Springwatch is a BBC television series which charts the fortunes of wildlife in the United Kingdom during the changing of the seasons. The episodes are broadcast on BBC Two from locations around the country. They require a crew of 100 and over 50 cameras, making them the largest British outside broadcast events on the BBC. Many of the cameras are hidden and operated remotely to record natural behaviour, for example, of birds in their nests and badgers outside their sett.
Each year, the series begins on the late-May bank holiday (the last Monday in May) and is broadcast four nights each week for three weeks. After the success of the first Springwatch in 2005, the BBC commissioned a one-off special, Autumnwatch, which became a full series from 2006 to 2022. Winterwatch ran from 2012 to 2026, broadcast in January or February. The programmes were sometimes known collectively as The Watches.
The BBC discontinued Autumnwatch in 2023, in order to focus resources on Springwatch and Winterwatch, which generally received more viewers. Following the cancellation of Autumnwatch as a standalone programme, the format and title were brought back into use in the form of short reports and features on autumnal nature within The One Show in October 2023. and again in late October 2024. In June 2026 the BBC announced that a new year-round video podcast, titled Naturewatch, would be launched in the autumn, with Winterwatch being discontinued. It confirmed that Springwatch would be returning for a three-week run in May 2027.
Bill Oddie, Kate Humble and Simon King were the presenting team until 2008. Oddie departed as a regular host at the beginning of 2009 (though not by his own choice), to be replaced by Chris Packham. Martin Hughes-Games, formerly a Springwatch producer, also joined the team in 2009. In September 2010, King left the presenting team to pursue other projects. Michaela Strachan filled in for Humble during Autumnwatch 2011, reuniting her with Packham, her former co-host on The Really Wild Show. When Humble left after Springwatch 2012, Strachan became her permanent replacement. Strachan flies in from Cape Town, South Africa, to present the show.
Gillian Burke became a regular presenter in 2017, and for Winterwatch 2019 the presenters were joined by Iolo Williams, who had previously been a field reporter.
Other regular contributors include cameraman and presenter Gordon Buchanan and sound recordist Chris Watson, who has occasionally appeared on-screen to describe his working methods.
The current presenting team consists of Chris Packham, Michaela Strachan and Iolo Williams, with Megan McCubbin occasionally presenting.
Contents
Forerunners
Natural history programmes began as live outside broadcasts on BBC television in the early 1950s, when West Region's only television equipment was a mobile camera unit. The origins of Springwatch can be traced back to the 1970s, when the development of image-intensifying cameras enabled animals to be filmed in the dark. In May 1977, two remote-controlled cameras and a series of infrared lamps were installed outside a badger sett in the Cotswolds. The Natural History Unit broadcast the first live images of wild badgers during a week-long television event called Badgerwatch. Although each programme was only 10 minutes long, it created the template on which Springwatch and all the intervening series have been based, a format which has developed and expanded as technology has improved.
Badgerwatch was followed by Birdwatch, broadcast annually throughout the 1980s and presented by Tony Soper, initially from locations around Britain including Slimbridge, Minsmere, the River Exe, the Farne Islands and Martin Mere. Later series were filmed in Florida, the Netherlands and the Camargue.
In 1988 came Reefwatch, the first ever live underwater broadcast shown on British and American television. It was anchored by Soper, with divers Martha Holmes and Mike deGruy presenting during the Red Sea dive using bubble helmets (another TV first). The BBC broadcast further live series from Africa with Africawatch (1989) and Flamingowatch (1995).
Bill Oddie and Simon King joined forces for the first time to present A Bird in the Nest in 1994, featuring 5 live instalments from nestbox cameras. King also co-presented Beachwatch, a day of live broadcasts from a stretch of Norfolk coastline, which aimed to show how wildlife responded to the changing tide.
The live format was rested until 2003, when it was resurrected with Oddie, King and Kate Humble for Wild in Your Garden. The following year, the show evolved into Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie, and was identical to the later Springwatch and Autumnwatch series in all but name.
Surveys and campaigns
From 2005 until 2007, the BBC ran a Springwatch survey in conjunction with the Woodland Trust. Viewers were encouraged to record key events indicating the passage of spring, including the first sign of frogspawn, blossom on hawthorn trees and the arrival of swifts. By comparing the results with previous years, the surveys established that spring was arriving sooner than average. The BBC are no longer involved in the annual survey (now called Nature's Calendar) but the results are still reported on the programme. It remains the largest survey of phenology in the world.
A similar survey existed for Autumnwatch, with the timing of the first oak leaf tint, the ripening of blackberries and the dropping of conkers all being recorded.
The BBC-led Breathing Places campaign was launched during Springwatch 2006. Awards are made to small projects across the country which aim to create small areas of wildlife-friendly habitat, particularly in cities. In the first three phases of the campaign, over £8.5 million of National Lottery funding has been awarded. Local councils and Wildlife Trusts are also involved in the partnership. Breathing Places evolved from an earlier BBC campaign called Make Space for Nature, launched in 2004 to coincide with Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie.
