The end of Autumnwatch

I learned some sad news from my wife. You know how I love Autumnwatch, the show about British wildlife and how the season affects it. Well, it turns out that the BBC has cancelled the show after 17 years. Because of money issues. Well of course. Now I must confess: I had not been watching it all that much in recent years (my last entry about it dates back to 2015). I guess I was more trying to experience than waching it on a screen. All the same, this is borderline heartbreaking, as the show really helped raise awareness on a number of environmental issues and made many people like myself discover and love British wildlife.

Autumnwatch tonight

This is a public service post (well, sort of) for all of those who live in the UK:  the show about British wildlife Autumnwatch is back on tonight on BBC2 at 9:00. It arrives late this year and for me it was about time. For people like me who love autumn and love wildlife, this is comfort TV at its best. And it is intelligent TV too. I don't know which creatures will be featured this season, but to illustrate the post, I thought I would upload a picture of an otter from the Otter Sanctuary in Buckfastleigh. Tonight, I hope to see them featured in their natural habitat.

Keep the ban on fox hunting!

As people living here in the UK know, there will soon be a Parliamentary vote to relax the ban on fox hunting. You know with the title of this post where I stand on this issue: fox hunting is a cruel, barbaric, backward pseudo-sport enjoyed by cruel, barbaric, backward people who hide their uncivilized, crass, vulgar nature behind family wealth and often titles. Like Prince Charles, a prime example of the rich and thick, who threatened to leave the country if the ban was maintained. Please do, Charles! Foxes are part of British wildlife and far more useful to its ecosystem than that parasitic, inbred family of yours. In any case, they are not for your sadistic enjoyment, or your dogs. You little, little man. And Mr Cameron, you are a coward by pandering to those brainless, bloodthirsty idiots.

And don't get me wrong: I am not against hunting per se. I am a meat eater. But I find it pointless to hunt for something you would not eat. It is also cruel and unfair to the animal to go after him riding horses and with hounds to shred the prey to pieces. A prey that as I said has its place in the ecosystem and one of the most beautiful animals of Great Britain. And let's not forget that it is British wildlife that makes this island great in the first place. And the British love of their animals, domestic or wild, is one of their most admirable traits as a people. I felt very proud of my adopted country and its people when I saw these citizens wearing fox masks protesting against fox hunting by the Parliament. One of the most passionate and moving plea for keeping the ban comes from Chris Packham (of Springwatch/Autumnwatch fame) which you can find on YouTube here. I admit I borrowed a lot from him to write this post. Tell it like it is Chris!

Michaela Strachan You Broke My Heart (When I Was 12)

There is no Springwatch tonight (booh, hiss!). It is a darn shame as there should be one episode every night of Spring, until Summer comes. Just like there should be one episode of Autumnwatch every night of Autumn. So well, instead of watching it, I am blogging and listening to an homage song by Scouting for Girls. Not an homage to the show, but one of the show's stars, and I am not talking about one of the critters. I am referring to Michaela Strachan,whose smile and shining personality makes for a good part of the show. Anyway, if I had been 12 watching her, I probably would have had a teenage crush on her. And there would have been nothing wrong with it: she is both a good role model for girls and a model for a boy. She has both beauty and brains and she also loves nature, so she has a good heart (and, my wife loves to remind me, she is also vegetarian). What's not to love about this woman? Anyway, this song is an homage to her, it is a very sweet one and pretty much the description of a teenage crush in a nutshell.

Autumnwatch tonight

Before I do my countdown to Halloween post, I wanted to write a quick post to all my UK readers as a reminder: Autumnwatch is on tonight, at 08:00PM. My favourite UK program, about this country's wildlife in... autumn. It has many animals featured, including otters. These ones were seen in the otter sanctuary in Buckfastleigh. I thought they would illustate this post beautifully. So tune in.

