Springwatch

I am a big, biiiig fan of Springwatch (and Autumnwatch, and Lambing live, and any other live nature program the BBC will throw at me). The biologist in me, who usually stays hidden under the editor and the literature fanatic, comes to the fore and starts spilling out all kinds of random biological facts, usually in response to a question or remark by my boyfriend. Generally, the presenters of the program (clearly 2 biologists and one woman needed to fill the women quota) will provide the same information about 10 seconds after I'm done, which just goes to show that we're all the same, kind of.
The program is on Monday to Thursday, with the additional Unsprung on Thursday evenings, which is kind of a mishmash of quizzes and guests and documentaries and questions and letters and overall happy chaos. I love every minute of it.

But now I've discovered the webcams. I generally try to stay away from such things, especially as there was this nuthatch family with one small runt bird who was clearly struggling, and I didn't want to see him die right before my eyes (he did die, sadly, but such is nature (and the loads of watchers complaining that Springwatch didn't intervene and didn't hand raise the young are completely deluded as to what nature is really like)). But today, the other nuthatches were fledging. I saw the last one go, hanging on to the side of the nestbox for a few seconds, looking directly into the camera, and then jumping off, into the wide world.
And now I'm hooked, of course.
They change the cameras every several hours, so where there were blue tits now you can watch the bats, or the barn owls. The chaffinches are about to go, I thought, because they are getting very restless (and a bit too big for their nest). The sanderling parents are close to the railway, and they keep moving away when a train goes past, but now there is a cuckoo hanging around their nest and this may turn out to be baaaad... Yes, it's a real life nature soap.

The real thing is always better, of course, and I love watching the little blackbird family in our garden, or the troops of blue tits that patrol our birch tree, or seeing the birds on the feeder in winter. And I love the program, because I recognise the presenter's drive to explain and show and make people see and love and enjoy nature. And today we were walking through the park, and it turn out that the city herd (yes, Groningen has one) was being sheared right then and there, and I love being close to the sheep and seeing and touching and smelling them (well, maybe not so much smelling them).
But still. You can't stop watching them.
Thankfully it's only one more week before they go away again, and I know there are many many more webcams out there, but as long as I don't know where, I'm okay. No need to get emotionally attached to even more animals. Also, I'm working on a really big essay at the moment, and staring at some wood warbler chicks for a couple of minutes will be a good relaxation. Or so I tell myself...