Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2023 i BBC Wildlife Magazine

The arrival of winter and hostile weather conditions is a challenge if your natural home is on rocky tundra or an alpine summit. But when temperatures plummet, rock ptarmigan know how to cope. These small, Arctic grouse excavate caves to make the most of the insulating properties of snow because it is comprised of a high percentage of air. The birds moult into their white plumage each autumn for camouflage and hunker down in these caves during winter nights or bad spells of weather. Found in northern Europe and some areas of south-central Europe, rock ptarmigan are well-adapted to life between 2,000m and 4,800m. They favour windswept ridges and slopes because they help expose the sparse ground vegetation that the birds depend on for food. This female was spotted in…

Some birds lay 20 eggs per clutch; others lay just one. Most fall somewhere in between. And yet there’s a little-known species of penguin that lays one and a half. Erect-crested penguins are, according to Lloyd Davis of New Zealand’s University of Otago, “the forgotten penguins,” largely because of the inaccessibility of their breeding colonies on the uninhabited Bounty and Antipodes Islands 800km off New Zealand. “No one visits them,” says Davis. “Sure, every now and then, in the past, you’d get shipwrecked sailors or sealers there. But the only people visiting those islands these days are scientists who have gone through the rigorous permitting process, which is basically a fence to keep people out. Virtually no work has ever been done on them and you never see them on…

AN ANATOMICAL MISCELLANY Should you ever find yourself close enough to a scorpion to examine its underside, you won’t fail to spot a pair of large comb-like structures, which, were they to be found on any less fearsome animal, might be likened to an angel’s wings. Pectines are unique to scorpions and function like insects’ antennae. Sensitive to vibrations and chemical stimuli, they brush the ground as the scorpion moves.…

1 DEADLY NIGHTSHADE As few as 10 berries can kill an adult 2 TOBACCO Responsible for the deaths of 8 million people a year due to smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke 3 MANCHINEEL Known as ‘the world’s most dangerous tree’ – every part of it is highly toxic 4 LILY-OF-THE-VALLEY Its cardiac glycosides make it very toxic 5 OLEANDER A pretty, pink plant packed with poison 6 ROSARY PEA Ingestion of just one seed can be fatal 7 CERBERA ODOLLAM Tree that bears a highly toxic fruit 8 HEMLOCK WATER-DROPWORT Poisoning causes lung collapse, brain haemorrhage and death 9 MONKSHOOD Almost all members of the Aconitum genus are highly poisonous 10 THORNAPPLES All species in the Datura genus are extremely toxic IN BRIEF Delayed journey PNAS reports that narwhals…

ID GUIDE On sea ice, there’s little that can be confused with a polar bear poo. That of an Arctic fox is much smaller, whilst seal poo is associated with ice edges or holes. “The trouble is that polar bear faeces are like hot liquid tar and they melt into the snow and ice,” says professor Andrew Derocher from the University of Alberta. “One good wind and they’re very quickly hidden out of sight by blowing snow, making them hard to find.” During onland periods, when the diet changes, the scats resemble those of brown bears.…

Somerset I HAVE LIVED IN THE CHEW Valley all my life. My parents would often go birding at the lake and ended up moving to the area. The lake is a beautiful spot – I used to go past it every day on the bus to school, and I loved watching the birds as we whizzed along. As a local patch, the lake is fantastic. Besides birding, I go bird-ringing and take part in BTO surveys and nest-recording schemes, as well as the annual Canada geese round-up, which all give me the chance to study birds close-up. It’s also a great destination for casual birders and families wanting to get out of the city. In the past five years, I’ve noticed lots more visible minority ethnic families visiting, drawn by…