A fox on the railway

I blogged before about the menagerie on the railway I travel every day to go to and back from work. The cats at the station where I wait for my train home especially, but also the pheasant. And there are rabbits, deers, other things too I haven't blogged about yet. Yesterday evening, a new fellow showed up: a red fox. They are very common here in the UK, I remember seeing them very often around the university residences where I lived. I loved seeing them, foxes being among my favorite animals. I cannot remember the last time I had seen one live. When I heard him ruffling in the shrubbery, I thought at first it was one of the cats, then he came out of the open. I could see him very well for a few moments, he was very close. But only for a few moments. He looked at me, I looked at him. I had this brownish orange-red colour (red foxes are never red, they are more orange foxes really) and I think he had something in his mouth, maybe a black bird, maybe some rodent. Or maybe he had nothing. When I tried to take a picture he moved away, then he started walking on the tracks, so all I could get of him was this shot. He is the brown blur on the right rail. The fox carried on walking away from the station, while the train was coming, just as oblivious as the cats seem to be in the same situation. But it made my day.

This of course reminded me a lot of Springwatch, where foxes are often featured. This year, they are quite a lot anyway. In the moment I saw the fox, the thought crossed my mind that, if I could take a good photo, I could send it to the program. A lot of viewers do it. But this one will certainly not make the cut. Nobody would believe this blur is a fox. A shame, really. But I was always a lousy photographer. This fox will still be around I hope for Autumnwatch. I might get lucky (okay, very lucky) then. I associate foxes far more with Autumnwatch and of course autumn. The fiery fur of the fox fits the autumnal surrounding perfectly. Nevertheless, it was nice to see one yesterday. I love to see them in any season.

An Owl

This is, well, the picture of the painting of an owl, very badly framed by me. I took it last summer, in an art exhibition in the local C of E church. I was waiting for a moment to upload it. This is maybe the last picture I upload in September. It is kind of fitting. I consider owls autumnal creatures. They are often featured in Autumnwatch, which I cannot wait to see this year. Sadly, it will be on much later this year, at the end of October. This is way too late, but I guess they cannot get it started in early September. Owls, especially barn owls like this one seems to be, are associated with ghosts. And Halloween is getting closer and closer, so that's a good reason as any. I have only seen glimpses of them in the wild, but I have heard them. Their cry are indeed ghostly and very haunting.

Winter Purgatory

I was wondering about it yesterday, today it was confirmed: it had snowed during the night. This morning, it looked quite lovely on the ground. And the train was on time. They were forecasting a snowy Apocalypse, icy Hell. This was not nearly as bad as this. Then it snowed some more, I walked in it at lunch break. It was not so lovely, as the snow was not a pleasant one: it was thick, melting snow that wouldn't stay on the ground, but would turn someone wet and cold in minutes. On the way back, it had turned into rain and the station was icy. They had put buckets of salt all around. I rarely find winter hellish. I sometimes find it heavenly, especially when I have nothing else to do than enjoy it. But today and this evening, I thought it was pure Purgatory.

But not all is bad: there is Winterwatch on right now and it will be on all week. It is the spinoff/brother of Autumnwatch/Springwatch. I am a bit too tired to give it much attention, but I love to see images of British wildlife and the English countryside can be so beautiful during winter, all bare and quiet. It makes me forget about wet snow and how unpleasant winter can be when it is Purgatory on Earth.

I miss (most of) Springwatch

There is Springwatch on the BBC since the end of May. I have been watching it, but episodically and rarely a whole episode. I barely noticed it was back. There are reasons for it: I love British wildlife, but I much prefer it in autumn, so I am a more eager viewer of the brother show, Autumnwatch. I also think that starting the Spring season in late May is, well, late. Springtime is almost over with and it is practically summer. I had the same issue with Autumnwatch in 2007, which had started in November. it is just a bit too late to get into it properly. I still enjoy watching clips of it. And I still believe the team is doing a great work educating the public about animal life and environmental issues. I almost feel bad not watching it much. There is so much rubbish on TV, after all.

A cold night chill

I am watching Autumnwatch (my Friday treat) and they mentioned the hot autumn days we have been having. It is true, but as one of the hosts mentioned (I can't remember which one, I have a shoooort attention span), it gets much colder at night. Cold night chills have been part of this year's weather for quite a while now. I love them. Well, at any time really, including in the morning. I intend to spend the rest of the evening reading ghost stories, with the window open to feel the night chill. The best pleasures in life are the simplest ones.

