My
Nature's Calendar  |
Nature's Calendar is very close to my heart. I
have a profound interest in getting people off their sofas and into the wilds
where they can look at animals, rather than just studying them on the television
from afar. | | Passion
for nature - Chris Packham out and about |
Home
grown nature
 Nature
needs to be experienced first hand.
You have to be able to touch it, see
it, smell it and exercise your curiosity - and that's what Nature's Calendar is
all about.
Sometimes we're so overwhelmed by TV images of glamorous animals
in exotic locations, that we often forget that there's some really beautiful wildlife
at the bottom of our gardens.
I want to destroy the mystique about wildlife.
For me, home is where the heart is. I've travelled all over the world but
my favourite animals are right here at home.
On
your doorstep
 It's
a myth that you have to be an expert to watch wildlife. You don't have to be a
life-long specialist.
You can be just like me and spend time watching
and studying these animals just for fun.
Take Badgers, for example.
Watching this nocturnal creature isn't a mystical art - it's practical common
sense. Anyone can go out and find a Badger sett and have great fun doing
it.
When I was younger, I studied Badger excrement for five years, but
you don't have to get quite so carried away with poo as I did!
I've
been passionate about nature from an early age. As a child I transformed
our home in Southampton into a menagerie bristling with a diversity of species.
Snakes, spiders, finches and foxes all soiled my parents' carpets! Passion
for wildlife
 My
ever-growing passion for wildlife has shaped my career. I studied Badgers
for several years and this led to a degree in Zoology at Southampton University.
One of my early TV ventures was presenting the Children's 大象传媒 Wildlife
programme, The Really Wild Show. It was so good that it won a BAFTA.
My more recent 大象传媒 programmes include X-Creatures and Watch Out as well as
Inside Out which has included a number of wildlife features.
Magical
creatures
 One
of my favourite experiences during the filming of Nature's Calendar was watching
winter wildlife in the Cairngorms.
The weather was so cold that our fingers
and toes were nearly freezing, but the nature more than made up for the icy conditions. The
sight of remarkable creatures like Reindeer, Ptarmigan and Mountain Hares, who
have adapted to live in this harsh upland habitat, is truly inspiring.
Another favourite moment during the series was my visit to the Morven Peninsula
where I saw a female Otter fishing and scrambling back onto the banks in daylight
at close quarters. I've rarely seen this amazing creature so close up during
the day - it's more common to spot Otters at night. Winter
highlights  Another
highlight of the series was my trip to Belfast Lough, an unexpectedly good place
to watch wildlife.
It was truly amazing. I couldn't believe that the hide
provided a close up view of a group of normally shy Black Tailed Godwits - I was
so close that I could even see the birds' eye lashes. I have never seen
anything like it! And winter is a really excellent time to watch some of
the UK's mega fauna - especially Red Deer in uplands and a whole range of deer
in woodlands. People from the UK travel thousands and thousands of miles
for a sight like this without realising just what treasures we have on our own
doorstep. This is exactly what our new programme sets out to do - raise
awareness of the depth and diversity of wildlife, fauna and flora around the British
Isles.
Wildlife through a lens
 Working
on Nature's Calendar has been really great fun.
It has given me the chance
to revisit some fantastic places around the British Isles as well as finding new
ones that made filming a real treat.
I've stayed in some dodgy 'Fawlty
Towers' style hotels, endured bouts of sea sickness, survived bad weather, and
eaten some strange local delicacies, but it's all been worth it.
I wouldn't
have swapped this experience for anything, and I hope that you will feel the same
way too when you watch the TV series.
Most of all, I hope that Nature's
Calendar will make you feel as passionate about nature as I do.
So get
off your sofa, get out there and enjoy the great British outdoors. It聮s sure
to satisfy the most curious of creatures! Meet the
Nature's Calendar team:
Janet Sumner
Sanjida O'Connell
Mike
Dilger Meet the web team:
Sue
Wilkinson | 