BLACK AND WHITE; Colourful beaks; Known as ‘clowns of the air’; Fun to watch, comical; Birds with character and flair; I love this bird, can you guess what it is? Its name rhymes with ‘nuffin’! A summer visitor to UK shores; The wonderful, adorable… puffin! After that little ditty, it will come as no surprise that one of my favourite places for wildlife in the UK is a group of islands off the Northumberland coast where, in spring, you are guaranteed to see these quirky little birds. Watching (and photographing) puffins flying in, their beaks crammed with sandeels, soon becomes an obsession. But puffins are not the only A-listers. The Farnes support a cast of thousands: razorbills, guillemots, shags, cormorants, kittiwakes, terns (which have become notorious for dive-bombing unsuspecting tourists,…

Cairngorms National Park GLEN TANAR IS A PHENOMENAL part of Scotland. It’s a remnant of the ancient Caledonian pine forest, the green belt that once ran the breadth of the Arctic Circle, and it shelters some of the oldest, largest pine trees in the UK. These trees are incredible – they’re known as granny pines and have been standing for hundreds of years. The trees you see in modern pine plantations tend to be the same age (20-30 years old); those in Glen Tanar range from the young to the old to the absolutely ancient. The bird life here is astounding, too – we’re talking apex avian predators. There are hen harriers, golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, goshawks and ospreys, plus the rare and lovely capercaillie and the Scottish crossbill, Britain’s…

To learn more about the world of plants catch up with The Green Planet WITHOUT DROPPING ANCHOR, THE DIVE BOAT DRIFTS SLOWLY TO A STOP IN SOME OF THE CLEAREST WATER IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. THE SECRET OF THIS PERFECT TURQUOISE SEA, OFF THE BALEARIC ISLAND OF FORMENTERA, LIVES JUST BELOW ITS SURFACE. I ROLL OVER THE SIDE WITH A SPLASH AND THERE IT IS ALL AROUND ME: UNIFORM pale green mops swaying in the gentle current. It is Posidonia oceanica; a seagrass found only here in the Mediterranean. Named after the Greek sea deity, Posidonia (or Neptune grass in honour of its Roman counterpart) is a subaquatic super-plant. It cleans water, fights climate change and generates oxygen. The 15km or so sea floor separating Formentera from its noisy, party-island neighbour…

How were dinosaur footprints preserved? ANJANA KHATWA ANSWERS: Imagine walking across a muddy field in a pair of wellies, your feet squelching with each step you take. If the depressions left behind were quickly filled in with sand or small pebbles, your footprints could become ‘trace fossils’ (indirect evidence of your existence, rather than preserved remains). This is what happened to some dinosaur footprints left on the muddy surfaces of lagoons and swamps. Each layer of sediment deposited on the footprint compressed to become layers of sedimentary rock, preserving this moment of contact forever. Known as ichnites, dinosaur footprints are found in two forms: as shallow depressions on a rock surface (see image) or as footprint-shaped blocks known as casts. These extraordinary fossils reveal themselves when rock layers are split…

WITH BBC WILDLIFE PICTURE EDITOR TOM GILKS Why wildlife photography? I have been drawn to wild animals for as long as I can remember – photography was the best way for me to spend time with wildlife. What would you be if you weren’t a wildlife photographer? I was trained as a vet, so I’d be a vet. Any epic fails? On my first trip to the Pantanal in Brazil in 2011, I was in a boat looking for jaguars. We were heading down a small river and there was a large male resting, looking directly at us. The guide missed it, so I told him to turn around. As I was getting my tripod and camera ready, the boat collided with a rock and my gear was thrown into…

AS AN AMATEUR WILDLIFE photographer, ocean activist, and a volunteer for Tynemouth Seal Hospital, I was much interested in what Mark Carwardine had to say about humans’ interaction with dangerous animals (November 2022). We, as a society, have completely lost our connection to the natural environment. People may ‘behave’ for fear of getting fined, but it is rare to find people who really understand nature. It is often uncertain why injured or sick seal pups end up in our care. The causes may be natural, but I fear that there are many instances where human (mis)behaviour is the main cause. Let me share the example of about three lads from North Shields, who went out one night to St Mary’s Island off Whitley Bay. After I kindly asked them to…