Autumnwatch starts tonight!

Well, the title says it all: Autumnwatch starts tonight. This is one of my favourite programs here in the UK, as my long time readers know already. So I am spending my Friday night in. I don't mind at all. So tonight I'll watch British wildlife. I might even blog as I do this.

Garden wildlife

My readers will notice that I blog a lot about gardens recently (here and here to be more precise). It is probably a mere coincidence, or I just get into one of those blogging moods. This picture was taken in the Keswick Museum. I make any excuse to put more pictures from there. I have never seen a hedgehog in the garden of our block, but it is one of the animals that I discovered here in back gardens and which I consider (rightly so) quintessentially British. When I first arrived here, I was amazed about the wild life I could see on the lawn of the halls of residence where I was living: foxes, hedgehogs and magpies essentially. In Quebec we have mice, rats and squirrels. The squirrels can be fun too, but I find hedgehogs more exotic.

Of course what are most common in the garden here are birds and then cats, either wild asocial ones or domestified, friendly ones. No later than yesterday evening, the tabby cat showed up for some cuddles. I find fascinating that in an urban area (although the town where I live is quite small) there is so much wildlife, so close to us. I feel British wildlife much closer than I ever felt Québec wildlife. Autumnwatch also made me more conscious about it.

Springwatch is on

Hey, I just discovered it this evening: Springwatch was on! I catched it just in time. I cannot believe I didn't know, although it is a bit late in the year to have a "Spring" watch. It is true that I am not as big a fan of Springwatch as I am of Autumnwatch, but it is still lovely to see British wildlife. There are the usual stars of the show: beavers (they have been reintroduced in Britain), foxes (among my favourite), barn owls (another favourite of mine), various small rodents, birds and badgers. For me, a badger is mainly the name of a character in this British classic and this weird song. I saw a dead one by the road last Sunday, going back home. I felt a bit sad. Badgers, like all animals, are fascinating creatures. I will learn more about them with the program.I don't think I can love them as much as foxes or owls, but they will be my wildlife discovery of the year.

This picture was taken in the Keswick Museum. Any excuse is good enough to put pictures from Keswick here, but there is another reason for putting it here: as badgers are elusive, it was easier to take a picture of a dead stuffed one than a live one.

Autumnwatch tonight!

It was the first episode of Autumnwatch tonight! I just finished watching it, wide eyed and fascinated like a five years old. We were served tonight: we had badgers, a family of otters, foxes, bats, peregrim falcons and of course rutting stags. All animals I love. This show makes me want to walk to the nearest woods and observe wildlife. Actually, the back garden would probably be enough for this, if one if perceptive enough. In ours we have the bats, after all. We live so close to such a rich wildlife and we barely perceive it. I am glad Autumnwatch made me discover it.

Waiting for Autumnwatch

People might think I am of a one track mind these days, but there you go. According to this post on Autumnwatch's blog, the new season of Autumnwatch will start in early October. I can barely wait. I think it should start earlier, more like in mid-September, but this is much better than in 2007 when it started in November, way too late in the season. I have mentioned before how much I love this show. I am looking forward to it and find evenings a bit boring now.

The picture here was taken in the Keswick Museum. I love foxes, especially red foxes like this one. One of the first things I noticed about this country is the proximity of the foxes with human population, as I saw many foxes prowling the back garden of our university residences. I didn't complain. For me they are one of those animals that perfectly represent autumn. In this case, because of its fiery red colour. It was great that the museum encouraged us to touch the animal! Anyway, since the fox is often featured in Autumnwatch and because of its association with the season, I have decided to put it here.

Ghostly owls

This is a (poor) picture of some owls taken in the Keswick Museum. I was waiting for an opportunity to post it here and one of my recent posts gave it to me. This post is a kind of followup.

