Autumnwatch Adventure!!

Well, what can say! The past three days have been incredible. 

Last week, I got an email saying one of the producers of Autumn watch had seen my 'My Autumn' video on my youtube channel. They asked if they could feature some of the clips on this years Autumn watch series. I obviously said yes! And so it began...

I later got asked if I could like to travel up to RSPB Leighton Moss just south of the Lake District, and I too said yes! My seal birth video got shown on the opening night (Tuesday 28th) of Autumn watch. A massive 2.7 MILLION people saw my clip, according to the BBC's statistics! To know that millions of people have now seen this spectacular event (the grey seal birth) is amazing, and it's even better knowing that it was my footage! Below is a still of the birth, seconds after the event. If you want to watch all the footage, click here. My footage is 57 minutes into the program.

Michela and Martin loved the clip! Martin said 'what an amazing thing to see, to actually capture on camera' followed by Michela saying 'thank you very much Billy for that.' I'm so pleased they like it, even if Martin did find it a little 'shocking'!

I spent the day looking around the RSPB reserve with my mum, and I managed to get quite a few nice shots. Pheasants were originally introduced from China by the romans, but I still love to photograph there amazing colours.

They have such elaborate characters. I really don't see why people take these magnificent animals for granted, and even purposely breed them to shoot. This individual was very confident!

The birds around the reserve were so tame, probably due to so many visits from the public. The huge variety of birds amazed me! At one point, there was a chaffinch, a great tit, a blue tit, a dunnock, a robin and a nuthatch in one tree, all the the same time! This is why reserves like Leighton Moss are so important, providing a safe haven for all different types of animals.

I don't get nuthatches on my patch, so it was a real treat to get some shots of this little chap! I think the bird below is a Dunnock, but do correct me if I'm wrong.

Me and my mum visited lots of the different hides around the reserve. At one point we saw a marsh harrier being mobbed by two crows. It was a really interesting thing to watch, as I really enjoy spectating animal behaviour between different species. 

We even spotted 3 Red deer emerging from the reed beds. It was a shame that we didn't get to see any otters or bearded tits, but it was still great to be able to see all the other wildlife. I have found out that it is possible for me to get a train all the way to Silverdale (which is very close to the reserve)! Knowing this, I am positive that I will be visiting again soon in the future.

If you watched the show, you would have seen this tawny owl. Martin was doing some live experiments with him about how they managed to fly so silently. We got to meet the owl before the Unsprung show. Whilst we were watching the main shown, I could hear all the editing and production teams contacting the presenters and cameraman on walkie-talkies. It was really exciting, and reassured  me that it is definitely the profession I want to persue. 

Here's me and my mum in the crews dining tent. Whilst we were having diner we were amongst all the crew, including the producers, the cameramen and some of the presenters. 

I'm sure most of you know who Georgia Locock is. It was great to meet her briefly, and we are hopefully going to make arrangements to meet up again in the future. Visit her blog: http://georgiaswildlifewatch.wordpress.com

I met Nick Baker after Unsprung, and even shared a car with him on the way back to the RSPB visitors centre. I managed to give him my blog details too! 

It was a long day, but it was a very exciting experience. I am going to try so stay in contact with some of the great people I met. Remember to keep tune into BBC 2 at 8 O'Clock tomorrow for the main show, and then Unsprung straight after!