FLORIDA KEYS, USA “ONE OF THE THINGS THEY TEACH you during night scuba-diving training is to direct your flashlight down, not directly in front of you. The aim is to avoid accidentally shining a spotlight on a prey animal, making it suddenly visible to any predators nearby. As a nerdy 15-year-old completing my NAUI Master Diver course at Seacamp marine biology summer camp in the Florida Keys, I conscientiously logged this information along with all the other advice and tips I was being given. Even so, when I set off for my first ever night dive with my fellow marine biology nerds, I was nervous. ABOUT THE AUTHOR David A Shiffman is a marine conservation biologist. His book, Why Sharks Matter: a Deep Dive with the World’s Most Misunderstood Predator…

When the first issue of this magazine was published, Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister, The Beatles had yet to release their first LP, and Zoo Quest was coming to the end of its run as David Attenborough’s first major series for the BBC. Sixty years on and we’re still here – albeit having gone through one or two changes since Armand Denis launched the magazine under its then-title Animals. To celebrate our diamond jubilee, we asked 60 of our friends and colleagues in the wildlife world to nominate their favourite wild place in the UK. Their choices only serve to highight the wonderful diversity of life on these islands – see page 42. And now it’s over to you. We want you to have your say as we look to…

Most freshwater fish spawn in late spring, as the water temperature in rivers, lakes and ponds begins to rise. Brown trout, instead, breed in winter, with reports of spawning from November through to February and March. The rivers they favour are often those also used by our rapidly declining wild salmon, and share three features: they are chilly, well-oxygenated, (cold water carries a lot of oxygen) and have deep beds of clean gravel. River pollution is calamitous for these magnificent fish. Before spawning can occur, the female trout – like female salmon, known as hens – must make one or more hollows in the gravel. Facing upstream, they turn on their side and thrash their powerful tail to push the stones aside. The finished scrapes, called redds, are frequently visible…

Gillian Clarke presents the grey heron on Tweet of the Day The grey heron breeding season is but weeks away – from early February, these birds start to pair up and construct their messy stick nests. In the meantime, short midwinter days can be excellent for heron watching. Grey herons do much of their hunting in the half-light around dawn and dusk, striding through the shallows or standing stock-still with a characteristic hunched neck. Approach cautiously, because they are famously nervy, quick to take off with an irritated croak. As naturalist Amy-Jane Beer says in The Flow, “herons can’t bear to be watched,” adding it may help to scrutinise them sidelong. Between their solitary fishing sessions, grey herons spend an inordinate amount of time standing around in fields, often in…

Mark Wright finds it hard to imagine why anyone wouldn’t be interested in the natural world: “Nature allows us to simply ‘be’,” he says. Having spent 15 years overseas on development and conservation projects, in his current role as WWF’s director of science, he focuses on the importance of using evidence to take people on a journey: “There are millions of species on this planet and every single one of them has its own story to tell.” “The latest Living Planet Report reveals that not enough is being done to avert the risk of climate change, slow the depletion of nature, and give it time and space to recover,” he states. “The size of global wildlife populations has plummeted by 69 per cent on average since 1970.” The report is…

VAGRANT SPECIES DIARY Some butterflies are prone to LONG-distance migration and therefore to vagrancy at a considerable distance beyond their normal range. The UK has its share of vagrant butterflies but proving natural unassisted vagrancy is generally impossible. The occurrence of a male Lang’s short-tailed blue (a migratory species that visits European regions from North Africa) found in mid-October in a house in Three Mile Cross, Berkshire, by Claire Hawkins and identified by Aaron Soh on iNaturalist helps illustrate the challenge well. There are three likely explanations. Firstly, captive origin. Butterflies are very commonly bred in captivity with larvae and pupae easily ordered online. Adult butterflies may escape or be deliberately released, sometimes to establish a wild population. Secondly, a butterfly, eggs or larvae may arrive with imported produce such…

