Biology

Wildlife filmmaker Hannah Stitfall and wildlife film researcher Dom Davies enjoy a close encounter with one of our most mysterious birds, the woodcock, when they review another selection from the LIVING WORLD archive. The woodcock is a wader which spends most of its life in woodland where its wonderful mottled plumage makes it very hard to see, especially as they are nocturnal so most active at night. The population swells in winter when over a million more migrate here from Scandinavia and Russia in search of earthworms and insects which they probe from the ground with their long bills. Hannah and Dom also discuss another remarkable feature of these birds which is their strange roding flight call.

Where do flies go in winter and what happens to them? Wildlife filmmaker Hannah Stitfall and wildlife film researcher Billy Clark review another selection from the Living World archive to try and find out the answer. The original programme was recorded beside an icy pond in a woodland near Kidderminster where, with the help of pooters and ‘ghostbuster gear’, a surprising number of flies are discovered in winter including the stunning-looking dollies, best known for their metallic green sheen and long dancing legs!

Keen naturalist Hannah Stitfall is joined by wildlife film researcher Dom Davies to review another programme from the LIVING WORLD archive. The subject today is Spined Loach - a fish you might never heard of because, whilst locally they are abundant, they are classified as a rare protected species and are only found in a handful of places in the UK. Also known as the Spotted Weather Loach because of their ability to detect changes in atmospheric or barometric pressure brought about by changes in the weather, they half bury themselves in fine organic sediment at the bottom of rivers or lakes during the day and then at night sieve the sediment, eating small shrimps and ejecting the mud and sand through their gills. As Hannah and Dom discover, these little fish also have some amazing survival techniques which enable them to survive low oxygen levels, whilst the spines which protrude from under their eyes are thought to help ward off predators.