BBC Springwatch - a bit on the late side?

[PastBananas]

BBC Springwatch starts on 28th May and carries on into June.

The snowdrops are but a distant memory, the primroses and daffodils are long gone. Even the bluebells have finished. Catkins and pussy willow were done weeks ago, all the trees are in full leaf and the hawthorn blossom is fading.

The lambs in the fields are half-grown and chunky, and our garden is full of young starlings and blackbirds. The roses are out. So are the barbecues and the sun hats. Heard a cuckoo weeks ago.

The Summer Solstice is in 26 days.

So BBC.... which part of 'Spring' are we supposed to be watching, exactly?

It's usually this time of year.

Annoys me too.

It usually starts at the bh for 3 weeks. It allows them to follow nests and hopefully watch some fledging. However it does seem to have been slipped into the schedules this year with little advance publicity.

Maybe this is because back in April it was still sodding snowing? It wasn't that long ago. They need time to set up nest cameras and film items as well.

Spring isn't just about nesting birds though yawn and a lot of them round here have youngsters already anyway.

Why not call it Early Summerwatch and be done with it?

It's always over half term week, it does feel a bit late but as I work a term time job I am glad to at least see a week of it. There is often also a shorter 'springwatch at Easter' run too, I think that was on this year but I had a busy Easter so I didn't have chance to check.

Call me a curmudgeopn, but I want Springwatch to be in the... SPRING

They always do it late IMO.

They always do it late IMO

Yep. Too late
I just can't see the point in doing it when spring is over.

I always think I've missed spring watch then realise it hasn't even started...

Isn't it spring until June 21st?

Going by our crops it's not spring yet however this is not a normal year

It does seem late. I go by the meteorological reckoning of Spring, so we've got just a couple of days until Summer.

Isn't it spring until June 21st? June 21st is Midsummer's Day.

Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch are roughly four months apart. Always wondered why they don't also have a Summerwatch programme!

It would be far better if it was renamed Seasonwatch or Naturewatch and on weekly all year round.

Stop moaning and just enjoy the show

Always wondered why they don't also have a Summerwatch programme!
They do. It's called Springwatch

Chris Packham:

“Well, what we do with Springwatch is late Springwatch. People often say, 'Well it's not spring anymore, it's summer
Basically, if we do real spring, that's when birds are mating and teaming up and they're not nesting yet which means it's very difficult for us to get our cameras to get any narrative to get any sort of action, so we go for late spring.
They've effectively got young in the nest and this guarantees us some drama and some insight into their behaviours. If we go for summer then most of those birds would have fledged.
Once a bird has nested and it has got young in its nest, it's very predictable and means we can guarantee that we can put something on screen. I think if we did pure Summerwatch in August or something like that then we wouldn't be able to do that.

Yes, well, why don't they just call it 'Birdwatch' then?

I think that birds was just an example. It’s probably true for fox/cubs, hedgehogs just coming out of hibernation so they’re likely to be on the move more often because they need a lot of food. Maybe the right time to catch badgers too due to breeding/young (I know nothing about badgers )

The streetlights round here which are now switched off at 1am are obscured by the foliage

It’s always in half term week!!!

See Judas’ post.

This year spring has been so late that many baby birds haven’t fledged yet. Same must go for mammals and amphibians. The tadpoles in my pond still have their tails.

And nothing much happens in summer, nature wise. The babies have grown up. Birds aren’t mating, bringing up babies, migrating... so not much to see.

Does anyone remember there used to be regular seasonal 'what's happening in nature' programs on radio 4 with appropriate titles e.g 'the countryside in early spring'? Lovely, they were.

It's always in half term week!!! I know - and every year the programme is too darned late.

Spring is over. Gone. Finished. Yes, there will be things like swallows nesting, but they are called 'summer visitors' for a good reason...

The BBC will have had the filming & programming scheduled for goodness knows how long, so it won't have been dependent on whether spring is late or early, or what the weather is doing.

Don't get me started on Rutwatch Autumnwatch either. If you ain't interested in grunting stags or flocks of geese disappearing into the wide blue yonder, then that programme hasn't got a lot going for it either.
Unless Gordon Buchanan is on, in which case I will watch anyway