WHAT’S IN A NAME? THE TERM ‘A CAST OF HAWKS’ DERIVES from sporting terminology in reference to birds cast from the fist in both falconry or hawking. Strictly speaking the term relates only to a pair of hawks being cast; if there were three it would be a leash. Their other collective nouns include aerie, knot, mews, moulting, screw, stream and schizophrenia. For more specific categorisations relating to flight there are boil and kettle. The Forum covers the history of hunting with birds of prey…

LAYSAN ALBATROSS THE LAYSAN ALBATROSS IS A GREAT example of how looks can be deceiving. Albatrosses are a famous symbol of monogamy – they typically mate with the same bird for life. When Republican First Lady Laura Bush visited Hawaii, she commended the nesting Laysan albatross couples for their lifelong commitments. What no one knew at the time was that many of those committed couples were, to put it anthropomorphically, lesbians. The colony at Kaena Point, Oahu, has been documented by biologists for over a century, but their unconventional coupling went undetected until 2008. It’s easy to see why – both male and female are all but identical. The only clue that something ‘avant-garde’ was going on was the curious preponderance of nests bearing two eggs. It is physically impossible…

Yorkshire Dales National Park THERE ARE PLACES YOU GO FOR grand spectacle, and others where the wonder is in microcosms. The Yorkshire Dales offers superlatives of both. Here, the land shows its bones – in this case they are made of limestone, shaped and hollowed and made wondrous by the movement of water, which both weathers and redeposits. I especially love the mad hopscotch of limestone pavement around Malham and Ingleton, where blocks of weathered stone are exposed to excoriating wind, sun, rain and ice, but where sheltered crevices contain worlds as humid and green as a Victorian fernhouse. Then there are the scars – enormous, water-worn ravines with a distinctly Middle Earth vibe. Perhaps the most epic of these is Goredale, with two cascading waterfalls, tenacious yews, carpets of…

Dorset THIS STUNNING STRETCH OF coast is a tourist honeypot, but away from the beaches, the chalk hills are one of my favourite UK haunts for butterflies and day-flying moths. There’s a particularly strong association with butterflies at Lulworth Cove – not only is Butterfly Conservation HQ just a few miles inland, but this is the only specific place in Britain to have given its name to a resident species: the Lulworth skipper. The entire UK range of this diminutive insect is in the tussocky grasslands of south Dorset. This is a place to sit among the flowers and watch. In summer, the downland shimmers with Adonis and chalk hill blues, marbled whites and six-spot burnets, while dark green fritillaries and graylings zoom past. Moths include the wood tiger, bordered…

Hampshire I REMEMBER BOUNDING ABOUT on these chalky slopes in 1966, peering down rabbit holes and hoping to spot a stoat, a superstar species in my Observers Book of British Mammals. One sunny afternoon in 1976, I caught a mazarine blue in my butterfly net (though I can’t prove the record because I released it and didn’t have a camera). In 1986, I sprinted up the slippery paths chasing kestrels for a film I was making for the BBC, and in 1996 I climbed to the beech hanger on the summit on a stormy winter’s day to try and ameliorate a bout of serious depression. In 2006, I dragged my stepdaughter Megan up to play in the turf maze, and in 2016 I trudged to the summit with my beautiful…

Cornwall I HAVE THE BEST JOB IN THE world: talking about wildlife on the Isles of Scilly. From windswept winters to sunkissed summer days, life on the Atlantic edge is ever-changing. I’ve watched humpback whales on Christmas Eve. I’ve been at sea surrounded by shearwaters, skuas and storm petrels with common dolphins bow-riding and sunfish flopping past. Twice a year I’m treated to an array of migrant birds, from hoopoes to bee-eaters. Song thrushes tune up from 3am, house sparrows steal crumbs from cream teas, and shags stand sentry on the rocks. Diversity and abundance, rare and common meet in this land beyond Land’s End. Lucy McRobert, communications manager at Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust and author…