The Springwatch brand has expanded to incorporate further TV spin-offs and specials, and also has a strong online presence. The BBC Springwatch website offers further video content and allows viewers and programme makers to interact through a message board, Flickr photography group, blogs and the @BBCSpringwatch and @BBCAutumnwatch Twitter accounts. The executive producer of the three programme strands is Rosemary Edwards (before 2018: Tim Scoones, series launch to 2008 and 2012: Fiona Pitcher) and the score was composed by David Poore. Programmes are made by the BBC Natural History Unit, but were originally commissioned by BBC Learning with the aim of getting viewers to actively participate in wildlife conservation.
Series overview
Springwatch
The first series of Springwatch debuted on BBC Two on 30 May 2005, and finished on 16 June. Bill Oddie and Kate Humble were based at Fishleigh Estate, an organic farm in north-west Devon (the same location had been used for the previous year's Britain Goes Wild with Bill Oddie). Animals filmed included swallows nesting in the barn, blue tit families in nestboxes and great spotted woodpeckers visiting bird feeders. Simon King visited three locations across the country; firstly, the Isle of Mull to watch white-tailed eagles on a nest; secondly, the London Wetland Centre to observe peregrine falcons and red foxes; and finally, the Farne Islands to view the seabird colonies and grey seals. Over 150,000 sightings were reported in the Springwatch survey.
The second series of Springwatch was broadcast from 29 May to 15 June 2006. Bill Oddie and Kate Humble again presented from the Fishleigh Estate farm, where more than 50 secret cameras were rigged up to film the day-to-day dramas of nesting birds including pied flycatchers, barn owls and dabchicks. The badgers only made a single live appearance in the whole three weeks. Pre-recorded films featured moles, capercaillies and earwigs. In the Shetland Islands, Simon King followed a family of otters and a host of birds: puffins, great skuas, oystercatchers, merlins and red-throated divers. Springwatch also tracked brent geese on their spring migration from Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland to their breeding grounds in Canada's Queen Elizabeth Islands, via stopovers in Iceland and Greenland.
Live webcams around the country enabled viewers to follow animal stories on the Springwatch website. These included ospreys at Loch Garten in Scotland, red kites at Rockingham Forest in the East Midlands and pipistrelle bats in Cornwall. A spin-off programme titled CBeebies Springwatch aired on the CBeebies channel and Springwatch editions of The Really Wild Show aired on the CBBC channel. The presenters were Justin Fletcher, Nick Baker and Michaela Strachan.
For the third series of Springwatch, broadcast from 28 May to 14 June 2007 on BBC Two, Bill Oddie and Kate Humble were again based at the Devon farm. Birds filmed live on their nests included swallows, buzzards, jays, barn owls and jackdaws. Oddie had close encounters with an otter and a kingfisher on the River Torridge, which runs through the farm. Simon King travelled to the Hebridean island of Islay, where he filmed local specialities such as red-billed choughs, corncrakes, hen harriers, golden eagles and common shelducks. The series also featured barn owl chicks at Cornwall's Lost Gardens of Heligan, and cameras captured the moment when one chick killed and ate its younger sibling. Gordon Buchanan filmed urban red foxes in Glasgow for a pre-recorded nightly diary segment.
Autumnwatch
The success of the first series of Springwatch led to the BBC and the Woodland Trust collaborating once again to launch an appeal for sightings of the approach of autumn. The results of the first Autumnwatch survey were presented by Bill Oddie in a one-off programme in November 2005 entitled Wild Autumn with Bill Oddie.
For 2006, Autumnwatch was extended to a fortnight-long series, broadcast from 2–12 October. Oddie and Kate Humble were based at Martin Mere wetland reserve in Lancashire, where they awaited the arrival of local wild swans and the return of the brent geese to Northern Island. King watched the red deer rut on the island of Rùm. In addition, cameraman Gordon Buchanan filmed a nightly grey seal diary from the Monarch Islands. British viewers could submit their sightings of natural autumn events on the Autumnwatch website, and the findings were developed into an online map showing the progression of autumn events across the country. This showed a correlation with temperature. Much like with Springwatch, a spin-off show for CBeebies aired, titled CBeebies Autumnwatch.
Autumnwatch was broadcast later in the year than the previous series, from 5 to 14 November. Oddie and Humble were based at Martin Mere as for the previous year, but this time King toured some of Britain's best places for viewing wildlife. There were daily pre-recorded sequences from the deer rut in Rùm which had taken place earlier in the season. Instead of airing a new series, the 2006 CBeebies Autumnwatch season was repeated, which caused some parents to complain to the BBC.
For Autumnwatch 2008, broadcast from 27 October – 6 November, Oddie and Humble were based at Brownsea Island, one of the few places in southern England where red squirrels can still be seen. King visited a variety of locations around the country, beginning with three days watching fallow deer at Petworth Park and muntjac at Birmingham Airport. He then followed up sightings of otters in a Walsall canal, but although his team found traces of the animals, they didn't manage to film them. During the second week he watched ravens on Anglesey and made two live dives off the south coast of England, managing to find and film a conger eel. Gordon Buchanan travelled to the Farne Islands to film the grey seal colony during the pupping season. Attempts to communicate with Oddie and Humble via a live satellite link, were thwarted on several occasions by bad weather conditions.
