Millions of TV viewers got a taste of the wild side of Yorkshire as the BBC Springwatch show headed to the Yorkshire coast for its Easter Special.
The one hour show was beamed from the RSPB’s Bempton Cliffs north of Flamborough and featured a host of other local nature hotspots in glorious early spring sunshine.
The broadcast comes as East Yorkshire’s reputation grows as a top wildlife watching destination in the UK, with countless iconic sought-after species all waiting to be discovered in an area known as the ‘Yorkshire Nature Triangle’.
Stunning TV shots saw Chris and co-presenter Michaela Strachan perched atop Bempton’s 400ft chalk cliffs, home to 250,000 seabirds every summer including the largest mainland UK colony of gannets and the charismatic puffin. The show also coincided with the opening of the new Seabird Centre at the nature reserve, following a £1m revamp.
Speaking on the show, Chris Packham hailed the stretch of cliffs at Flamborough and Bempton as the ‘Nou Camp of the bird world’ in a reference to the 95,000-seater spiritual home of FC Barcelona.
Chris also took time to speak with Dutch visitors Herman and Dinky Van der Heiden who were at the reserve to watch the puffins and were astounded to meet Chris after watching Springwatch via the Netherlands BBC service.
As always, the show didn’t shying away from the big-hitting wildlife stories with Chris investigating the changing nature of the vast seabird colonies, finding out why gannets and guillemots are booming whilst the kittiwakes and puffins are declining in the face of rising sea temperatures.
Just a short hop down the coast, Michaela Strachan joining the local Flamborough Bird Observatory to follow up on exciting sightings at the critical time of spring migration, and headed out with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust to meet the secretive residents of the myriad rock pools at South Landing.
Tom Marshall, from the Yorkshire Nature Triangle project said: “Those of us here in Yorkshire have long known we’ve had some of Britain’s best-kept wildlife secrets hidden away between those dramatic chalk cliffs and the mighty Humber estuary.
“The puffins would undoubtedly always be the stars of the show, but we hope that the Springwatch at Easter special will bring just a taste of what we have to offer here to a brand new audience. Few people realise that we have some of Britain’s most charismatic creatures making a home in the same stunning Yorkshire scenery that brought millions to enjoy the Tour de France last year.”
You can find out more about all of the locations in the show – and plenty more wildlife to enjoy in the Yorkshire Nature Triangle by visiting www.yorkshirenaturetriangle.org.uk