Leicestershire THE ASTONISHING THING ABOUT Rutland Water is that it’s human-made – a reservoir that didn’t exist 50 years ago. Today, its tapestry of lagoons and wetlands are a paradise for anyone who loves being out in nature and is a ‘bad’ birdwatcher like me. There are not many places where you can try to spot a cuckoo (unsuccessfully) by following its calls, then watch a great-crested grebe attempt to swallow a fish larger than itself (successfully, in the end), before spending a magical evening watching ospreys hunting fish, defending their nests against intruders and taking elaborate, fussy baths. All this while chatting to the volunteers and staff of Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, who know everything there is to know about the reserve’s wild residents. In winter, Rutland Water…

South West London I live in green, leafy Wimbledon, a suburb far removed in spirit and landscape from the hurly-burly of central London. I’m spoilt for choice where wild spaces are concerned – rural dwellers would be agog at the riches on my doorstep. But Wimbledon Common remains a perennial favourite in all seasons. Covering 460ha of green space, it’s both an SSSI and SAC (Special Area of Conservation), owing to its rich grassland and heathland, and a marvellous green lung for Londoners. I love walking or cycling to Queensmere Pond, the deepest lake on the common. Shrouded by woods, at noon on a blue-sky day, it’s a tranquil sun-trap with the feel of a far more remote wilderness. I’m always on the lookout for swans, Canada geese and –…

A SHORT HOP FROM LUTON, AT the northernmost tip of the Chilterns, lies the Barton Hills National Nature Reserve – a place I adore exploring. Walking in nature nourishes my mind and body, and this is the perfect spot. It teems with butterflies and chalk downland wildflowers, including the stunning pasqueflower, and is the ideal place to marvel at one of our most majestic birds of prey: the red kite. Driven to extinction in England in the late 1800s, the sight of a swooping, reeling red kite is testament to one of the most successful reintroduction projects ever undertaken. I always feel a sense of wonder when these magnificent birds soar overhead. Rebecca Dawson, chair of Ramblers…

Nottingham THIS HISTORIC FOREST, AN RSPB reserve, is just half an hour from where I live. With more than 1,000 ancient oak trees and beautiful lowland heath, it traces a direct line back to the royal hunting ‘forest’ it once was. At its heart sits the Major Oak, a popular colossus said to have once housed Robin Hood. In spring, I’m drawn to Sherwood for the sound of woodpeckers and the ethereal sight of a roding woodcock. In summer, it’s for the mysterious churring nightjars and the joyful woodlarks. Sometimes it’s for the high-pitched contact calls of tiny goldcrests flitting through the canopy, and occasionally even the elusive sight of a goshawk. But at any time of the year it offers tranquillity (once you’ve escaped the jousting!) and the chance…

JOB INTERVIEWS SOMETIMES INVOLVE ODD OR AWKWARD QUESTIONS. ABIGAEL SIMALOI PERTET’S INTERVIEW WITH THE MARA ELEPHANT PROJECT (MEP) IN KENYA WAS NO EXCEPTION. “ARE YOU OKAY TO LIVE IN A TENT?” THE MEP ASKED PERTET. “I WAS A SCOUT – I CAN LIVE IN A TENT!” 32-YEAR-OLD PERTET RESPONDED ENTHUSIASTICALLY. SHE GOT THE JOB. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Roberta Staley is an award-winning, Vancouver-based magazine writer/editor, author and documentary film-maker. See more of her work at robertastaley.com. It wasn’t just her willingness to rough it. Pertet’s honours degree in agronomic engineering from EARTH University in Costa Rica was key to securing the role as manager of MEP’s Experimental Farm Project in the Transmara. The region lies to the west of Kenya’s world-famous Maasai Mara National Reserve – one of the most…

WHY DO WE DIE? APART from extrinsic causes of mortality, such as accidents, infectious diseases or predators in our environment, there’s also what we call ‘death by natural causes’: intrinsic mortality from growing old, frail and eventually dying. But while that process may seem inevitable, many species show no signs of ageing and some living things never truly die. What causes us to grow old? Wear and tear, which is ultimately caused by damage inside cells. Oxygen ‘free radicals’ can leak out of mitochondria (a complex cell’s power stations) and react with other molecules, for instance, and telomeres – caps that protect the ends of DNA from losing genes – get worn-away as cells divide. Such damage leads to the gradual failure of physiological function and we see this as…