Winterwatch
A one-off, hour-long Winterwatch was broadcast by the BBC on 22 February 2012, presented from the Brecon Beacons by Kate Humble, Chris Packham, and Martin Hughes-Games, with filmed segments by Charlie Hamilton James, Maya Plass, Gordon Buchanan, Michaela Strachan and Chris Watson.
A four-day Winterwatch aired between 14 and 17 January 2013, again from Aigas, with an Unsprung programme following the final episode. Following that, there was a Winterwatch special, Winterwatch 1963 – The Big Freeze, that was broadcast on 19 January.
Winterwatch returned to BBC Two between 20 and 23 January 2014, broadcast live from the Mar Lodge Estate in Aberdeenshire, with Unsprung following the final episode hosted by Nick Baker. There was a special Winterwatch Extra: Garden Birds Special on the BBC Red Button and online from 24 to 26 January 2014 hosted by Euan McIlwraith and Richard Taylor-Jones, from various locations around Great Britain.
Winterwatch returned to BBC Two between 19 and 22 January 2015, again broadcast live from the Mar Lodge Estate in Aberdeenshire.
The programme was broadcast live from the Mar Lodge Estate between 26 and 29 January 2016.
Winterwatch moved to RSPB Arne in Dorset and was broadcast for four evenings from 23 January.
Winterwatch was broadcast from Sherborne Park, over four evenings, starting on Monday 29 January, with contributions from Gillian Burke on the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides.
Winterwatch was broadcast over four evenings, starting on 29 January, from a new site near Nethy Bridge on the edge of the Abernethy Forest in the Cairngorms National Park. Packham, Strachan and Burke continued as presenters and were joined by Iolo Williams.
Winterwatch was broadcast over four evenings, starting on Tuesday 28 January, from the same site as the previous series.
Springwatch in Wales
In 2024, a new 30 minute spinoff show was announced, comprising old segments from the main show. It followed presenter Iolo Williams who took a look at the natural beauty of Cymru / Wales. The show was not live and aired six episodes on consecutive Sundays at around 16:30, exclusively on BBC One Wales and the whole series was released on BBC iPlayer upon the airing of the first episode.
Presenters
Springwatch and Autumnwatch
Following Simon King's departure in 2010, the role of field reporter was filled by various guest presenters; notably Gordon Buchanan, Charlie Hamilton James, Iolo Williams, Liz Bonnin and Michaela Strachan. He was eventually replaced by Gillian Burke seven years later.
Megan McCubbin has become a regular presenter on the programmes, after co-presenting alongside her stepfather in 2020. She has since covered for Gillian Burke, who could not appear in Springwatch or Winterwatch 2022 due to timing constraints. She also covered for Iolo Williams in Springwatch 2023, as he could not present due to health issues.
Winterwatch and other editions
Other presenters involved in the programmes include Roy Dennis, Johnny Kingdom, Leah Gooding, Richard Taylor-Jones, Chris Watson, Doug Allan, Andrew Agnew/PC Plum, Sidney Sloane, Nick Baker (presenter of Springwatch in the Afternoon in 2013 and Springwatch Unsprung in 2014), Euan McIlwraith and Brett Westwood (co-presenters of Springwatch Extra in 2014).
In the 2018 edition of Springwatch, several guest presenters rotated the role alongside Packham and Strachan, including Steve Backshall, Iolo Williams, Lucy Cooke and Patrick Aryee.
For Winterwatch and Autumnwatch 2019 all four presenters were in the same location, with no field reporter. For Springwatch 2019 Gillian Burke was a field reporter for episodes 1 to 11, returning to the main studio for the last show (episode 12).
Unsprung
Beginning with the fifth series of Springwatch in 2009, the Springwatch and Autumnwatch series have been accompanied by a live Unsprung programme, a half-hour show that airs once a week and answers viewers' wildlife questions, along with audience surveys and "pub quizzes" filmed in the main studio.
Book
Springwatch and Autumnwatch was published by Collins in April 2007, and features content from all the regular presenters to that date.
Music
The theme music was commissioned by the BBC from independent composer David Poore, and was nominated for a Royal Television Society award in 2007.
Environment
In January 2021, Winterwatch began using hydrogen fuel cell technology to power their outside broadcast truck instead of diesel. They also incorporated batteries into the power supply for their three live presenter locations to reduce their fuel consumption.
Awards and nominations
"Best Pre-school Live Action Series" awarded to CBeebies Springwatch at the 2006 BAFTA Children's Awards. (Producers: Clare Bradley & Tony Reed; Director: Aliex Yuill)
Springwatch nominated for Best Title Theme at the Royal Television Society Awards in 2007 (Composer: David Poore)
Cbeebies Autumn Watch nominated for Best Children's Live-Action Series at the 2007 BAFTA Children's Awards. (Producers: Clare Bradley & Helen Darrington; Directors: Lotte Elwell & Susannah Udall)
2021 British Academy Television Awards (television BAFTAs): British Academy Television Award for Best Live Event, awarded to Springwatch 2020 (BBC Studios Natural History Unit and The Open University)