So I took a picture of those stuffed owls at the Keswick Museum. Bad picture, but it still captures their ghostly appearances. Add to this their gloomy cry, their nocturnal and elusive nature, their swiftness, the fact that are hunters and that they are fond of empty barns and you have a bird of prey at the basis of many stories of haunted places. I have a growing interest for them that is turning into fascination. I read about barn owls (which I believe is the owl you can see on the picture) in the Springwatch and Autumnwatch Guide and I am going to read more. Funny that the animal at the origins of so many superstitions is in fact the results of many years of evolution, which created the characteristics that turned it into a ghost in people's perception.

Oh, and there is another "ghost" on this picture: you can of course see my reflection in the glass.

A mouse and an apple

This is one of the mice my parents-in-law have in their garden. I usually dislike mice, as they are cousins of rats, but I don't mind this one. I loved the wildlife in their back garden, even though they will probably lose many apples because of their lodgers' ravenous appetite. They have small apple trees, this one was accessible to this mouse, who did make a good use of its skills. I found it really cute. An image like this is worthy of Autumnwatch. I wish I could have videoed it and send it to the program. We were not technically in autumn yet (and we are still not), but I still find the image autumnal: a wild animal filling its belly with the fruit of the season, making reserves for the long cold days ahead.

Garden wildlife

So I was reading in the garden this afternoon, right by the birds' manger. The birds are so comfortable with us that they don't stay away when one sits close to the manger: they just come by and eat. They are not the only ones who show up: there are also three mice (not the deadly three blind mice) who live in the ground by the plants nearby who come and eat what was left on the ground by the birds. I am usually not too keen on mice (too close to the rats), but those three mice I don't mind. I actually find them kind of cool.

Watching the mice and the birds, and knowing that this house also has bats, lizards and sometimes owls as neighbours, I felt like I was in a setting for an Autumnwatch animal program. It was feeling like summertime more than it ever did in the last few weeks, yet there was something that reminded me of the program. Maybe it is because Autumwatch opened my eyes to the proximitythere is between us and the animal kingdom. There is a wood nearby, but wildlife is practically at our doorstep.

A late Autumn?

I am shamlessly putting here pictures of our last holidays. This one was taken in the Keswick Museum and I have no idea who painted it or if it represents autumn or a stormy summer day in Cumbria. Nevertheless, it looks like Autumn enough on the picture, from this distance at least.

My wife gave me this BBC article today, saying that autumn will arrive late this year. The article does not mention if it is going to be warm or cold, but it says that the leaves will fall later and that the fruits will not be ripe early. It does not look like autumn will be late right now, if anything it looks like it is peeking through already: the weather hasn't been summery since the beginning of August and (this might be explaining that), some trees already had a few leaves changing their colour. Not many, but enough for me to notice them. The heatwaves of June and July certainly seem like a distant memory. It is not like 2007, when we barely had a summer. Ironically enough, Autumnwatch started later that year, in November if my memory is correct. It disappointed me.

August is the month when I prepare myself mentally to the next season, trying to forget that the holidays were going and that I was going to go back to school. I was trying to look forward to the good sides of the season. As a teenager/young adult I used to play Call of Cthulhu, it was our "end of summer" game. One day I will blog about this one (yes, I am sometimes a total geek). And there was also the harvest. I hope the apples, berries and others don't come too late this year. I could go fruit picking right now.

All the good TV I have been missing

It might be the nice weather, it might be because I am too absorbed in watching DVDs and trying to get through, but I missed quite a lot of good TV recently. Well, good, I don't know for sure for some of it, but I certainly am missing on program that would interest me, incidentally all of them are from the BBC.

There is Springwatch, which I have been watching this year, but not regularly. It is Autumnwatch's twin program. I like it a lot, but not nearly as much. Question of atmosphere, maybe? Autumn might be a more suitable season for animal watching, for me anyway. In any case, I don't watch Springwatch nearly as much. There is also Luther, which I haven't bothered watching. There is also a series of programs on opera on BB4, which I have been really curious about but never came around to watch them. I sort of hope it's not so good. I hate to miss good TV.

So, have you been missing any good programs lately?