ACROSS 1 Predatory bird that might be red-backed or great grey (6) 4 Fast-growing plant in the grass family (6) 9 Small flying insect (4) 10 A ___ Almanac, 1949 non-fiction work by Aldo Leopold (4,6) 11 Tree in the rose family with edible fruit (6) 12 Riverbank bird of Central Asia with a long curved beak (8) 13 Flowering plant sometimes called the belladonna lily (9) 15 Tall tree in the family Platanaceae (5) 16 Widespread lawn wildflower (5) 18 Dark-plumaged Australian waterbird (5,4) 22 Migratory chat of upland and heathland (8) 23 Fly larva (6) 25 Moorland bird of prey (3,7) 26 ___ rat, another name for the black rat (4) 27 Grass-like plants that can be found growing in wetlands and meadows (6) 28 Type of flower…

NICK BAKER Learn about the larvae that can survive without oxygen for six weeks, with our lively naturalist P.38 GILLIAN BURKE “Seals are terrified of us, so we really need to give them a wide berth and enjoy them from a distance” P.17 MARK CARWARDINE “I was dancing around my office when I heard Jair Bolsonaro was no longer president of Brazil” P.31 LUCY COOKE The ‘lesbian’ Laysan albatrosses that pair up with the same sex to raise a clutch of eggs P.27 MIKE DILGER From distinctive tracks to wallows and rooted pasture and verges, Mike reveals how to spot wild boar P.34…

Bruce Winney presents the red kite on Tweet of the Day The red kite is always a sociable raptor, but especially so in winter. January sees dozens wheeling in the air together, and at feeding stations in Wales and south-west Scotland numbers often reach three figures. Since red kites were released in the 1990s, the breeding population is up almost 2,000 per cent. It must surely be Britain’s most successful species reintroduction ever.…

Jane Goodall on living with chimps on The Life Scientific Great apes of different species can make great friends. New research shows that wild chimpanzees and gorillas can form lasting relationships that persist for years. An analysis of data collected over 20 years in the Republic of Congo, at sites where – unusually – both chimps and gorillas are habituated to human observers, turned up 285 social interactions between the species. These included the apes feeding, resting, playing and travelling together. “The surprise to us was the extent of overlap and interaction that occurred between these apes that was previously not recognised or reported,” says Crickette Sanz of Washington University in Saint Louis, USA, who led the study. “Based on the literature, we had anticipated that the apes would avoid…

Glowing under trees like out-of-season buttercups, the cheery yellow flowers of winter aconite never fail to lift the spirits in January. Native to southern Europe, their spectacular growth so early in the year, as with crocuses and snowdrops, is fuelled by underground food stores (tubers in this case). The nectar can be life-saving for any newly emerged bumblebees. IN BRIEF Shear audacity Some seabirds would rather fly into the eye of a tropical cyclone than be pushed onto land. PNAS reports that streaked shearwaters in the Sea of Japan are most likely to expose themselves to a cyclone if they find themselves sandwiched between the storm and the mainland.…

Bill Oddie presents the treecreeper on Tweet of the Day THANKS TO ITS BEAUTIFULLY PATTERNED, bark-like plumage, the treecreeper is one of the easiest woodland birds to overlook. Things are not helped by its mousy demeanour. It hesitantly inches up trunks and along and under branches, gripping the bark so tightly with its extra-long, strong claws, it could almost be part of the tree. The species feeds on insects and spiders from crevices. But in winter, the treecreeper’s behaviour changes. It joins mixed flocks of great, blue, coal and long-tailed tits, moving through woods with them in search of food. Colourful and noisy, these flocks are far more likely to catch your attention. In truth, the treecreeper is more of a flock follower, since it stays on the fringes of…

