Jack Baddam, Head of Wildlife at Winterwatch, said “Our aim is to turn up at a place to showcase the wildlife wherever we are.”
He added: “We do cover the whole country; we are celebrating British wildlife.”
They aim to put across that anyone can go out and be able to see the wildlife you see on your screen.
Jack said: “Our unique selling point is that we turn up in a spot with all this kit and all this effort and we try to tell the story of what is happening around here.”
The team have set up remote cameras to watch the progress of many different animals such as, deer, foxes, owls, smaller birds and white-tailed sea eagles.
Jack said: “We have camera operators out with their big fancy long lens cameras, and we are just trying to tell the story of how the season, how winter is unfolding here at RSPB Arne.”
Jack said: “Arne’s a really amazing place and Arne is part of a network of nature reserves that create a super national nature reserve”
He added: “There are a few special habitats around here that are really important, the main one being heathland, but mixed in there you’ve also got woodland and the fantastic harbour.”
The diverse mix of habitats means there are lots of diverse and special species of wildlife in Dorset.
The team face many challenges, especially in the Winter, the weather being one of them.
Jack did mention that on the south coast it doesn’t get too cold “that’s a big thing on the show that we talk about, about how the climate is changing.”
Jack said “We do have a really cool thermal camera, but the thermal camera doesn’t like getting wet. So, if you’re out at night with the thermal camera, which is a pretty expensive bit of kit, you can’t let it get too wet.”
One of the most important jobs for the crew is even though they want to capture the wildlife, they do not want to disturb the wildlife.
Jack said: “The amazing thing about the kit we have is we can a lot of cable, we have miles and miles of cable.”
He added: “Our base is very much near the main centre of Arne, there’s a farm just over there, there’s the visitor’s centre just over there, so this is an area that the animals are already used to giving a wide birth or are used to people being here.”
Jack pointed out that a lot of the animals in these areas don’t mind the team’s presence and that there are barn owls living in the farm.
Jack said: “When we run our cameras out there, they are little remote cameras that other than operators visiting them to fix them and install them and things like that, they are just left alone.”
Winterwatch rely a lot on remote cameras to collect footage, they have cameras everywhere from the woodland to the coast.
The remote cameras are operated remotely from a truck near the farm and visitors’ area.
Jack said: “It means you are able to film wildlife in a way you wouldn’t be able to if you were there and it means on Winterwatch and Springwatch we have been able to record things that have never been seen before.”
Jack said he was most excited to showcase birds of prey.
He said: “This year we are setting ourselves a challenge. This is one of the best places in the UK to see birds of prey, raptors, hawks, owls, falcons. In the winter huge numbers gather round here.”
Jack added: “We reckon we have a good chance of seeing 13 different species of birds of prey, we’ve already filmed some pretty good ones, and I’m looking forward to seeing how close we can get to that tally.”
Winterwatch is run by just under 100 different experts, who come together to make this show possible.
Jack is very much on the wildlife side of things and day-to-day he’ll come in around 10am where there will be a script meeting, where the team will run through the show that will be live that evening.
Jack said: “Throughout the day the script gets put together with the clips that we’ve got from the big wildlife trip camera or the long lens camera operators.”
“That then gets built by the editors, they make all the little video inserts, the presenters then start writing their notes. They get it all straight in their head.”
Late afternoon they will then have a rehearsal then the show is broadcast at 8pm.
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