I know that I've been rather going on and on and on about them, but we really have been enjoying the "Springwatch" webcams rather a lot this year, and, lurking as they do on the BBC "Red Button" option, they've easily sucked us in and enabled us to spend literally hours watching the birds, albeit by proxy.
I said "enjoying" and, until Sunday that was true, at least until something far less thrilling occurred…
But we'll come to that later.
You really do get a fabulous view of birds that you wouldn't otherwise see, like this close-up of a bittern chick as it goes through that naturally programmed practice of growing up and leaving the only home it's ever known...
It is kind of thrilling to see chicks on the very brink of stepping out into the big, wide and scary old world, and we spent several hours dropping in on the "Bullfinch cam" as they seemed to be working up towards fledging for much of the weekend.
So, we watched the Bullfinches for a while, and every time they flexed their wings, or allowed themselves to wear a fly like a hat, we really believed that this was about to be it, when the cameras switched, and we were looking at the nearby Goldfinch nest, which was notoriously filthy, but seemed to be thriving despite that.
I said "enjoying" and, until Sunday that was true, at least until something far less thrilling occurred…
But we'll come to that later.
You really do get a fabulous view of birds that you wouldn't otherwise see, like this close-up of a bittern chick as it goes through that naturally programmed practice of growing up and leaving the only home it's ever known...
It is kind of thrilling to see chicks on the very brink of stepping out into the big, wide and scary old world, and we spent several hours dropping in on the "Bullfinch cam" as they seemed to be working up towards fledging for much of the weekend.
So, we watched the Bullfinches for a while, and every time they flexed their wings, or allowed themselves to wear a fly like a hat, we really believed that this was about to be it, when the cameras switched, and we were looking at the nearby Goldfinch nest, which was notoriously filthy, but seemed to be thriving despite that.
Having been forced into this switch of viewing allegiance, we were settling down for a long day of alternative couch-based bird-watching when a bloody great big snake turned up, gobbled up a Goldfinch chick and set the Springwatch forums ablaze with fury at this example of "nature raw in tooth and claw..."
Now the Beloved does have a long-held passionate dislike of snakes, so this did rather put a dampener upon our plans, and we went off and found other things to do, few of which, incidentally, involved eating.
Meanwhile, some of the comments that you could read online did rather make me question the motivations of many of my fellow viewers for watching real nature happening right before their eyes, as many of them claimed to be disturbed by what they had seen, that the Springwatch team ought to have intervened, or that someone ought to have "killed" that snake for just doing what its own nature told it to do.
Nature's fine as long as it's cute and fluffy, it appears, a situation not helped by the programme insisting on referring to "our characters" all of the time, but if something we deem to be "horrible" occurs as we slip another chicken sandwich down our throats, or makes our children cry, then suddenly nature doesn't seem quite so pleasant, cute, or fluffy.
Which, of course, it really isn't…
Meanwhile, some of the comments that you could read online did rather make me question the motivations of many of my fellow viewers for watching real nature happening right before their eyes, as many of them claimed to be disturbed by what they had seen, that the Springwatch team ought to have intervened, or that someone ought to have "killed" that snake for just doing what its own nature told it to do.
Nature's fine as long as it's cute and fluffy, it appears, a situation not helped by the programme insisting on referring to "our characters" all of the time, but if something we deem to be "horrible" occurs as we slip another chicken sandwich down our throats, or makes our children cry, then suddenly nature doesn't seem quite so pleasant, cute, or fluffy.
Which, of course, it really isn't…
Agreed. I saw it and it was horrible, but that's nature, and they did warn people to look away.
ReplyDeleteSame applies to the badger that destroyed 'Audrey the Avocet's' nest.
We've been enjoying the Springwatch webcams after reading one of your previous blogs on the very same subject, and our little one had us in hysterics yesterday when watching the woodpeckers with the one that kept popping its head in and out of the hole in the oak tree. Littlun kept saying "cuckoo" each time the head appeared as if it were a cuckoo clock! Fortunately we missed the snake, but nature isn't always kind. One of our own small sparrows met a grisly end with a carrion crow. But they have to eat too, and have little ones of their own.
ReplyDeleteS x
It's a good point, and you are quite correct, and yet I don't necessary want to see the dark side of nature shoved in my face, when that wasn't why I tuned in the first place. I want to see the beauty and splendid wonder of nature, and of course I know that there is a savage side to this. I watch television to be entertained, and this was horrible, I chose to momentarily flick channels. I don't watch horror films or soap operas for the same reason, because I don't have any desire to be entertained by the ugliness in life, reality supplies quite enough of that, along with the news. Worryingly it does seem as if Springwatch is bo dying rather too many of the traits of soap operas for their 'story building', but perhaps that's just me.
ReplyDelete