Natural Histories features the aye-aye AYE-AYES ARE SURELY MOST FAMOUS FOR the extraordinary, elongated, bony middle fingers they use to winkle grubs from wood. But that’s not all these nocturnal lemurs use them for, according to new research – they also double as the perfect nose-picking tools. “I was working on the evolution of grasping ability in primates, so I was studying lots of species eating and moving,” says Anne-Claire Fabre of Bern Natural History Museum, Switzerland. “I was recording this aye-aye eating and all of a sudden it stopped and started picking its nose and eating its snot.” The behaviour was all the more startling for the fact that the aye-aye was capable of pushing the entire finger – all 10cm of it – into its nostrils, a feat…

The broadcaster, naturalist and tour guide shares the most breathtaking seasonal events in Britain FORAGING WILD BOAR AN ECOSYSTEM ENGINEER HELPING TO revitalise our woods and grasslands, or destructive and dangerous menace to the British countryside? There can be few animals that polarise opinion quite like the wild boar. Originally hunted to extinction in Britain by the 17th century, escapees and deliberate releases from wild boar farms in the 1980s and 90s have since led to their controversial return across a few discreet English and Scottish woodlands. In possession of a justifiable persecution complex, Britain’s wild boars are shy, secretive and difficult to study. Considered the wild ancestors of our modern European pigs, boar can reach quite a size. Weighing in at between 60 and 100kg, an adult male can…

60 YEARS VOTE FOR YOUR FAVOURITE SIXTY YEARS AGO, BBC WILDLIFE MADE its first appearance as the magazine Animals. To celebrate this special birthday, we’ve asked 60 people from our wonderful network of writers, presenters, photographers and conservationists to share their favourite places in the UK for wildlife. As the nominations have flooded in for exquisite forests, lofty hills, shimmering wetlands and windswept shores across the country, we’re reminded that, despite the pummelling nature has taken in recent decades, there are still many corners of the UK where wildlife thrives. We want your say, too. Vote for your favourite of the 60 nominated spots (see p71). And if there’s somewhere else that’s special to you, email or write to us (addresses on p121). WHERE ARE THEY? 60 favourite places…

Somerset The magnificent somerset Levels has been my local patch for the past decade, and it’s stuffed to the gunnels with wildlife. The jewel in its crown is RSPB Ham Wall, whose expansive reedbeds, open water and wet woodland deliver year-round. In spring, you can hear 10 different species of warbler before breakfast; summer is marvellous for dragonflies and butterflies; and autumn brings wildfowl and waders from the north – whistling wigeon, tiny teal and rafts of lapwing. As winter beckons, the reserve is dominated by one event: vast, morphing flocks of starlings at dusk, one of the most mesmerising spectacles in nature. Mike Dilger, naturalist and broadcaster…

East Lothian THERE ARE FEW PLACES IN THE UK that can make you feel like you’ve travelled back in time. Stepping foot in a habitat that’s truly wild and seemingly unimpacted by humans is rare, but Bass Rock is one of those special places for me. Situated just 2km off the coast in the Firth of Forth, this chunk of carboniferous rock is home to a staggering 150,000 northern gannets during the peak of the breeding season. I’ve been lucky enough to visit twice; both times it was like arriving into a scene from Jurassic Park, with these birds, with angular, 1.8m wingspans, soaring above in their thousands. It’s the largest colony of its kind in the world. Nests are scattered over every available inch, and the sound is overwhelming…

Inner Hebrides UNTIL THE AGE OF 17, my experience of the world’s wildlife was limited to whatever was local. However, I was raised on Mull, and this island’s wild offerings are nothing short of magnificent. I’ve spent 30 years in the wilds of the world, from the high Arctic to the tip of South America. I’ve have had more than my fair share of encounters with the furred and the feathered, with creepers and crawlers, with animals that scamper and those that sprint, but some of my best have been on the island of my youth. Intimate encounters on frosty shorelines with a family of otters; golden eagles sky-dancing in spring skies; the bewildering bounty of summer: minke whales, dolphins, puffins, razorbills, guillemots, Manx shearwaters. All of this exists against…

