The Boreal Forest

There was a real sense of irony when a couple of days after I was singing the praises of the BBC and the high quality of programmes that the Natural History unit down in Bristol produce, that I had a salesman from Sky knocking at my door. I should explain to my overseas reader that Sky, owned by Rupert Murdock, is the satellite broadcaster over here. Its also a subscription service and while it also carries the free to air services, all the really decent programming you have to pay a high monthly fee for.

Therefore, when the salesman called and was trying to get me signed up, he started to alienate me by criticised the TV licence fee and what he thought was the way that the BBC wasted money on programmes like Life in Cold Blood. Suffice to say that he never got a sale, but nor did I get the information I wanted about how much it would cost me if I wanted to get the Natural History channels. With digital TV only a couple of years away, I will have to do something if I still want to see TV after the analogue switch off.

However, whatever happens I will still have some great radio to listen to. While I promise you that I don't work for the BBC, again I have to sing their praises again. Going back to my teens, I discovered programmes like the Living World and other natural history broadcasting on BBC radio. What the BBC have recently started is not just something new in interactive broadcasting it is also cutting edge science too.

The programme, The World on the Move, is a year long project tracking the migration of birds and animals, not just in the UK and but around the world. What makes this unique is it relies on contributions and observations from listeners via its web site. Also by collaborating with scientists and conservation groups there is some real science happening. Such as learning how much fuel, energy geese need to make their migration flights. Further, by using new technology such as satellite tagging is allowing us to discover where some animals actually go. A good example of this is the picture, its from the entry for the Grasshopper Warbler in a book published in the late 1970s I bought the book in 1980 I think. As can be seen there is a question mark about the wintering grounds in Africa.

However, what this programme has done for me, is to set me on a path of discovery about what happens around the world. Thus I discover that the Boreal Forest in Canada is the breeding nursery for both North and South America. However there is the ubiquitous problem, that of substantial threats to the habitat, placing ninety five percent of the birds under threat and in serious decline.

I just wonder when we will all start to treasure our world and wonder at the beauty it holds for us.

Anyway you can all find the BBC World on the Move Web pages here. And even if you don't live in the UK you can still listen to the programmes on line.