brent geese who the volunteers have nicknamed ‘the three tenors’, plus Argentine red-shoveler, cape teal and puna teal. The facilities here for birds have never been better. And the birds are truly voting with their eggs!”
All in all a good day for Kerry until he inadvertently locked one of the BBC producers, Mark Anthony, in the workshop at the end of the night. Thankfully it was only for about 20 minutes and he did let him out to go home in the end. Trying to imprison the BBC staff to keep them here longer? Better make sure Kerry’s not the one with the keys tonight!
Here at Castle Espie, we’re looking forward to tonight’s final hour-long programme with a mixture of excitement – and a bit of sadness that it’ll soon be all over. We can’t wait to see Lorna Hamilton’s finished owl painting tonight – but will it be finished?
You’ll see from the picture that Lorna is suffering with a locked neck that meant she had to down paintbrush and rush off for some emergency physio yesterday afternoon a couple of hours earlier than scheduled.
She’s back this morning, sore but functioning, so tune in tonight at 7pm to see if she had managed to finish it in time?