Ceredigion OF ALL THE PLACES I VISITED IN my 10 years co-presenting Springwatch, RSPB Ynys-hir is the most memorable. The scenery is spectacular, with gnarled green oakwoods and the yellow sands of the Dyfi Estuary against a majestic backdrop of curving mountains. I walked in every morning and felt like I was plunging into a world teeming with wildlife. There can’t be many places with such a mix of habitats and diversity of wildlife, including, to name a few stars, otters, stoats, kingfishers, redstarts, water rails, hen harriers and merlin, as well as a plethora of insects, reptiles and amphibians. I remember one mesmerising day filming grass snakes in a compost heap using a heat-sensitive camera – we could see glowing holes where the snakes moved in and out, warmed…

Seeing red A rust-red flash on an otherwise grey wing and tail, a dusting of cinnamon beneath, a glint of curiosity in deep brown eyes – it can only be a Siberian jay. Nature photographer Florian Smit captured the autumnal activities of this small corvid, about the same size as a mistle thrush, in a remote conifer forest in Arctic Sweden. Fanning out Several million Siberian jays flit among the pines, spruces and larches of the taiga – or boreal forests – of northern Eurasia, inhabiting a vast range spanning nearly 20 million km2 , stretching from Scandinavia across Siberia. Bill of fare A Siberian jay’s bill, silhouetted against the soft light of an autumn afternoon, is a handy foraging tool used to snaffle berries and seeds, insects and larvae, spiders…

A HERD OF ELEPHANTS, MANY of them cows with calves, use their trunks to tear branches off trees in the Nyakweri Forest, on the western edge of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. It should be bucolic, but the air is acrid from the smoke of burning charcoal kilns, while the elephants eat within metres of enormous stacks of illegally chopped trees that will be sold as timber or turned into charcoal. It is a stark reminder of the harsh competition for land between elephants and humans in Kenya. The Nyakweri Forest, a carbon sink as well as an important watershed feeding Lake Victoria, is being degraded at breakneck speed. Here, 70 elephants are hemmed in by the rapid fragmentation of land for crops and cattle pastures, while miles of…

Watch the new series live on BBC One, or catch up on BBC iPlayer TV HIGHLIGHT OF THE MONTH Best in show Dogs in the Wild: Meet the Family BBC One, from 28th December DOG LOVERS REJOICE! AT LAST, WE have a whole series devoted to the canids of our world from the BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit. Narrated by wildlife presenter and conservationist Chris Packham, the series travels the planet to meet these stunning animals. Across the three episodes, there are beautiful characters who take turns to be centre stage. The series kicks off with the Tibetan fox. This is the world’s highest dwelling fox species and “a shapeshifter, who can hide in plain sight”. Living in the harsh environment of the Tibetan plateau, the canid must hunt pika (a…

PRIZE-WINNING PHOTO Harvest-time hare I was seeking sunset images of hares when I encountered this stunning hare in a local field of barley stubble. The sun had set behind me and the field was bathed in soft muted light, which allowed the details of the beautiful fur to come out and work in harmony with the colours of the stubble. When it heard the shutter, it fixed me with this intense stare. Ian Harris, Norfolk WIN WATERPROOF BOOTS Worth £165! These versatile Moresby short boots perform their best when put to the test outdoors. Sporting a multi-surface traction design and fully waterproof, they are handcrafted to keep your feet supported and dry when traversing through rain and mud. Visit ariat.com Food on the fly In this shot, a white tailed…

Wildlife photographer Mike Hamblin offers top tips on ways to make the most of the special clarity and warmth of the light at this time of year. Visit discoverwildlife.com/winterlight for the full article. BACKLIGHT “For dramatic backlit shots, shoot towards the sun when it’s closest to the horizon. This will produce beautiful rim lighting around your subject and a warm glow.” LOW-ANGLE LIGHT “In winter, the sun arcs low in the sky, bathing everything in warm light, especially early and late in the day.” FLAT LIGHT AND SNOW “Digital cameras handle flat lighting very well, so I shoot in all weathers. (A plastic bag and elastic bands will keep your camera dry.)”…